Help > Technical Questions
Questions in this section include:
- RSS Feeds
- Sign in problems
- Downloading your files directly to your itunes
- Downloading your files directly to your computer
- Getting MP3's onto your iPod
- Read lesson dialogues on your iPod
- What is a 'podcast'?
- SpanishPod file types
- Export vocabulary
- Mobile phone access
- Special Spanish Characters (ñ, á, ó, etc.)
RSS Feeds
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) has the ability to distribute specific content to you when and where you want it. SpanishPod integrates RSS to the site to deliver the podcasts along with (blog, lessons, forum) comments straight into your computer.
Text, images, audio and video can all be incorporated into RSS. For example, when a new podcast is published on the site or a person on your watchlist RSS makes a comment, the RSS feeds can automatically notify you of the changes. RSS feeds helps keep you up-to-date on podcasts, news, information and blog posts, making you more knowledgeable and productive, both at work and at home.
Understanding RSS can be a little daunting at first but it is relatively easy to learn. You can spot a RSS by its universal symbol:
Our website employs two types of RSS feeds: text and audio (podcasts).
We offer two kinds of RSS feed to get the lessons files:
- 1. Public RSS Feed: This is a free feed that you can get through iTunes or any podcatcher (i.e. Juice and Odeo) and will give you the latest 20 Newbie lessons. Also it will provide you with future newbie lesson by default but there is no possibility of setting up a personal configuration as this is the public feed.
- 2. Personal RSS Feed: You can do a configuration of a personalized feed so you can get the kind of files that interest you the most. By following 3 simple steps you can get this working and start receiving just the files you want plus all of the old files on the same category. You can find the configuration page by clicking on the "Settings & Help" button that you can find on the right side bar of the Me section. Once this is done, copy your personal feed address, open iTunes, go to Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast... and paste your feed address there.
Please Note: You can bookmark a SpanishPod lesson you wish to study, to include it in your Personal RSS Feed. Whenever you click 'bookmark', the related lesson is placed into the Lesson Archive of your 'ME' page. All Active lessons in your Archive are fed to your iTunes automatically.
To follow a SpanishPod watchlist/conversation, blog or forum feed, you can survey the different RSS readers available on the net, such as Google reader, Bloglines, and Feed Demon. Many internet browsers such as Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer also now come with built in RSS readers as well.
Sign in problems
If you are having access problems, there is a good chance that the problem is related to your browser cookies. In this case, you just have to delete the cookies from your browser, reload the page, and try again. If you dont know how to clean the cookies from your web browser this page explains exactly what to do depending on which web browser you use:
Also be sure not to be using your username instead of using your email address on the first field to fill. To sign in we ask for your email address and the password that you chose.
Downloading your files directly to your itunes
There is two different ways to get the podcasts on your iTunes and here we are going to explain each one of them.
- Personal Feed (only for paying users): You can do a configuration of a personalized feed so you can get the kind of files that interest you the most.
- Go to My Personal RSS Lesson Feed (the "Settings & Help" link on the right of the Me page) and customize your feed: select the type of lessons and the type of files you want to receive.
- Copy your personal RSS (http:/spanishpod/username/lessons/feed/XXXXXXXX).
- Launch your iTunes, and open: Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast.
- Paste the link on the box and hit Ok or Save.
- The podcast has been added, you can now choose to "Get All" or select the lessons you want to "Get".
Please Note: When you bookmark a lesson, it is placed into the Lesson Archive of the 'ME' section. The Personal RSS feed takes lessons from your Lesson Archive, so all bookmarked lessons will be fed to your iTunes automatically.
- Public RSS Feed: If you are not a paying user, or if you'd rather subscribe to Public feed, use http:/spanishpod/lessons/feed in the fourth step of the method described above
Downloading your files directly to your computer
- Right-Click Download: You can download them directly from the site by going to any of the lessons page. Then you have to right-click on the desire from those that you can find on the left side column, and then click on "Save Target As" (If you are a Firefox user: "Save Link As") and just choose the destination on your computer where you'd like to save your file. Here is a screen shot to guide you.
