Harvey Chute

Article / Updated 11-19-2021

If you have files on your computer that you need on your Kindle Paperwhite, you can transfer these with ease. Although emailing or sending a document to your Kindle Paperwhite is fast and easy, connecting your Kindle via USB cable and transferring books via drag-and-drop is simple too. Both Macintosh and Windows users can download and transfer Kindle content and personal documents from their computers to their Kindles through the USB connection. When the Kindle is plugged into a computer, it appears as a removable mass-storage device. To transfer files via USB cable, your computer must meet the following system requirements: PC: Windows 2000 or later Macintosh: Mac OS X 10.2 or later USB port: An available port or an attached USB hub with an available port How to connect your Kindle Paperwhite to your computer Follow these steps: Plug the larger end of the USB cable into an available USB port or a powered USB hub connected to your computer, and connect the other end of the USB cable to the micro-USB port on the bottom of the Kindle Paperwhite. When connected to the PC, the Kindle Paperwhite goes into USB drive mode and its battery is recharged by the computer. Wireless service is temporarily shut off. The Kindle isn’t usable as a reading device while in USB drive mode but returns to your reading location when you eject the device from your computer. When your Kindle Paperwhite is connected, simply drag and drop (or copy and paste) the file from your computer’s hard drive to the Kindle Paperwhite. For e-books, make sure to place the file in the Documents folder on the Kindle Paperwhite. If you put the file in the root drive, it won't appear on the Home screen of your Kindle Paperwhite. Transferring files If your file is in a Kindle-compatible format, you can transfer it directly from your computer to your Kindle Paperwhite via USB. To transfer the files, follow these easy steps: Connect your Kindle Paperwhite to your computer using the USB cable. Your computer recognizes your Kindle Paperwhite when it’s plugged in and displays the Kindle Paperwhite as a removable drive. If you go to my Computer (PC) or Finder (Mac), your Kindle Paperwhite appears as a drive. Double-click the drive to open it and view the folders on your Kindle Paperwhite. Open another window and navigate to the file(s) you want to transfer to your Kindle Paperwhite. Drag the file(s) to the appropriate folder on your Kindle Paperwhite. Place your text and documents files in the Documents folder on your Kindle Paperwhite. You can also use the Copy and Paste commands to move documents to the documents folder. Eject your Kindle Paperwhite from your computer: On a Windows 8 PC, right-click the Kindle drive icon and choose Eject. A notification that it is safe to remove the device from the computer appears. On a Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC, choose Start→Computer, and then right-click the Kindle drive icon and choose Eject. You can also left- or right-click the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar. On a Mac, Control-click the Kindle device icon and choose Eject. The files you transferred are displayed on your Home screen and are available for you to view on your Kindle Paperwhite. Your Kindle Paperwhite cannot read files that are protected with DRM. If this is the case, you see an error message when you try to open the e-book. Before buying books from sources other than Amazon, make sure that the file is compatible with your Kindle Paperwhite. Sideloading describes the transfer of files directly from one device to another. Uploading and downloading are terms that are commonly used to describe transferring files to or from an Internet server. What we’ve described here is sideloading.

