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Posts Tagged ‘Howto’
Amazon Kindle How-to: Help! My Kindle’s Frozen!
You just got your new Kindle and have loaded it up with e-books and audio books. After playing a while you decide to make a few phone calls. When you come back, you find your Kindle screen is frozen! Unresponsive. The Next Page and Previous Page buttons don’t work. The <Alt> (Aaa) doesn’t “wake it up.” Nothing seems to bring your Kindle back to life. That old-school screen saver just stares back at you.
First of all – don’t panic. As with any other electronic device, the Kindle occasionally has a few hiccups. There are a few things you can do to get your Kindle running again good as new.
1. Plug-in your charger. Sometimes the Kindle battery can get run-down enough so that it will “freeze.” Plugging the charger in and giving your Kindle battery some much needed power often will un-freeze the screen.
2. If that doesn’t work, try what is called a “soft reset.” To do a soft reset on your Kindle press the <ALT>, <Shift>, and <R> keys simultaneously. Your Kindle screen should go blank or dark and then slowly come back to life.
3. When doing a soft reset doesn’t work, you will occasionally have to do a “hard reset.” To do a hard reset -
- Make sure your Kindle’s battery is charged (about an hour of charging time should do it)
- Remove the charger cord from your Kindle
- Open the back of your Kindle
- Locate the small hole under the word “Reset”
- Open a small paper clip
- Insert the paper clip end into the hole and press GENTLY for about 10 seconds
- Your Kindle screen should go blank (or black) and then the Kindle should re-start
4. When a hard reset doesn’t work you can try to remove and replace the battery in your Kindle. This is a bit more complex but not too difficult -
- Turn your Kindle off
- Remove the charger cord from your Kindle
- Open the back of your Kindle
- Locate the gray battery, and the finger-notch for removing the battery
- Gently press the battery toward the back of its compartment, then lift the battery out
- Locate the connector that attaches the battery to the Kindle
- GENTLY pull the battery connector out of the Kindle
- With the battery out of the Kindle turn it on for about 5 seconds
- Replace the battery and close the back cover of your Kindle
- Turn the Kindle on
If your Kindle is still “frozen” after completing the steps above, your next move is to contact the Amazon Kindle support team. Go to your Amazon account page – select “Manage my Kindle” and contact the support team from there. You can find the link at the top of the “Manage my Kindle” page on the far right side.
There is a good chance, however, that the steps above will get your Kindle un-frozen and by now you’ll be back enjoying your favorite e-book or audio book.
Congratulations! You’ve now learned how to do a soft and hard reset on your Amazon Kindle wireless reading device.
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Amazon Kindle How-to Series: Saving E-books and Audio Books on Your Kindle
One of the great features of the Kindle Wireless Reading Device from Amazon is that it holds so many e-books and audio books. Even with it’s fairly large built-in storage however, your book collection might exceed the limits of what can fit on your Kindle.
To help you handle your growing collection of e-books and audio books, the you can add extra memory to your Kindle in the form of an SD memory card. You can purchase these cards in many sizes from 1 GB up-to 16 GB. At the time you read this 32 GB cards may readily be available and affordable. Installing SD memory in your Kindle is straightforward. You can find complete instructions in our Kindle How-To Series available in the web-site listed below.
Once you have your memory card installed it’s time to move some of the e-books or audio books stored in your Kindle’s main memory to your new SD Card. There are a few things you should consider first before “making the move.”
1. Audio books are a good candidate for moving from your Kindle’s main memory to the SD card. Audio book files can be large – some are up-to 90 mb or more. Audio books will quickly consumer your Kindle’s main memory leaving less space for your e-books.
2. If you’ve purchased books that are on the Amazon digital site and have yet to be sent to your Kindle these also might be good candidates to load onto your SD memory card. This will keep all of your e-books and audio books in one place in-case you run into a situation where you do not have wireless access.
3. Pictures, music files, and digital files other than e-books also consume a lot of space in the Kindle’s main memory. Again, this makes them good choices to move to the new SD card you’ve installed in your Kindle.