Getting MP3's onto your iPod
If you are having troubles with this, just follow the 5 easy steps that follow:
- First of all, you need to get the podcasts in your iTunes. If you have problems to do this is we recommend you to visit our section named: Downloading files direct to iTunes
- Once you have the files on your iTunes, plug-in your iPod to your computer and open your iTunes.
- Go to your iPod controller page and choose the Podcast Tab.
- Checkmark the button beside "Sync" just as shown in the following screenshot and you can choose to sync all of the podcasts that you have on your iPod or you can just choose the ones that you prefer as we did with the SpanishPod podcast in this case.
- Finally press the "Apply" button that you can see on the bottom right part of the iTunes window and you will be ready to listen to the lessons on your iPod.
Read lesson dialogues on your iPod
To view the lyrics text on your iPod:
- Play the lesson you want to listen on your iPod.
- Press the center button three times.
- Enjoy!
Note: The dialogue trancripts are only available on the high quality lesson files.
What is a 'podcast'?
Podcasts could be compared to taking your favorite audio and radio programs on the go. The "magic" of podcasting lies in its ability to automatically deliver podcasts whenever and wherever you need it. All you need is an internet connection and pc/mac/mp3 player. An excellent description of podcasting can be found on Wikipedia.
All our podcasts are in mp3 format which are compatible with most computers and digital audio players out there. Though iTunes has become one of the most popular podcatchers available, you can also use Juice to sync the podcasts and have them delivered to your computer daily. SpanishPod's public feed to insert in iTunes or Juice.
CD Quality Lesson
These CD quality audio files play at 128 kbps (kilobytes per second), and are available only to paid SpanishPod subscribers. Besides having the highest quality audio, this file they also includes the dialogue transcripts as meta data, allowing you to see dialog transcripts and translations directly on your iPod screen.
Radio Quality Lesson
These files play at 64 kbps. For the Newbie lessons, they are available to the public free of charge, and may be obtained either from the website or the public RSS feed. When you subscribe to our podcast via iTunes you will receive this kind of file.
Dialogues
These files contain a version of the lesson's dialogue audio. These are useful for reviewing the dialogue after you have studied the lesson without the hosts'explanations or translations.
Audio Review MP3
This file works as a review of the lesson's vocabulary. You will hear the vocabulary words in a random order. During the pauses between each words and its translation, you have an opportunity to guess the correct word and its pronunciation.
Lesson PDF
This includes a transcript of the dialogue, an English translation, and the list of the vocabulary. You need to have Adobe Acrobat reader installed in order to open the PDF.
(To download Adobe Acrobat Reader go to the following link where you can download it: Acrobat Reader Download Page).
Export vocabulary
The "Export Vocabulary" section is a very simple to use tool that you can find on the Vocabulary Manager section that permits you to download the vocabulary lists.
To get there you can find a link on the right side bar of the Vocabulary Manager page. Once there, you get to choose which lists of vocabulary to export and the kind of file that you'd like to get by checking the desired boxes. If you want to be able to open the list on Excel download the CSV file which is the one we recommend. The XML file is a data file intended for very "techy" users who can play and use this kind of file in quite complicated manner for an average computer user to handle.
Mobile phone access
If you can access the internet through your mobile phone we offer a special site for you: http://m.spanishpod.com
This site has been modified for quick download and to be readable on a small screen. You can only access the mobile site if you are premium subscriber, so that you can enjoy most of the premium features such as:
- Dialogue Vocabulary and Expansion section
- Conversations Section
- Personal vocabulary list and Flashcards
Special Spanish Characters (ñ, á, ó, etc.)
You might wonder how to type this Spanish special letters or accents. Here is a link to a web page where they explain this very well: http://faculty.weber.edu/tmathews/grammar/Compmark.html
