Kindle User's Guide
Page 4
Periodicals
Periodicals include newspapers and magazines that can be purchased as a single issue or as a subscription delivered on a regular basis. Your Home screen lists the most recent issue of each periodical you have on your Kindle. Older issues appear inside a grouping called Periodicals: Back Issues. Selecting the grouping takes you to a screen that displays the back issues of all the periodicals you have on your Kindle. Note that Kindle automatically deletes issues that are more than seven issues old to free up space for new content. An exclamation point next to an issue indicates that it will be deleted within 24 hours. To keep an issue, see “More about Managing Items”.
Collections
Collection names appear in an italicized font to differentiate them from books and other items. The number of items in each collection is displayed in parentheses to the right of the collection's name.
Blogs
Blogs are subscription-based and appear on the Home screen as a single entry like books. As additional blog content arrives, it is added to the item and older entries are rolled off, much like a blog works on a computer.
Audible Audiobooks
Audible audiobooks look similar to books, but they will be labeled in the Home screen as Audible content. Like regular books, they have a progress indicator that shows where you are in the audiobook.
PDF files
PDF files also look similar to books, but they will be labeled in the Home screen as "pdf". Like regular books, they have a progress indicator that shows where you are in the file.
Personal Documents
In addition to purchased content, you can read your personal documents (for example, PDF files, text files, Microsoft Word, HTML, or image files) on Kindle. You can attach the files to an e-mail message and send the files to your Kindle e-mail address. Amazon will convert the files if necessary and send them back to your computeror to your Kindle, whichever you prefer. You can also transfer your personal documents to your Kindle by attaching your Kindle to your computer. For more information on transferring, converting, and e-mailing your personal documents, see Chapter 8.
Home Screen Features
What you see on your Home screen varies depending on what reading materials you have purchased, and how you choose to sort this list. The screen sample and list below explain the features that you may find on your Home screen.
Device name — the name of your Kindle. You can edit this name on the Settings screen.
Sort options — choose the order you want content displayed in Home.
New title — the "new" label indicates the item has never been opened and is less than 24 hours old. Once you open a new document or more than 24 hours has passed since the item arrived on your Kindle, the "new" label is removed.
Title — the title of the item.
Progress indicator — the series of dots below the item shows how long the book is and bold dots show how far you have read in a particular item.
PDF title — the "pdf" label indicates the file is a PDF.
Collection — the title of the collection. The number of items in the collection is displayed in parentheses.
Sample title — the "sample" label indicates that the book or audiobook is a sample. If you like it, you can purchase it from within the sample.
Audiobook title — the "audible" label indicates that the item is an audiobook.
Author or Date — for books, the author of the item is listed. For periodicals and blogs, the date is listed.
Periodicals: Back Issues — stores older issues of newspapers and magazines.
Archived Items — items stored at Amazon that you can re-download to your device.
Pages — indicates the total number of pages in Home. Use the Next Page or Previous Page button to navigate the pages.
Sort Options
The following screen shows the location of the Sort options and the list below explains each of the options. Moving the 5-way to the right lets you change how to sort these items.
Most Recent First — sorts your content by the most recently added or recently opened items first.
Title — sorts your content alphabetically by title of the item.
Author — sorts your content alphabetically by the author's last name or publisher's name. If you choose this option, periodicals will be sorted by their issue dates.
Collections — sorts your content by first displaying collections that have been most recently used, then by items that have been most recently used but are not assigned to a collection. Items that are assigned to a collection are not displayed.
Changing How the Home Screen is Sorted
By default, your content is sorted by most recent first, meaning all of the new items and the content you are currently reading are at the top. To change this option, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Move the 5-way up until the Sort Options are underlined.
Move the 5-way to the right to see the Sort options.
Move the 5-way to underline how you want the items sorted.
Press the 5-way to select it. The sort order on the Home screen changes immediately.
Tip: If your Home page is sorted alphabetically by either Title or Author, press a letter key and then press the 5-way to go to the first item starting with that letter.
The Home Screen Menu
The Home screen menu allows you to navigate to other places in Kindle or to perform specialized tasks. To display the Home screen menu, press the Menu button when your Home screen is displayed. The list below explains the menu.