Article / Updated 10-27-2021

Learning how to navigate your Kindle Paperwhite like a pro cuts down on precious time you'd really like to use reading. If you’re a seasoned Kindle Touch owner, the following information should be familiar. However, if you're upgrading from a Kindle with buttons or are new to Kindle overall, the following primer will get you started. What happened to the Home button? Every Kindle before the Paperwhite has a physical Home button that returns the device to the Home screen with just a press. On the Kindle Paperwhite, the Home button is now a Home icon (it looks like a house), which appears on a toolbar at the top of the screen. If you're reading a book or other content and don't see the toolbar, simply tap at the top of the screen to make it appear. All common uses of the Kindle Paperwhite — opening books, turning pages, placing bookmarks, and so on — involve a few simple touchscreen gestures, such as finger taps and swipes. For the most part, these gestures are consistent throughout your interaction with the Kindle Paperwhite. (We point out the few cases where the behavior is a bit different than you might expect.) Unlike Amazon’s prior touchscreen device, the Kindle Paperwhite has a capacitive touchscreen, which means that it responds only to an ungloved finger or a capacitive stylus that mimics a finger’s touch. Here are touchscreen gestures: Tapping A simple tap is the most common gesture you use with the Kindle Paperwhite. See an onscreen button and want to activate it? Tap the button. Viewing the list of books on your device? Tap one to open it. When you’re reading a book or other content, you tap to page forward (display the next page), page backward (display the previous page), or display a menu of commands. What happens when you tap a book's page depends on which part of the screen you tap. Swiping/sliding Swiping, or sliding, your finger from right to left horizontally or diagonally on the screen causes it to page forward. The motion is akin to flipping a paper page in a printed book. To page backward, reverse the motion with a left-to-right swipe. When reading a book or other content, you advance the page by swiping or tapping. If you want to page forward or backward when viewing a list of books on the Home screen, you must swipe, not tap. A tap on the title of a book (or other content) on the Home screen opens the item for reading. When swiping, you need to move your finger only a short distance. You can probably swipe (or tap) without moving your hands from their reading position. Long-tapping For a long-tap, also called a tap and hold, you touch and hold down on the screen for a few seconds before releasing. In general, a long-tap results in a special action, depending on what you’re viewing at the time. For example, when viewing a book page, you can long-tap on a word to display its definition. When viewing a list of books on the Home screen, a long-tap on a particular book displays such options as adding the book to a collection and reading its description. If you tap and hold the title of an e-book sample listed on the Home screen, you can buy the book, read the description, or delete the sample from the device. Pinching and unpinching When reading a book or other content, place two fingers (or a finger and a thumb) on the touchscreen and slide them closer together. This pinch motion decreases the font size. Move your fingers apart — called an unpinch — to increase the font size. You need to move your fingers only a small distance to change the font size. You might see a lag between the pinching and unpinching motions and a change in the text size. Moving your fingers slowly helps. Touchscreen zones The Kindle Paperwhite screen is set up with tap zones, which are designed to let you turn pages effortlessly with one finger. The three zones work as follows: Top zone: This area covers the full width of the screen and is approximately 1.25 inches high. While reading a book, a tap in the top zone displays two toolbars. The top toolbar contains the Home, Back, Light, Store, Search, and Menu icons. The second toolbar contains the Font, Go to, X-ray, and Share icons. At the bottom of the screen, you can see your progress in the book. The top toolbar is always displayed on the Home screen. Central zone: This area, which is the largest of the three zones, covers the middle of the screen. A quick tap or swipe here advances to the next page. Left zone: This area is a long, narrow rectangle that is approximately .5” wide. A tap in the left column moves to the previous page. Because this zone is narrow, your tapping has to be precise. That said, if you can visualize the zone on the screen, remembering where to tap will be easier.

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

