So you like reading tons of web pages and articles on the
web and you just can’t think of quitting a web page without completely reading
it. But Alas! You don’t have time to do it. This is where read later apps like
Pocket come to your rescue.
Among the other read later apps and extensions, Pocket
(formerly known as “Read It Later”) has the most simplistic UI. Pocket focuses
more on pages that contain media such as images and videos, filtering them and
allowing you to look at the saved pages depending on their content.
Pocket (formerly
known as “Read It Later”)
Merge reading lists from two accounts
Well for some reason you’ve managed to create two separate
accounts for pocket resulting into two different ‘Reading Lists’. Now you may
want to merge them together into a single list on a single account.
To do this follow the simplified approach given below: (Please
Note that in the steps below the two different accounts are referred to as “Account 1” and “Account 2”).
To merge the reading lists In Firefox, Open your ‘reading list’ (list of saved
pages)>Options>Account Tab> Logout>login into Account 1>Open
Reading List>Right-click Sync Icon>Full Sync>Repeat the above steps
but login to Account 2 instead. To do the same on Android and iOS, Launch
Pocket App> Options (For Android, Options>Settings)>Log Out>Once
you’ve logged out of ‘Account
1’, Login to ‘Account 2’.
When you’re done, the app should have a same but merged list
and the contents of Account 1 into Account 2. Now you can abandon Account 1 and
start using Account 2.
Including Instapaper reads into Pocket
If you’re the ones who signed up for Instapaper but later on
when you stumbled onto Pocket thought that Pocket is better and more fun to use
than Instapaper and now you want to include your Instapaper reads into Pocket,
then don’t worry for there is a simple way to do it.
If you’re already logged in to your Instapaper account then
go here “http://dgit.in / QWrxzT”. If not then login first>Account
Page>Expand Export Option>Download HTML file>Save the generated HTML
file on your computer>In order to import your articles, go here “http://dgit.in/XfsnWR”>Browse the saved
Instapaper HTML file>Use the Import Button once you’ve browsed for the file.
When you’re done with this, a new page will open and notify
you about the No. of articles imported and Archived.
Saving Clipboard contents to Pocket
If and when a need arises for you to save the contents of
your clip-board into Pocket or you need to copy a link from a text document and
insert it into your Pocket’s reading list, you can do it very easily. If you
copy a URL on your Mac, this URL can be saved to Pocket provided you have
Pocket for Mac installed. Copy the complete URL (including http://)>Launch
Pocket for Mac>File>Save from Clipboard OR Press Command + S.
Once done, you can see the saved item at the top of your
reading list. For iPhone, iPad & Android users, a URL when copied on your
device or Mac can be saved to Pocket if you Copy the complete URL (including
http://)>Open Pocket app. You will see a green colored bar appear on the
screen, Touch the ‘Add’ button on the green bar and the copied URL will be
added to the Reading List of your Pocket app.
Instapaper
Compared to Pocket which has special features for saving
multimedia content based pages, Instapaper has a direct and simple approach in
which it displays saved web pages and articles in a stripped down format. Also
Instapaper has more features such as Tilt Scrolling, Pagination etc., in iOS
than Android.
Instapaper has a
direct and simple approach in which it displays saved web pages and articles in
a stripped down format.
Searching on Instapaper
So you have a lot of archived articles on Instapaper but due
to the sheer number of pages saved, you are unable to find your desired
archived article(s). It’s just that Instapaper currently does not offer a free
way to search archived articles unless you are a paid Instapaper subscriber.
Nevertheless, there is a workaround for this. Head over to your Instapaper
account here “http://bit. ly/HjHy “>Locate the Export option on the page and
expand it>”Download CSV file”>Save the generated file. Locate the
downloaded file and open it using any text editor. Now you can easily find your
desired archived content by using simple text finding options such as by going
to Edit>Find or by using the keyboard combination Ctrl + F.
Enabling automatic updates at specific locations (for iOS
Only)
You can make Instapaper on your iOS device update in the
background at your preferred locations whenever you enter those locations in
particular. This can be easily achieved by launching the Instapaper app>app
settings>Tap on Update Locations. A pop-up asking for your permission to
allow downloading articles when you enter or leave the area will appear. Just
tap “Ok”. Now if you
want to add your current location, tap the “Add
current location” button. You can also clear your added locations by tapping
the “clear locations button”. The best part about this is that you don’t
necessarily require a Wi-Fi connection at the locations you’ve added, allowing
you to even add places like a bus stop or a particular place anywhere on the
map. Thus you no longer have to manually refresh Instapaper for syncing your
reads.
Increasing productivity using folders in Instapaper
Instapaper by default has only two folders i.e., Unread and
Archive, but you can add more folders to it. For instance, if you have a knack
for reading things say about Technology, then you can create a folder called
Technology and move your reads to it. Content based folders make your work easy
any day. You can even add folders for some other Instapaper user’s starred item
lists provided you know their username. Instapaper also supports creation of
RSS Feeds for starred items or for a folder of your choice and then you can
subscribe to that feed on Google Reader or publish it wherever you want for
anyone else to see. Folders can also be created which denote maximum time you
may want to spend on the articles within them for example., folders named as 5
minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes can be used to keep the articles inside them
and read them only for the mentioned time altogether this saves your time on
unnecessary articles which are on topics which you don’t like much.
