Feedly gained heavy influx upon the announcement of Google Reader's shutting down. It proved itself as the next Google Reader. Undoubtedly, it is the best alternate for your RSS subscription tool. It provides even more than Google Reader was providing you.
Above all, it's free and available on two major mobile ecosystem namely iOS and Android. It's also available on cloud.feedly.com for everyone else. I can proudly say that I had switched to Feedly 5-6 months before the announcement of Google Reader shutting down just to explore something more powerful and feature rich. But, after using it for a week or so, I found it super cool and had completely switched to Feedly as my default RSS reader!
Here are some of the best tips and tricks that can help you to get most out of it.
1. Subscribe RSS Feeds from Feedly
Subscribing to your favorite blog is very easy in Feedly. You just need to press +Add Content or press "a" or press "/" to bring up feed search box where you can search for website by full URL or just the name of the site. Within a second or two, you'll be presented with a list of suggestion based on your search.
Optionally, if you are using RSS Subscription Extension (by Google) in Chrome then checkout How to set Feedly as Default RSS Readers in RSS Subscription Extension.
2. Magic Bar
One of the best feature of Feedly is its Magic Bar shortcut which enables you to quickly search and open your subscribed feeds and folders. Press g g (G two times, consecutively) and instantly you will see a search box with a list of folders you've created. By pressing up, down arrow keys you can navigate to different category folders like Tech, Photography, News, etc.
You can also start typing in the search box and list below the box will be start populating with the relevant Feed titles and Folder titles. Once you find the Folder or Feed within a folder you are looking for, navigate over it and press Enter. Feedly will load the same instantly! This is real time saver option. Isn't it?
3. Save Articles for Reading Later
You can keep any article you are reading for reading some time later. This will keep the article permanently in the Saved For Later section. If you are using Pocket for keeping track of later reads then Feedly also allows to add the same to your pocket account.
4. Select & Tweet
There is an also option to select a line or word and tweet the same when viewing any article.
5. Open in website directly
You can set preference to directly open the article on its respective website instead viewing it in Feedly. So, whenever you click any news title under the specific subscribed feed, the article will load in a new tab directly on its website.
To locate this feature, first select the feed on the left and then click the Change layout and filtering button (highlighted below). At the end of the list, you should see an option to open article directly into website.
6. Import/Export your feeds
Feedly offers to import/export your feeds in OPML format. If ever Feedly decides to shutdown its venture (I never expect this from Feedly, though.) or you are willing to migrate to some another RSS reader service then you can easily export your subscribed feed data in OPML file which can be used somewhere else. You can also import your subscribed feeds data into Feedly using the same file format.
To import/export your feeds go to Organize page where you will see Import and Export buttons.
7. Organize Feedly
Feedly provides ingenious tool to organize your folders and feeds. You can reorder your categories, Add or Remove feeds to/from any existing or new category, and much more. In short, all your feed management can be done from the Organize page.
8. Layout
If you are still missing the Google Reader layout then Feedly provides the same layout called as Title only view which only lists titles. Besides Title only view you can choose your favorite view option from Magazine view, Timeline view, Cards view and Full articles view.
9. Mark As Read
You can quickly mark a whole folder or a single feed as read in Feedly by just pressing the Unread counter on the right side of each Folder Title or Feed Title. Alternatively, you can press shift + m for the same.
10. Keyboard Shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts is a productive way to save time and perform tasks quickly. Feedly provides a rich set of keyboard shortcuts to speed up you common task like navigating to next or previous article within a folder can be done by pressing n or p respectively, you can use o as open/close currently selected article.
At any point of time if you want to recall or need help to practice the shortcuts, press shift + ? - you will see a complete list of Feedly Shortcuts.