Configuring
As aims for tight system integration, there is more than one way to adjust the way it works:
Via 	Start by clicking on the button in the panel or choose the corresponding entry in the K menu. Then browse to the module in the tree view at the left by choosing News Ticker in the Personalization submenu.
With the right mouse button	You can open the context menu for by clicking on it with the right mouse button, or clicking on the button with the arrow on it and choose the the entry labelled Preferences in the menu.

General Configuration

Global Options
This is what the General tab of the preferences dialog looks like, when opened via .
This is what the General tab of the preferences dialog looks like, when opened via .
No matter what way you've chosen to access the configuration dialog, you will be presented the first tab of the preferences dialog, labelled General. Here you can define how fast the text should be scrolled around, what it should look like as well as other options for the applet. Here is a brief info on what each of the switches and buttons on this tab does:
News query interval 	 Here you can define in what intervals queries the configured news sources for new headlines. This depends generally on how fast you'd like to hear about news and how much load you want to put on the network:
A lower value (lower than 15 minutes) enables you to be notified about news very quickly if you want or need to. Please note, that it increases the network traffic significantly, though. Therefore, such low values shouldn't be used if you query popular news sites (such as Slashdot or Freshmeat) as they have generally already enough work with processing the incoming queries.
A higher value (higher than 45 minutes) won't make you hear about news that quick. For non-timecritical applications, it should be suitable, though. The positive aspect of longer intervals is that only very little load is put on the network; this saves resources and nerves, for you and the system administrators of the news sites you query.
The default value (30 minutes) should be appropriate and reasonable in most cases.
Use custom names for news sites 	 Check this box to make the news ticker use the names you specified in the list of news sources (available on the tab labelled News sources) instead of the ones the news sites themselves report. This can be handy for news sites which report a very long or useless name.
Endless scrolling 	 Check this box to avoid that ugly break and the end of the scrolling (when all the headlines have appeared once). If endless scrolling is enabled and the last headline has been shown, will attach the first headline to the end of the scrolling text.
Scroll the most recent headlines only 	 Check this button to show just the most recent headline for each news site, instead of showing every headline available from every news site.

Visual Options
Scrolling speed 	 This slider lets you define how fast the scrolltext should be scrolling. If you have rather little space on your taskbar (and therefore a rather small news ticker), you should probably set this to a lower value so that you have a chance to read the headlines. For wider news tickers (and better eyes), a faster text is probably appropriate so that you have to wait for the next headline only as little as possible.
This value defines, after which period of time the text shall be scrolled a little bit further, ⪚ this value is antiproportional. This means that lower values result in a faster scrolling text.
Direction of scrolling 	 These options allow you to define in what direction the text should be scrolled, ⪚ to the left or to the right, upwards or downwards.
Scrolltext font 	 Click on the button at the right labelled "Choose font..." to choose the font which will be used for the scrolling text.
Certain fonts are harder to read that others, especially when they're used for a scrolltext, so you should probably choose a font which can even easily be read if it's moving.
Foreground color 	 Click this button open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the foreground of the scrolling text (⪚ the color of the text itself).
Background color 	 Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the background of the scrolling text.
Highlighted color 	 Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the color of the headlines when they are highlighted (when you move the mouse over them).
Underline highlighted headline 	 Check this box to have the currently highlighted headline (⪚ the headline which is currently under the mouse cursor) underlined.

Configuration Of The News Sources
This is what the News sources tab of the preferences dialog could look like, when with the Preferences in the context menu of .
This is what the News sources tab of the preferences dialog could look like, when with the Preferences in the context menu of .
Besides the options available on the General tab, there are even more ways to customize to fit your needs available on the News sources tab. This page mainly consists of a table which lets you manage and maintain the list of news sites queries for news. Click on any entry with the right mouse button to open a context menu which lets you remove the current entry, or add a new entry with the properties of the selected entry.
At the bottom you can also find two buttons with an up arrow and another one with an arrow which points downwards. These two buttons allow you to move the entries in the list upwards and downwards, which is useful if you would like to define a specific order in which loads the news sites.
If you have the applet started, you can play around with the settings now. Pressing Apply makes the applet use the new settings immediately, you don't have to restart it.

Adding A News Site
There are four ways to add a new news site to the list:
You can click on the button labbeled Add at the bottom.
You can click with the right mouse button on the table and choose Add news source. This adds a new entry and sets the name to Unknown.
You can click with the right mouse button on any entry in the list and choose Add news source to add a new entry which has the same properties as the entry you clicked on.
You can drag any RDF or RSS file from another application (such as ) onto the table. This adds a new entry to the list, sets the name to Unknown and sets the maximum number of articles to 10.
There's actually another, fifth way of adding a new news site to the list: you can click on any RDF or RSS file in the filemanager to have it added to the list immediately.

Modifying An Existing News Site
To edit an existing entry in the list, you can use the input fields at the right, which are in the box labelled General . They're normally deactivated, as long as you didn't select any news site in the list. As soon as you select one, though, the input fields are enabled and you can edit the properties of the selected news site as you wish:
The topmost input field which is labelled Name: lets you edit the name of the news site. The name defined here will be used if the applet was unable to connect to the news site, or if the checkbox Use custom names for news sites (on the General tab) has been checked.
The input field below lets you edit the URL which points to the RDF or RSS file to be used for the entry. You can change this string either by hand (⪚ by typing in the input field) or by clicking on the small button at the right of it (which has a folder icon on it). That button opens a convenient file-selection dialog which lets you browse to the desired file
Finally, there's a place to define the number of articles should download and keep from the news site. The default is 10 articles, but it might be reasonable to adjust this value for some news sites.
When you change the value/text in any of these input fields, you can see the change take effect immediately in the list.

Removing A News Site
Of course you want to remove a news source from the list somewhen. To do this, you can either
click with the right mouse button on the entry you would like to delete and choose Remove news source from the popup menu.
select the entry you intend to erase with the left mouse button and then click on the button and the bottom of the list labelled Remove.
In both cases, a confirmation box will pop up and make sure you didn't select the wrong entry.