Google Reader is a tool for gathering, reading, and sharing all the interesting blogs and websites you read on the web.
After a successful account creation the list of subscriptions is empty, however there are two special feeds that will be instantly visible. The All items feed contains all items of every subscription. The Starred items feed contains the items which are marked with a star. It's a useful feature in cases when you find an interesting story but you don't want or can't read it instantly. The Starred items feed allows you to find these stories easily at a later time.
A new subscription can be created by pressing the '+' icon on the toolbar of the main Google Reader page. New subscriptions are always created in the main page, once they are created you can organize them into folders. A new subscription can be created by either entering the full address of the feed, or by entering just search terms describing the feed. In the later case you'll get a list of suggestions from Google Reader, select the one that you think is the best match and press the Subscribe button.
Existing subscriptions can be modified or removed by selecting the appropriate operations from the subscription's main menu or from it's context menu. A subscription's name can be modified by selecting the Rename item from the menu. Enter a new name for the subscription and press the Rename button. To delete a subscription, just select the Delete menu item. To modify the categorization of a subscription select either the Add to folders or Change folders menu item, you can read more on this topic in the Tags and Folders section.
The number of unread items for every subscription in the current folder, or for the current subscription or tag in the view is displayed in the top left corner of the page header, and also separately for every item in the list. If there are no unread items, no unread count is displayed.
The items of a particular subscription or tag can be viewed by entering it. If you enter a subscription or tag the list of items is initially empty until the first batch of items is loaded. Whenever the app loads a new batch of items, a wait indicator is displayed in the page header. To change the type of items you want to be visible in the list, press the page header and select whether you want to see All items in the list or just the New items. The sorting of items in the list can be changed by changing the value of the Sort by menu item. You can select between reverse chronological ordering by selecting the Newest option, chronological ordering by selecting the Oldest option or you can select the so called Magic sorting. Whenever you want to make a complete update of the list of items, press the refresh button in the toolbar.
The read state of an item in the list is marked by a horizontal orange line on the left side of the item. If the item is not read yet the line is visible, otherwise it's invisible.
To view the contents of an item press the item in the list. To view the next or previous item swipe right or left. Items can be added or removed from the list of starred items by pressing the star icon in the toolbar. Stories can be shared using any of your accounts which allows sharing of links, by pressing the share button on the toolbar. Read stories can also be marked as unread from the menu. There is a limit on how many times Google Reader allows an item to be marked as unread. If it's no longer allowed to be used, the Mark as unread menu item won't appear in the menu.
To mark every item of a folder, subscription or tag as read press the check mark button in the toolbar. Pressing it in the root folder of Google Reader or in the All items feed will mark every item in every subscription and tag as read. To modify the categorization of an item select either the Add tags or Edit tags menu item, you can read more on this topic in the Tags and Folders section.
Tags and folders allow the subscriptions and items to be categorized into groups. To change the parent folders of a subscription press the Add to folders or the Change folders menu item, and from the list of existing folders that appears, select in which folders you want the given subscription to appear. To add the subscription to a new folder, enter a name for the folder and press the Add folder button. To change the categorization of an item press the Add tags or the Edit tags menu item, and form the tag cloud that appears, select in which tags you want the given item to appear. To add the item to a new tag, enter a name for the tag and press the Add tag button. Folders are essentially the same as tags. Every tag can be used as a folder and vice versa. When a tag contains at least one subscription it becomes a folder, but it can still be used as a tag. When you enter a folder, the first item in the list of feeds will be the tag representation of the current folder. You'll still be able to use and view it as a tag too.
Existing folders and tags can be manipulated the same way as subscriptions. You can Rename and Delete them using menu items from their main or context menus.