Thank you for purchasing Amazon Kindle. You are reading the Welcome section of the
Kindle User’s Guide. This section provides an overview of Kindle and highlights a few
basic features so you can start reading as quickly as possible.
You can leave this guide at any time by pressing the Home button on your Kindle. To
turn to the next page, press one of the Next Page buttons.
If your Kindle was a gift, you will need to register your device. Please look at the
Getting Started instructions that came with your Kindle for information on registering
your device.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 8 ·
Congratulations!
You are reading on your new Kindle.
If you haven’t done so already, please follow the Getting Started instructions that
came with your Kindle and plug in your Kindle to charge the battery. The charge
indicator light on the bottom edge of your Kindle turns yellow and a lightning bolt
appears on the battery icon at the top of the display. Charging the battery fully should
take less than three hours and you can continue reading while it charges.
Tip: The charge indicator light will turn green when the battery is fully charged.
If you prefer to read the Kindle User’s Guide side-by-side with the device, you can
download and print a PDF copy from Amazon.com at:
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
Getting Around
You navigate Kindle using the 5-way controller; the Home, Menu, Back, and Next/
Previous Page buttons; and the keyboard:
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 9 ·
To select a particular item such as a menu option or a specific word in your reading
material, move the 5-way controller up, down, left, or right to highlight your choice
and then press to select.
You can press the Next or Previous Page buttons to move forward or backward in your
reading material and press the Back button to retrace your steps on your Kindle. Use
the keyboard to type words or phrases when searching your reading material or items
in the Kindle Store. You can also use the keyboard to create notes while reading. All of
these are covered in more detail later in this guide.
Easy-to-Read Display
Kindle uses a high-resolution display technology called electronic paper. It works
using ink just like books and newspapers, but it displays the ink particles electronically.
The page flash you see when you turn the page is part of the ink placement process.
The electronic paper display is reflective, which means unlike most displays, you can
read it clearly even in bright sunlight. Also, electronic paper does not need power to
hold the ink in place, which extends your Kindle’s battery life.
Wireless Access with Whispernet
Using the wireless Amazon Whispernet service, Amazon delivers content to your
Kindle whenever and wherever you want it, within the wireless coverage area, using
the same technology as a cell phone. By default, your Kindle ships with Whispernet
already turned on. To turn Whispernet on or off, press the Menu button, move the
5-way controller up to underline “Turn Wireless On/Off,” and then press the 5-way.
Your Choice of Text Size
To optimize your reading experience, Kindle provides a quick way to adjust the size of
the reading text among six sizes.
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To try it now, press the Text key , move the 5-way controller to choose the size
you prefer and press the 5-way to select. The text changes to the new size. Repeat
the same steps to change the text size back or to change it to a size comfortable for
you to read.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 11 ·
Let Kindle Read to You
You can also choose to turn on the experimental application, Text-to-Speech, which
will read aloud your books (where allowed by the rights holder), newspapers, blogs,
and personal documents. You can either listen through your Kindle’s external speakers
or plug in earphones into the headphone jack. While Text-to-Speech is playing, the
screen will turn the pages automatically so you can follow along while the audio
is playing. You have the choice of hearing your content spoken with a male or female
voice and can also further optimize the listening experience by slowing down or
increasing the rate of speech.
Look It Up
Your Kindle includes The New Oxford American Dictionary. You can easily look up
a particular word without leaving the content. Simply use the 5-way controller to
navigate the cursor in front of the word you want defined. A definition of the word
appears at the bottom of the screen. To view the full definition, press the Return key
on the keyboard. To return to the text you were reading, press the Back button.
Take It All with You
Although Kindle is about the size of a paperback book, it can store over a thousand
digital books, newspapers, blogs, and magazines, which are referred to collectively
as “content” throughout this guide. A copy of all your books and recent issues
of newspapers and magazines purchased from the Kindle Store are kept on
Amazon.com.
