The invention of e-readers, and particularly the Kindle, has changed how we read books. The concept of the Kindle is simple. You read a book on a screen. However, there are several things you probably didn’t know your Kindle could do. Here are 14 tips and tricks for you to get more out of your Kindle.
Take a Screenshot
Just like how a laptop or smartphone helps you not have to remember things, the Kindle can help you too with its ability to take screenshots. This feature is available on the Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, and Kindle Oasis. Instead of having to hold down multiple buttons at the same time, all you have to do is press and hold on opposite corners of the screen, such as the bottom left and top right. If done correctly, there should be a quick screen flash, as if it were changing pages. All screenshots are stored on the Kindle as .png files that can be easily transferred to a computer via USB.
Highlight Text
There may be times where you just want to save a section of the text, rather than an entire page. This is when the ability to highlight text comes in handy. Highlighting makes finding standout comments and quotes easy. To highlight a snippet of text on your Kindle device, press and hold on the word you want to start your highlight with. Then drag your finger along the screen to end of the words you want to highlight. After removing your finger from the screen, a variety of options will appear, such as the option to share the highlighted selection or the option to make notes. Click “Highlight” to save the snippet. All of your highlights are saved as individual bookmarks within a title.
Fix a Frozen Screen
To fix a frozen on your Kindle device is quite simple. First, hold down the power button for forty seconds. After the forty seconds have gone by, let go of the power button. For the Fire, you’ll have to press the power button again. The start-up screen of the device should appear shortly after you release the power button.
Protect Your Kindle from Water Damage
A simple way to protect your Kindle device from water damage is to place your device in a Ziploc bag. This will keep water from getting into the device. Just make sure there are no holes in the bag.
Make the Battery Last Longer
This is a somewhat obvious and quite simple tip, but it’s one that worth mentioning. Put your Kindle device on Airplane Mode if you’re not research something or accessing the Kindle Store. The battery life Amazon’s Kindle devices is already pretty long, but why not add a few extra weeks before you have to charge your Kindle again? The Kindle’s Airplane Mode will do just that, without sacrificing any of the necessary reading features. To enable Airplane Mode, just go to “Settings” and turn the “Airplane Mode” slider to on.
Get a Clean Page
Displays that use E-ink, like the Kindle devices, are excellent for displaying text and simple graphics without using much power. The only problem, however, is that they are not always the cleanest. The ghosted text sometimes remains faintly in the screen’s background after you turn a page. This can be fixed though. The “Page Refresh” option on the Kindle completely wipes the screen every time a page is turned. This option can be enabled by going to the device’s “Settings,” then go to “Reading Options,” then “Page Refresh.” While this provides a crisper, cleaner reading experience, it does use up more of the battery while in use.
Share Your E-Books
Sometimes when you finish a good book, you really want your friends or family to read it too. This is possible with e-books on your Kindle through the Kindle Family Library. To set this up, you’ll need to go to Amazon’s website and sign in to your account. Once signed in, go to “Manage Your Content and Devices.” Go to the “Settings” tab, then under the “Households and Family Library” select “Invite Adult.” After that, get whoever it is you want to share your e-book with to sign in to their account. Now your accounts are synced and you can share your e-books with them as much as you want. However, you can only add one adult to sync your library with. You can also add four child profiles to share your e-books.
Or Just Lend One Book
Instead of syncing your account with someone and sharing all of your books, it’s possible to just lend one book from your Kindle account. To do this, go to amazon.com/mycd. Select the e-book you wish to share, click on the ellipsis action button, then click on “Loan this title.” If this option doesn’t appear, the selected e-book can’t be lent to someone. Next, select the person you would like to share your e-book with. Eligible e-books can only be lent for 14 days.
Reduce or Increase Brightness Quickly
Hold down either the dimmer or brighter suns for about a second and the backlight of your device will jump to the minimum or maximum brightness. You can also hold down the “+” for maximum brightness or “-” for minimum brightness on the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Voyage.
Send Online Articles for Offline Reading
In addition to the built-in browser on the Kindle devices, there are many other ways to read online articles on your device. One of the easiest ways to do so is with Instapaper. Instapaper is a bookmarking service that can run across all of your devices, and allows you to set up the Kindle as a recipient device for online articles. After you choose your Kindle device in the Instapaper settings as the go-to device for offline viewing, articles you bookmark will automatically be sent to your Kindle account, as well as any connected devices.
Send Documents for Your Desktop
It’s not only online articles that can be sent to your Kindle device, you can also send several kinds of computer files to your Kindle, giving you the ability to transport and read documents. Find you Kindle email address by going to “Manage Your Content and Devices,” then “Settings,” and click on “Personal Document Settings.” Your Kindle address should look like this: yourname@kindle.com. Next, add your personal email address to the “Approved Document Email List.” You should now be able to send documents to your Kindle.
Convert Documents for Kindle
The documents you send to your Kindle device may often be displayed either too big or too small, making it difficult to read on the Kindle. Luckily, you can easily convert these documents to the Kindle format when you send them to your Kindle address. When you use your Send-to-Kindle address to send documents to your device, just type the word “convert” into the email subject line. This will instantly convert the document to Kindle’s .azw format.
Reset Reading Time
The Kindle estimates how long it will take you to finish reading an e-book, in hours or days, based on your previous reading speed. To reset the Reading Time, type “;ResetReadingTime” in the device’s search bar. This will bring up a search page with no results. Click the back button and the words “Learning reading speed…” Should appear at the bottom left corner of the screen.
Automatically Make Flashcards
The newer Kindle devices can automatically create flashcards for you with any word you look up on your Kindle, providing you with a way to test yourself using them until you remember what they mean. To open the “Smart Lookup” window on your device so you can read a word’s definition, press and hold down on the word, then release it. To review these words later, click on “Vocabulary Builder” on the front screen menu. You can also turn off the Vocabulary Builder in your Kindle’s settings.