Now – let’s take a look at your Kindle and get ready to save some files to your SD memory card. Here are the steps you can follow to do this -
A. Turn on your Kindle
B. Move the scroll wheel to “Menu” and press to select the Main Menu
C. Scroll to “Content Manager” on the Main Menu the press to select the Content Manager
D. Once the Content Manager screen opens take a look at your list of audio books and e-books – pay specific attention to the storage location of the book listed directly under the first word of the title –
a. “Kindle” – the book is stored in your Kindle’s main memory
b. “SD Card” – any books you’ve moved to your SD Card will have this location
c. “Amazon” – books you’ve purchased but that have not been downloaded to your Kindle will have this location
E. Choose a book now located on your Kindle by scrolling to the location of the book and pressing the scroll wheel to “select” the book. When you do this you will notice an “x” in the box immediately to the right of the book’s title.
F. Next scroll back down to “Menu” at the bottom of the Kindle screen and press the scroll wheel to select.
G. When the Menu opens, scroll to “Move to SD Card” and press the scroll wheel to select.
H. Once you do this you will notice the location icon will show the book is being transferred to your Kindle’s SD memory card. For example you will see an arrow pointing from the “Kindle” location to the SD Card location.
I. When the move is complete the location icon below the title will change from “Kindle” to “SD Card” – this is how you know the transfer process is complete.
That’s all there is to it! You’ve now learned how-to quickly save books from your Kindle’s main memory to the SD Card you’ve installed in your Kindle.
Complete instructions with photos can be found at the web site in the resource box below.
Do you own an Amazon Kindle or are you thinking about getting one? Go to www.guidetokindle.com for free information, FAQs, and how-to tips and help make your e-books and audio books even more enjoyable.
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Amazon Kindle How-To Series: Fast Steps to Creating Free Kindle E-Books
Fans of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader have plenty of content from which to choose. Amazon offers over 260,000 (as of this writing) e-books, newspapers, magazines, and other publications that can be transmitted by wireless to the Kindle. With all of this content you may wonder if you’ll ever need another source for your reading enjoyment. But think of all of the other content you may have stored away in your computer in the form of Adobe Acrobat .pdf files, text files, or .HTML files you’ve downloaded from the Internet. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to put these on your Kindle as well?
As a matter of fact you can! There are several ways you can do this. Amazon offers a file conversion service for Kindle owners. Check our web site at the address below for an article that provides the steps to use Amazon’s service. But, there is another way that we’ll describe in this article and that is with the Mobipocket Creator software. Mobipocket Creator software is designed to convert documents into the Mobi .prc format that can be read by the Mobipocket e-book Reader software for PCs and for phones using the Palm Os, Windows Mobile, Symbian Os, and Blackberry operating systems. Interestingly Amazon owns Mobipocket and the Amazon Kindle’s book format is based on the Mobipocket format.
What does this mean to you? It means that files you convert with the Mobipocket Creator software can be loaded onto your Kindle through your computer and read as any other Kindle e-book! Here are the instructions for converting your files with Mobipocket Creator software:
1. Realize that this software ONLY works with unprotected files. If the file you want to convert have any sort of DRM (digital rights management) protection then you cannot convert your books.
2. Download the Mobipocket Creator software from Mobipocket’s web site – you’ll find the link below. Make sure you download the “Publisher” edition and not the “Home” edition. The current version is 4.2.
3. Install Mobipocket Creator software on your PC following the installation instructions.
4. Open Mobipocket Creator – you will be at the “Home” page.
5. You will see “Import From Existing File” on the right side of the “Home” page. For this example we’ll convert an Adobe Acrobat file so choose “Adobe PDF” from the menu – this will bring you to the Import File Wizard.
6. Choose the file you wish to convert (using the “Browse” button) and the location in which you wish to place the imported file (again – use the “Browse” button). Click the “Import” button.
7. You will be brought to a work screen that shows you the Publication File or files you’ve imported. From here you can either build your final output to save on your Kindle, or modify some of the options for your e-book.
8. If you wish to add a Cover Image or Table of Contents choose the appropriate menu items under the “View” menu on the left side of the program window. You also can modify a number of settings for your e-book and add or modify the book’s metadata by choosing other options under the “View” menu. Note that you do not have to modify any of the settings under the “View” menu – they are there as options for your use if you choose.
9. When you are done click the “Build” button on the toolbar at the top of the program window. You will be brought to the “Build Publication” window. You can choose the compression settings for your e-book (”Standard” is fine for your Kindle) and also encryption options (choose “No Encryption”). Click the “Build” button just above the progress bars when you are ready to create your e-book.