Turn Wireless Off/On — turns the Whispernet wireless service off or on. You can turn wireless off to prolong battery life. Any operations that require a wireless connection will occur the next time you turn wireless on. Turning wireless off applies to both 3G and Wi-Fi connections.
Shop in Kindle Store — takes you to the Kindle Storefront.
View Archived Items — takes you to Archived Items where you can view and wirelessly re-download content you are storing at Amazon.
Search — brings up the Search text entry page for submitting a word or phrase to search for.
Create New Collection — allows you to enter a name for a new collection of items.
Sync & Check for Items — connects to Amazon to download any newly available items and sync the furthest page read and annotations for all the books on your device.
View Downloading Items — if one or more items are in the process of downloading from the Kindle Store to your Kindle, you can choose “View Downloading Items” to see the download status. This option dimmed unless items are downloading.
Settings — takes you to the Settings screen.
Experimental — takes you to the Experimental page where you can see and use some of the experimental prototypes we are working on.
2.2 Organizing With Collections
You can create collections to personalize the way you organize your books, personal documents, and Audible books, and to make it easier to find items.
Creating a Collection
You can create as many collections as you need. To create a collection follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Press the Menu button and use the 5-way to select "Create New Collection".
Use the keyboard to enter the name of your collection. Press the Symbol key to enter symbols and numbers.
Use the 5-way to select "save".
Your collection is created and displayed on the Home screen.
The very first time that you create a collection, the sort order changes to sort by collections on the Home screen. To change the sort order, move the 5-way up to underline "By Collections", and then move the 5-way to the right to choose another sort option.
Adding an Item to a Collection
Collections give you the flexibility to add an item to as many collections as needed. For example, you can add the same book t
o collections called "History" and "My Favorite Authors".
To add an item to one or more collections, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Use the 5-way to navigate to the item you want to add to a collection.
Move the 5-way to the right to view the item's detail page.
On the item's detail page, use the 5-way to select "Add to Collection…"
A screen showing all of your collections and the number of items in each is displayed. Use the 5-way to select each collection you want to add the item to. If you have many collections you can use the Next Page and Prev Page buttons to see them all.
After you add the item to a collection the item count for the collection is increased and a checkmark appears to the right of the collection. You can also remove the item from a collection by using the 5-way to select the collection again and the checkmark will disappear.
When you are done adding the item to your collections, use the 5-way to select Done at the bottom of the screen. You can also press the Home or Back buttons and your changes will be saved.
Adding Multiple Items to a Collection
Collections also let you efficiently add multiple items to a single collection. This is useful for organizing similar types of items into one collection in a single pass.
To add multiple items to a collection, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Use the 5-way to navigate to the collection you want to add items to.
There are two ways to start the process:
Move the 5-way to the right to view the collection's detail page. On the collection's detail page use the 5-way to select "Add/Remove Items".
-or-
Use the 5-way to select the collection and see all the items in the collection. Press the Menu button and select "Add/Remove Items".
A screen showing all of your items is displayed. Use the 5-way to select each item you want to add to the collection. If you have many items you can use the Next Page and Prev Page buttons to see them all.
After you add each item to the collection a checkmark appears to the right of the item. You can also remove the item from the collection by using the 5-way to select the item again and the checkmark will disappear.
When you are done adding the item to your collections, use the 5-way to select Done at the bottom of the screen. You can also press the Home or Back buttons and your work will be saved.
Viewing Collection Details
The collection details page lets you see information about a collection, the actions available for the collection, and the cover of the most recently read item in the collection.
To view a collection's details, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Use the 5-way to navigate to the collection.
Move the 5-way to the right to view the collection's detail page.
Use the 5-way to select an action or press the Back button to exit.
Renaming a Collection
You can rename your collection if you made a mistake when creating it or if you want to update it.
To rename a collection, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Use the 5-way to navigate to the collection.
Move the 5-way to the right to view the collection's detail page.
Use the 5-way to select "Rename Collection".
Use the keyboard and 5-way to edit the name of your collection.
After you finish editing the name, use the 5-way to select "save".
Deleting a Collection
You can delete collections if you're no longer using them or you want to reorganize them. Deleting a collection will never delete the items in the collection. Any item that is in a deleted collection will stay on your Kindle. If the item is not associated with another collection, it will reappear in the Home screen.