You can have multiple Kindles, like the Kindle Paperwhite, as well as other devices running the Kindle application (PCs, smartphones, and so on) registered to your Kindle account. You can register a new Kindle Paperwhite either from the device or from your computer via your Amazon account. For other devices, download the Kindle app and register using the device. If you search or browse for Kindle content from your computer, you can send a sample to any of the devices registered to your Kindle account, including devices that run the Kindle app, such as the iPhone, a BlackBerry, or other PCs. If you search for content on your Kindle Paperwhite, you can send a sample only to the Kindle Paperwhite on which you’re doing the searching. If you enjoy the sample and want to buy the book, you can do so in a number of ways.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Do you enjoy graphic novels, comics, and manga? You can read all these on your Kindle Paperwhite. A few special features improve the reading experience for these kinds of visual documents. Panel view: In a book with multiple panels on a page, you can double-tap the screen to enlarge each panel to full-screen for an optimized reading experience. In this Panel view, simply tap the screen to advance through each panel individually. When you reach the last panel (the equivalent of reading one page in the print version), the screen displays the next page of panels, and then displays each panel separately as you tap. In this way, you can see the “big picture” but also read each panel easily. Double-tap to exit Panel view. Refresh every page: You can set the screen refresh to refresh every page in a comic, graphic novel, or manga — independent of the setting you have for other books on your device. Tap Menu→Page Refresh. The menu will display Page Refresh On or Page Refresh Off, depending on what you have selected. If the Refresh on Every Page option doesn't appear on the menu, the book has probably not been configured to take advantage of this feature.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can find many sources of free content for your Kindle Paperwhite. The quickest and easiest way to find free e-books, games, and other offers that are available at Amazon is to search the Top 100 Free category. Not all the free e-books are restricted to classics; various publishers run special promotions to entice readers to try new authors — often on the eve of a new e-book release. You need to be quick, though — many times the freebie is available only for a few days before it goes back to the regular price. Another option is to visit KindleBoards. Members there maintain a monthly thread that lists free e-books from a variety of sites. The list is updated regularly to show when the e-book is no longer free. When you order an e-book from Amazon, even if it is free, it appears as a purchase with a purchase price of $0.00. You receive a confirmation e-mail, too, so don’t be surprised. Yes, you have “bought” the e-book, even if you didn’t have to pay anything for it. Free books from Amazon re stored in the Cloud and available to you, even if the free promotion ends. Read the fine print carefully. Many free offers are restricted to certain countries or territories. Make sure the price is listed as $0.00 before you opt to buy. In addition to Amazon, here are a number of sites where you can find free e-books, all available to you legally: Project Gutenberg: One of the original free e-book sites, Project Gutenberg includes 40,000 books that have been digitized with the help of thousands of dedicated volunteers. All e-books were originally published by bona fide publishers; the copyrights have since expired. You can search by author or title, or browse by category, by most recently updated, or by Top 100. Project Gutenberg includes e-books in languages other than English. Internet Archive: This site features millions of rare, out-of-print works in multiple languages and formats. It’s especially useful for academic work. Open Library: This site includes 20 million user-contributed items and over 1 million e-books in multiple editions and formats. Their goal is “One web page for every book ever published.” FreeTechBooks.com: This site lists free online computer science, engineering, and programming e-books, e-textbooks, and lecture notes, which are all legally and freely available over the Internet. manybooks.net: You can find classic texts that are copyright-free, ranging from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (CreateSpace) to Zambesi Expedition by David Livingstone (Kessinger Publishing). You can also find new fiction by emerging authors. All the texts offered on the site are free to U.S. users. Most titles are offered in a variety of formats, including AZW, which works on the Kindle Paperwhite. Feedbooks: This site is another source of free, public domain e-books. The Feedbooks website includes a section with paid content. These e-books are not compatible with the Kindle Paperwhite, so don’t purchase one in error! Only the free public domain e-books at Feedbooks work on your Kindle Paperwhite.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Many Kindle Paperwhite owners join user forums, where a wide variety of problems can be addressed by helpful forum members. Amazon has a Kindle product forum that covers Kindle Paperwhite and all its e-reader devices. You can access the forum in several ways. The easiest is to go to the main Kindle Store on Amazon and choose Discussions, at the top of the page. To find independent Kindle user forums, use your favorite search engine to search for Kindle user forum. Posting your Kindle Paperwhite problem in the troubleshooting area of an active forum can be an efficient way of resolving perplexing issues. Most forums have resident experts who have seen it all and can provide quick answers to common questions. Amazon also provides a Kindle Support page with links to troubleshooting tips. Go to the Manage Your Kindle page. (Note that you’ll be prompted to log in to Amazon if you aren’t already signed in.) From the Manage Your Kindle page, you can access Kindle Support through the Kindle Help link or the Kindle Support option. The Kindle Support page