10. You will go next to the “Build finished” window. This window will let you know if you’ve successfully created your e-book. You may get a message that says “Build succeeded but with warnings.” Normally this indicates a minor error or notification such as when you choose not to add a cover to your e-book. This will not prevent you from loading the e-book onto your Kindle.
11. Click the “Open folder containing eBook” then click “OK.” The folder you provided in step 6 will open and you will see a number of files. This will include your initial Adobe PDF file, plus files with the extension .html, .opf, .xml, and .jpg. You also will see the file you need to transfer to your Kindle, the file with the extension .prc.
12. Attach your Kindle to your computer using the USB cable. Open your Kindle and locate the “documents” folder. Copy the .prc file you created with Mobipocket Creator into your Kindle’s download folder. Close the Kindle > documents window and disconnect your Kindle by opening “My Computer”, right clicking on the “Kindle” drive icon, and selecting “Eject” from the menu.
13. Your new document will appear on your Kindle’s Home Page. You may need to refresh your Home Page view by pressing and holding down the “ALT” key and then pressing the “Z” key.
14. You can now enjoy your new Kindle e-book.
This process will work for Microsoft Word (.doc), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Text (.txt), and HTML files. You can download the Mobipocket Creator software from the Mobipocket web site – http://www.mobipocket.com.
By the way – if your new e-book file does not appear the way you expect on your Kindle 2 and you wish to delete if from your Kindle simply highlight the book and move the 5-way navigator to the left. The “delete” button will appear, press down on the 5-way navigator and then confirm the delete.
Congratulations! You now know how-to convert files into e-books you can read on your Kindle wireless reading device.
Got a Kindle? Then you need to get right over to http://www.guidetokindle.com. News, information, pictures, and how-to advice for the worlds most popular e-book reader. Exclusive, well-documented articles show you how to get the most from your Kindle investment. Be sure to sign-up for our e-mail newsletter and stay informed about everything Kindle.
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Amazon Kindle How-To Series: E-Mail With Your Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is a great e-book reader and audio-book player. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the built-in wireless service for other things like surfing the Internet or sending and receiving e-mail? Well, actually depending upon the e-mail service you use, you can!
Not surprisingly, we’ve found that the Amazon Kindle (both version 1 and 2) work great with Google’s Gmail. However, “right-out-of-the-box”, you will not be able to use Gmail unless you make a few modifications to your Kindle’s settings. If you do not do this, you will get an error message when trying to get into your Gmail account.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
1. Get a GMail account if you do not have one already – very simple – visit www.gmail.com and sign-up. Gmail offers a number of great features including over 7GB of storage space, IMAP support, and easy labeling of e-mail.
2. Turn on your Kindle and go to Menu > Experimental > Basic Web. This will open the Kindle’s Web Browser. Keep in mind that the Kindle browser (even on the new Kindle 2) is VERY basic.
3. When your Kindle browser has opened, go to Menu > Settings.
4. Navigate to the Menu item “Enable Javascript” – Gmail requires Javascript to work. If Javascript is not enabled then you will get an error message when trying to access your Gmail account.
5. Close the Settings window.
6. Go to Menu > Enter URL and then enter www.gmail.com – this is important, if you use the Kindle’s default shortcut or bookmark for Google you will get the Google “PDA” or mobile edition. When you try to access Gmail from the Google mobile site it will prompt you to download an e-mail application. This application cannot be installed on your Kindle. Go direction to the gmail site.
7. Log into the Gmail site with your existing user name and password, or use the new one you created in Step #1. Click “Sign in”.
8. You should now be logged into Gmail and ready to read and send e-mail messages.
A few things to keep in-mind when using your Kindle for Gmail. First, don’t forget the “Next Page” and “Prev Page” buttons. You have to get-out of your computer mind and into your Kindle mind. Next, the screen quality is not exceptional because it is in gray scale vs. color. The Kindle 2’s screen is better than the Kindle 1, however you will not equal anywhere near the experience of using your computer for e-mail. Finally – you won’t be able to open attachments sent to your Gmail account, and you may not be able to see all of the images sent with your e-mails.
With all of this, it still is pretty neat that you can take advantage of the wireless “Whispernet” service to take care of some basic e-mail tasks while you are using your Kindle. Who knows? In the event that your computer crashes and you’re out on the road your Kindle might be just come in very handy!