To delete a collection, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Use the 5-way to navigate to the collection.
Move the 5-way to the right to view the collection's detail page.
Use the 5-way to select "Delete Collection".
You will see a confirmation box asking you whether you want to delete the collection or not.
Use the 5-way to select either "ok" or "cancel".
Adding Collections from Another Kindle
If you have more than one Kindle registered to your Amazon account, you can add the collections from another Kindle and merge them with collections on your current Kindle. This is useful if you've set up an organization system on another Kindle and you want use it on your current Kindle. The new collections will appear in Home on your current Kindle. Kindle books from the other device can be manually downloaded from Archived Items and they will appear in Home.
For example, suppose you have two devices named Tom's Kindle and Judy's Kindle. If Tom's Kindle already includes some collections, you can copy those collections and merge them with the collections on Judy's Kindle. After you copy the collections from Tom's Kindle to Judy's Kindle, then both devices will have the same collections.
If Tom's Kindle included "Marley & Me" in the "Summer Reading" collection, and "Marley & Me" was already on Judy's Kindle when collections from Tom's Kindle were added, "Marley & Me" will automatically appear in "Summer Reading". If Tom's Kindle included "The Lost Symbol" in the "Summer Reading" collection, and if you download "The Lost Symbol" from Archived Items onto Judy's Kindle, it will automatically appear in Home.
Note that if you later decide to remove "Marley & Me" from the "Summer Reading" collection on Tom's Kindle, your changes are not synchronized with Judy's Kindle. "Marley & Me" will remain in the "Summer Reading" collection on Judy's Kindle.
To merge collections, follow these steps:
Manually transfer any books from Archived Items to your current Kindle. See “Transferring Books” in Chapter 10 for more information.
On your current Kindle, if you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Make sure that wireless is turned on. To turn wireless on, press the Menu button and select “Turn Wireless On”.
Navigate to Archived Items. If you have many items you may find it easier to press the Menu button and select “View Archived Items”.
When in Archived Items use the 5-way to select the item labeled Add Other Device Collections.
In the Add Other Device Collections view you will see a list of all Kindles that are associated with your Amazon account. Use the 5-way to select the other Kindle that has the collections you want to add. You can repeat this step for as many devices as you wish to add collections from.
After the collections are merged, press the Home button to return to the Home screen. You will see the collections that were copied over and merged together with the collections already on your current Kindle.
2.3 Managing Your Content
All books you purchase are automatically backed up on Amazon. When you remove a book that you have purchased, it appears in your Archived Items. You access your Archived Items from your Home screen. To move content between Archived Items and Home, Whispernet needs to be on.
Removing Kindle Content
To remove content, follow these steps:
If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
In the list of the content already on your device, move the 5-way to underline the item you want to remove.
Move the 5-way to the left to remove the item.
For books purchased from the Kindle Store you will see "remove from device" and for all other content you will see "delete." Press the 5-way to remove the content. To change your mind, move the 5-way up or down to cancel. Note that Kindle books are backed up for you at Amazon even if removed from the device.
For content
other than books purchased from the Kindle Store, you will need to confirm the deletion of the content by selecting "ok."
More about Managing Items
Amazon also stores the seven most recent issues of your newspapers and magazines. If you'd like to keep a copy of an issue indefinitely, open the issue, press the Menu button, and select "Keep this Issue"; you will then see the word "keep" to the left of the issue title in Home.
You can download items stored at Amazon any time you are within Whispernet coverage. If you are not within coverage, Kindle will automatically download the item when you re-enter Whispernet wireless service.
Personal documents (including PDF files) sent to your Kindle are not backed up at Amazon.
When you remove a Kindle book you bought from Amazon, we automatically save all of your annotations for the book in case you ever want to download it again. If you remove a subscription issue that is older than seven days, a blog of any age, or an item you did not get from Amazon, any annotations you created on Kindle for those items do not get saved. Your "My Clippings" file will still remain as a separate file containing all the clippings you added regardless of whether the content is a book, subscription, or blog or was purchased from Amazon or not. See Chapter 3 for more information.
CHAPTER 3
Reading on Kindle