includes a selection of how-to videos. Click the link for Helpful Kindle Support Videos and then click the Kindle Paperwhite image to see the videos available for your device. These short videos cover the following common topics: getting started with your Kindle Paperwhite, using your Kindle Paperwhite, transferring content over USB to your Kindle, setting your Kindle payment method, and troubleshooting your Kindle Paperwhite. The support page also has links to general Kindle topics, including frequently asked questions (FAQs), troubleshooting, software updates, getting started, and connecting to Wi-Fi. You can click the Kindle Paperwhite image lower on the page to see help topics specific to your device. Your Kindle Paperwhite comes with the user guide already downloaded on the device. You can also download it from the Kindle Support page. (To download a user guide in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, or Portuguese — go to your library through the Manage Your Kindle link. Kindle forums are full of appreciative reports about positive experiences with Amazon’s Kindle customer service. These customer service representatives have a reputation for quickly resolving issues and for treating Kindle owners fairly and respectfully. If your Kindle Paperwhite problem isn’t readily resolved by basic troubleshooting steps, you may be best off contacting customer service. More than likely, a ready resolution to your issue is waiting on the other end of the telephone line. The direct toll-free number for Kindle customer service is 1-866-321-8851. Customers outside the United States should call 1-206-266-0927. From the Kindle Support page, you can choose to have a customer service representative call you. In this way, the representative can access your account before making the call, which might speed up the support process. You can also e-mail customer service or initiate a chat session from the Kindle Support page. Click the Contact us button on the Kindle Support page to initiate help from Amazon.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can loan an e-book to anyone — even if the person doesn’t have a Kindle Paperwhite! All you need is the person’s e-mail address and a book that has loaning enabled. You can loan e-books from your computer. Follow these steps to lend an e-book to a friend: Open a web browser on your personal computer and go to the Manage Your Kindle page. If necessary, log in. Scroll down to view the e-books in your Kindle Library. Hover the cursor over the Actions button for the e-book you'd like to loan. If loaning has been enabled for the e-book, a Loan This Title option appears. Click the Loan This Title option. Enter the person’s e-mail address and name as well as a message. The borrower of the e-book receives an e-mail from Amazon. The borrower has seven days to accept the loan by clicking the Get Your Loaned Book Now button provided in the e-mail. What if the person you’ve loaned the e-book to doesn’t have a Kindle? No problem! You can use many devices to read Kindle e-books. The borrower can return the loaned e-book before the 14-day loan is over. If you're reading a borrowed book and want to return it, go to the Your Orders section of the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon. Click the plus symbol (+) next to the loaned title and then click the Delete This Title link. Currently, only e-book customers residing in the United States can loan Kindle e-books. Loans can be made to people living outside the United States, but the borrower may not be able to accept the loan, depending on geographic differences in publishing rights. You can join Kindle community forums to participate in exchanges in which Kindle owners lend and borrow e-books. A popular forum is the Lend and Borrow Exchange link. Want to know whether a book can be loaned before you purchase it? From a personal computer, view the book’s product page on Amazon. Scroll down to the Product Details section and look for Lending: Enabled. While an e-book from your Kindle is on loan, you can’t read it. Also, you can loan a book only one time.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Some think that the Kindle Paperwhite only offers you the option of buying books. You can also rent and gift books for yourself and others from your Kindle. Gifting literature is still a good idea. Rent Books on the Kindle Paperwhite Amazon now enables you to rent a textbook in Kindle format. Books can be rented for a specific period of time, usually between 30 and 360 days. Books that are available for rental have the “Rent this book” designation on the product page. If you decide you want to buy a rented book, your rental fee will be applied to the purchase price. However, you must purchase the book during the rental period; after the rental has expired, you will lose the rental credit and will need to pay full price to purchase the book. When the rental expires, the book will no longer be available on your Kindle Paperwhite (or another device where you may be reading the book). However, if you’ve made notes and highlights in the book, these will be saved in your account at Amazon. Rental books can be returned for a full refund within 7 days of rental, the same as with any Kindle book purchase. This is helpful for students who decide to drop a class and no longer need the book. What if a student chooses a 90-day rental and then needs the book for only 30 days? Unfortunately, Amazon does not provide partial refunds. To learn more, go to Kindle Support and search for “Renting Kindle Books.” Gift Books from a Kindle Paperwhite You can give anyone an e-book from the book’s product page on Amazon. A Give as a Gift button is available for most e-books in the Kindle Store. You can e-mail the gift directly to someone or specify when the e-mail should be sent. Recipients receive a link in the e-mail that enables them to access the e-book. Alternatively, you can have the e-mail sent to you. Perhaps you'd like to forward the e-mail later to the giftee or you want to print the e-mail and present the gift that way. Many online e-booksellers also let you give an e-book as a gift. Details on how to do so are available at the seller’s website.