Congratulations, now you know how-to use Gmail on your Amazon Kindle wireless reading device.
The Amazon Kindle e-book reader includes features that can make your e-book reading and audio-book listening more enjoyable. Find out about the Kindle’s basic features, “hidden” features, and more by going to http://www.guidetokindle.com. News, information, and how-to tips for owners of the Amazon Kindle 1 and Kindle 2. Sign-up for our e-mail newsletter and stay informed about everything Kindle.
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Amazon Kindle How-to Series: Convert Free E-books to Kindle Books
While the Kindle wireless reading device lets you carry literally hundreds of e-books, newspapers, and magazines anywhere you go, your Kindle is actually pretty picky about the types of documents it will let you read. Free e-books, articles, white papers, and other documents you might wish to read on your Kindle are everywhere on the Internet. The problem is that they are not in a format that is “Kindle-friendly.”
The Kindle “natively” supports the following document formats -
Kindle documents (.azw)
Text documents (.txt)
Mobi Reader documents (.mobi or .prc)
But, if you have a document you wish to read on your Kindle that is in another format – for example = a free e-book that is an Adobe Reader (.pdf) file or a Microsoft Word (.doc) file then you have to convert it to the proper format for use on your Kindle. Fortunately this is not something that is hard to do.
Amazon has a service for which they charge a nominal amount allowing you to convert documents such as .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) files to Kindle files. To do this you must first have an active Kindle e-mail address. You can make sure you are set-up with a Kindle e-mail address by visiting the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon web site. Typically, your Kindle e-mail address will be “yourusername@kindle.com”.
1. Make sure the document you want to convert is in one of the following formats
Microsoft Word (.doc)
HTML (.html)
Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf)
2. Check to be sure the file is not “protected.” This can occur with e-books you have purchased with DRM (digital rights management) restrictions. You also might have documents that include passwords or other means to restrict access. You will not be able to convert these files.
3. Create an e-mail to your Kindle e-mail address and attach the file you wish to read on your Kindle.
4. Send the e-mail – Amazon will convert the document and send it to your Kindle via the wireless connection.
5. The cost for this service is $.10 (ten cents) per document.
If you want to convert your document at no charge, or are in an area where you cannot access the Kindle’s wireless service you can do so with a slight change in the steps above.
Rather than send the e-mail with the attached document to your Kindle e-mail address send it to “yourusername@free.kindle.com”. Amazon will convert the document and send it back to the originating e-mail address. When you get the e-mail back from Amazon you can transfer the document to your Kindle using the USB cable connected to your computer.
It’s as simple as that!
A few important things to remember. First, as stated above, if the files you wish to convert have any sort of DRM (digital rights management) restrictions then the file won’t be converted. Also – this is an “experimental” service for Amazon. Documents with complex formatting, or certain .pdf files, may not convert as expected. While this may not prevent you from reading the document, it will make it a bit more difficult to navigate through and around your e-book.
Congratulations! Now you know how you can quickly convert e-books in Microsoft Word, HTML, and Adobe Acrobat Reader format to “Kindle-friendly” e-books. This process can help you add a lot of great content to your Kindle wireless reading device.
Get more great how-to information, news, and tips on the Kindle wireless reading device by visiting www.guidetokindle.com. Sign-up for the Guide to Kindle e-mail newsletter and keep informed and up-to-date on everything Kindle.
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Amazon Kindle How-to Series – Loading and Viewing Pictures on Your Kindle E-book Reader
Your new Kindle wireless reading device is great for holding e-books and audio books but did you also know you can display your pictures on your Kindle? Keep in mind that the Kindle has a gray scale display, not color, so the quality of your pictures won’t be great. But, despite that it might be nice to have a few of your favorite pictures for quick viewing on your Kindle.
The process for loading and viewing pictures on your Kindle is not entirely intuitive, but it’s not difficult for you to master. Follow the steps below and you’ll have more than just books on your Kindle.
1. Get a collection of pictures you want to load on your Kindle. These can be color images but remember that your Kindle will display them as gray scale images.
2. Use a photo editing program to reduce the size of your images before loading them into your Kindle. The Kindle screen can display a picture at a maximum size of 550 pixels high x 450 pixels wide. There is no sense loading large images – which will take-up a large amount of your Kindle’s memory – if the image size is limited.
