Recently DataPoint got a few new data providers. Before, we already had a RSS data provider in DataPoint, but we decided to add a new RSS data provider with more functionality.

First of all, all featured photos are copied locally, only once, before they are being used. The old RSS data provider reads the featured image continuously from the internet or website when it is displayed. The new News data provider is copying the pictures locally so that we have a cache of pictures for faster displaying. Next to that, you have now the option to limit the number of news articles in total, or leave out the articles without missing images.

In this article, we will display the live RSS news of ABC News. When you open the URL with their RSS feed, you will get the output below.

news in powerpoint rss raw

We will display this live RSS news in our PowerPoint slide show or our information screen in our office or factory. Basically, we get in the news title, description and associated photo. We use PowerPoint to format the layout in a professional way. DataPoint technology is used to display the RSS feed in real-time on your slides.

Open the DataPoint menu from your PowerPoint ribbon and click the List button of the Connections group to add our RSS feed.

open rss connections

Select the News (RSS) node of the DataPoint providers group. Click the Add query button.

add rss feed to powerpoint

At the RSS URL you enter the URL of the RSS feed: http://feeds.abcnews.com/abcnews/topstories.

We best check the options Use articles with pictures only and Remove unexisting pictures.

Sometimes news articles are published first without a featured photo, or the image url that they used, is invalid. If you always want to have a featured photo on your monitor, then it is best to use this option. Otherwise you would have a news headline and description, without an image next to it. No big problem, but lost of space on your slide.

Click OK to close.

rss connection settings

Back on the connections overview, you now see a preview of your RSS data. Click OK to continue.

rss data preview

Select or insert a text box to host the title of the news article. Then open the DataPoint menu and click the Text box button.

select text box for rss news title

Verify the connection and select the choose to use the Title column. Leave row number to 1 for the first article. Click OK to close.

text box for title

The value of the title column of the first news article, is dynamically linked to this text box.

title linked on slide

Select another text box and link it to the Description column, of the first row too.

rss description linking

And again, the current content of the description column, is dynamically linked to this text box.

rss description linked

And a third text box is going to show the news category. Select the text box on your slide, and link it to the Category column.

rss category linking

Now something else. Insert an empty or whatever picture on your slide. Select it and click the Picture button of the DataPoint menu.

datapoint picture linking for featured article photo

This action is asking if you want to switch from static picture to a dynamically linked DataPoint picture. Click Yes to confirm.

convert image to dynamic news picture

Assign the content of the EnclosureURL column to this picture. You can immediately see the path and preview. Click OK to close.

rss news article photo linking properties

With this action, your picture box is showing the featured photo of your news article.

rss news on slide

To iterate between all news articles, we can activate data scrolling. Click the Scrolling button.

show multiple rss articles on slide

Check the Enabled checkbox. The Step size is set to 1 to skip one row at a time. The Step time shows how long a given row is shown before shifting to the next row. Click OK to confirm.

rss scrolling settings

Finally, start the slide show. DataPoint will show all news articles after each other on this same slide. Whenever a new news article is published, DataPoint will automatically pick up that change or addition.

dynamic news in powerpoint

Download this DataPoint RSS News Template

Display Live RSS Feeds or News in PowerPoint

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This