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you want to read a file on your Kindle Paperwhite that’s in an unsupported file type, you can install software on your computer that can read different file types and then convert those files to Kindle-compatible formats. A few such options are calibre: Available for PC or Mac, calibre can convert e-books in a host of formats, including CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, and TXT. The calibre program can convert these e-books to various formats including the Kindle-compatible MOBI format. Mobipocket Creator: Available only for PCs, Mobipocket Creator can convert e-books from DOC, TXT, and PDF files to Kindle-compatible MOBI format. These tools are free and can be used to take content in a wide variety of formats and convert it into Mobipocket (MOBI) files. The converted MOBI files are compatible with your Kindle Paperwhite and can be transferred to your Kindle via USB. If you want to allow documents to be sent from anyone from a particular domain, don't include a username. For example, adding @mycompany.com authorizes anyone with an e-mail address matching that domain name to send documents to your Kindle Paperwhite. However, you are responsible for any charges for documents sent from those e-mail addresses via Whispernet to your Kindle Paperwhite. Transferring files via Wi-Fi is free. If you set the maximum charge for Whispernet Delivery over 3G to $0, personal documents will be sent only via Wi-Fi even if you have 3G. You can make this change in the Personal Documents Settings. When you know your Kindle Paperwhite’s e-mail address and you’ve added your personal e-mail address to the Approved Personal Document E-Mail List, transferring files is simple: Open your e-mail program or your e-mail web page. Log on to your account, if necessary. Create a new message. In the To text box, enter the e-mail address of your Kindle Paperwhite. Attach the document you want to transfer to your Kindle Paperwhite. There’s no need to specify a subject or to provide text in the body of the message. Amazon recommends that each personal document be no larger than 50MB. You can send multiple files at once by attaching more than one file to the e-mail. You can also compress multiple files into a Zip file and then attach the Zip file to the e-mail. Click Send. If you’re connected in a Wi-Fi area (or with 3G for Kindle Paperwhites so enabled), you receive the converted file on your Kindle Paperwhite in about five minutes. Very large files can take longer to convert and receive. When you send personal documents to your Kindle Paperwhite, they’re stored automatically in your Kindle Library at Amazon. You can store up to 5 gigabytes of personal documents in the archive. If you're sending a PDF file and would like to take advantage of features on the Kindle Paperwhite, such as changing font size and making notes, convert the file to Kindle format (AZW) by typing CONVERT in the subject line of your message.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Some of your personal documents that you load on your Kindle Paperwhite may be PDF documents. The Kindle Paperwhite can read PDF documents natively — in other words, without converting them. The Kindle Paperwhite handles PDF documents differently from how it handles text in the usual Kindle format: PDF documents are displayed with the text and graphics laid out exactly as in the original PDF document. You can't change the layout, font size, typeface, line spacing, and words per line. You can zoom in on a PDF document by unpinching. Note that this is different than increasing the font size. The text doesn't reflow; instead, you see an enlarged view of a section of the screen. You can then pan around the screen by sliding your finger on the display. To zoom out, pinch the screen (move two fingers together). You can’t turn the page while zooming in. You can adjust the contrast of the displayed document by tapping the Menu icon. At the bottom of the screen, your Kindle Paperwhite displays the original PDF document's page numbers. Why would you want to read a document in PDF format? Many PDF documents are highly formatted with columns, tables, and figures that do not convert well to Kindle Paperwhite format. Although you lose the ability to make notes and marks in a PDF, you are able to read the document as originally presented. The Kindle Paperwhite does not support reading PDFs in landscape mode. Do you want to use Kindle Paperwhite features such as changing font size and making notes? When e-mailing the PDF file, simply convert the file to Kindle format (AZW) by typing CONVERT in the subject line of your message. If you do this, look carefully at the formatting of the PDF to make sure that a converted file is going to be acceptable to you for reading.