The Outline Processor Markup Language is emerging as a de facto XML-based way of exchanging structured information. It is quite often used for exchanging bookmarks and RSS aggregator feed URLs. Some outliners can also handle OPML.
As the format creeps into our consciousness, a need has arisen for a simple way to present OPML information. Step forward Grazr. In a very short while, this online service has made web-publishing these feeds very simple. Copy the OPML file to a server, collect a really simple bit of HTML code from the Grazr configuration page, and away you go.
Like this:
As you can see, the viewer can be very compact. If you click your way to the IWR blog section, you'll experience the power of the RSS feed element. You can keep drilling, through the headlines to the content itself. Just click on the newspapery icon to the left.
If the information you're reading looks a little cramped, click on the top right hand icon and you get a second, resizeable window, on the information. The adjacent icon gives a choice of 'slider' or 'outline' views.
As a concise way of delivering information, Grazr takes some beating. The narrow sidebar of one of my blogs contains two Grazr panels. One lets visitors see and read my favourite blogs. The other is arguably the world's smallest c.v. - less than five centimetres (2") square.
You will see a reference to OPML Editor in the Grazr example above. This is a free outliner program which you can also use for blogging. Importantly, in this context, the output is pure OPML.
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