3. Attach the Kindle’s USB cable to both your Kindle and your computer.
4. Once the screen letting you know your Kindle is attached to your computer via USB appears you can double-click on your computer’s “My Computer” icon.
5. Your Kindle should appear as one of the disk drives attached to your computer.
6. Double-click on your Kindle drive. You will see several folders. One for Audible books, one for documents, and one for music.
7. Add a new folder to your Kindle called “pictures”.
8. Open the new “pictures” folder and create one sub-folder for each of the groups of pictures you wish to load onto your Kindle. For example “Moms Birthday” might be one folder and “Summer Vacation 2009″ might be another. These folder names will appear on your Kindle’s Home Screen so make them descriptive.
9. Open each new sub-folder then copy the pictures you’ve collected into their appropriate folder.
10. When you are done take a look at your Kindle’s screen. If the USB activity indicator at the bottom right side of the screen is not showing any activity you can remove the USB cable from your Kindle.
11. Go to the Home Screen of your Kindle. Press the “ALT” key and the “Z” key at the same time to refresh your Kindle’s list of e-books. The screen will blink a few time – when it stops use your “Next Page”, “Prev Page” buttons to locate the new picture folders you created in Step 8.
12. Scroll to the picture folder you want to open then press the scroll wheel to select it. The folder will open and in a moment or two your first picture will appear. You can move through your pictures by pressing the “Next” or “Prev” page buttons.
Congratulations! You now know how to make using your Kindle even more enjoyable by being able to carry special pictures with you in your Kindle wireless reading device.
For more complete How-To information, including screen shots of the process described above visit the web address in the resource box below.
Happy reading!
Visit www.guidetokindle for the latest news, information, and great free how-to advice for the Kindle e-book reader. Join the Guide to Kindle e-mail list to get how-to tips delivered right to your in box.
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Amazon Kindle How-to Series: Adding Extra Memory to Your Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is one of the high points of the 2008 holiday selling season for retailers. The Kindle wireless reading device for reading e-books sold-out before the holidays and at this writing is on a 8 to 10 week backorder. There are some great reasons for the popularity of this device:
It holds a LOT of e-books:
The internal memory of the Kindle can hold up-to 200 text-based books so you can take a virtual library with you wherever you go. Whether you are on an airplane, in the train on your way to work, or at home your favorite books are available to read at the flick of a switch.
The quality of the text is great:
Amazon has designed the reader and the “e-ink” used in the Kindle’s display to handle books. While this does mean that images display less than optimally, text is crisp and easily read. You also can adjust the size of the text on the display letting those of us with less than great vision keep reading without our glasses or contacts.
Amazon offers a “try before you buy” feature:
Like browsing at a bookstore, Amazon will instantly deliver a sample of any book you might be interested in purchasing to your Kindle so you can see if you’d like to make a purchase. This is a great feature that makes the whole experience more enjoyable.
Many e-books are available for the Kindle:
At this writing Amazon offered over 215,000 titles for the Kindle
The Kindle is lightweight and easy to carry:
You can carry around 200 books in the same space as a typical paperback book
The Kindle also plays audiobooks:
If you’re a fan of Audible.com or have some .mp3 e-books you can put them on your Kindle and listen as you would on an mp3 player or iPod.
Adding more memory to your Kindle -
As mentioned above, the internal memory of the Kindle holds about 200 e-books that are primarily text-based. Books containing images take more memory so the total number of books your Kindle can hold may be more or less than 200. To increase the number of e-books you can store on your Kindle e-book reader do the following:
1. Choose an SD memory card for your Kindle – typically you’ll want a 4mb or 8mb card
2. Turn your Kindle OFF
3. Disconnect your Kindle from the charger
4. Turn your Kindle face-down on a hard surface – remember to protect your screen!
5. Remove the back cover of the Kindle – this is the dark gray embossed cover
6. Locate the SD card memory slot on the inside edge of the Kindle
7. Insert your SD card into the slot until it “clicks”
8. Replace the cover
For more complete instructions with photos visit www.guidetokindle.com.
Michael Piston is a technology enthusiast, voracious reader, and Kindle owner. He edits a web site for Kindle owners www.guidetokindle.com
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Tags: Adding, Amazon, Extra, Howto, Kindle, Memory, Series |
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