To open content on your Kindle, press the Home button. This displays a list of the
content on your Kindle. Move the 5-way controller up or down to underline the item
you want to open and then press the 5-way to open the item. To delete content on
your Kindle, move the 5-way controller up or down to underline the item you want
to delete. Move the 5-way to the left and then press the 5-way to complete the removal
of the item.
To move previously deleted content from Amazon.com back to your Kindle,
Whispernet must be on. From Home, select “Archived Items.” This shows all of the
content stored at Amazon.com. Underline the item you want to move back to your
Kindle and move the 5-way to the right to start the transfer. In under a minute, the
item re-downloads into your Kindle and appears in the list of content in Home.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 12 ·
Shop Anytime, Anywhere
If you have Whispernet on and you select “Shop in Kindle Store” from any menu,
Kindle connects you to a broad offering of reading material including books,
newspapers, blogs, and magazines. You can browse by category or check out the
latest bestsellers, new and noteworthy items, or your personalized recommendations.
You can see details about an item, read customer reviews, and even download free
samples of books you are interested in. If you want to buy an item, Kindle uses secure
Amazon 1-Click and then Whispernet delivers the item to your Kindle generally in
under a minute with no wireless delivery charges to you.
Automatic Delivery
Since Kindle connects to the Whispernet network, we deliver your favorite periodicals
over the air to your device as soon as they are published, often before they are even
available in print. For example, if you subscribe to the Kindle edition of The Wall Street
Journal, the latest edition is wirelessly delivered overnight so you can read it each
morning. Your favorite periodicals follow you wherever you go in Whispernet’s broad
coverage area, whether you are at home or on the road. Also, you pay only for your
subscriptions; Amazon.com covers the wireless delivery cost.
Peruse Your Periodicals
Just as you would thumb through a physical newspaper or magazine to locate an
article of interest, your Kindle supplies you with navigation shortcuts so that you can
quickly zero in on an article of interest. By moving the 5-way controller right or left
you can advance to the next or previous article and pushing the 5-way brings up the
periodical’s section list.
Search Your World
While you are in Home, the Kindle Store, or reading content, you can use your Kindle’s
search feature. From the keyboard, begin typing what you’d like to search for and then
using the 5-way controller, select the range of your search. If you begin your search
while in Home or with open content, you have the option to search for that item in
all of your books, newspapers, blogs, personal documents, and annotations. You
also have the option to focus your search to the built-in dictionary, the Kindle Store,
Wikipedia, and the Web.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 13 ·
Clip Your Favorite Passages
Have you ever been reading a book or a newspaper and wanted to clip and save a
few words to refer to later? With Kindle, simply select “Add a Note or Highlight” from
the menu and use the 5-way to highlight the content you want to clip and then press
the 5-way to save your selection. The clipping is added to a file in Home called “My
Clippings.” You can review your clippings later, search for words or terms you clipped,
and transfer the “My Clippings” file to your computer. This is a great way to capture
your favorite quotations to share with others.
Bookmark Your Reading
Kindle automatically saves your place in whatever book you are reading, but you can
also add a bookmark to any page by pressing the Menu button and selecting “Add a
Bookmark.” You can see that the upper right corner of the page is dog-eared. Kindle
stores all your bookmarks for the current content in your annotations. You can view
them at any time by pressing the Menu button and selecting “My Notes & Marks.”
Add Your Own Notes
Do you like to take notes and make comments while reading? You can add notes
to any of the content on Kindle. Amazon automatically stores all of your book
annotations in the “My Clippings” file and backs them up on Amazon servers so they
will not be lost.
As an example, this sentence is highlighted and has a note attached as indicated by
the superscripted number one to the right of this text.1 Using the 5-way controller,
move the cursor over the notation number to see the note. To add your own note,
move the cursor to the word where you want to add your thoughts, and begin typing
your note. Then use the 5-way again to highlight the “save note” button onscreen and
press the 5-way to select. You can later view, edit, or remove a note, or see all of your
annotations by pressing the Menu button and selecting “My Notes & Marks.”
Stay in Sync
If you own multiple Kindles, Whispersync makes it easy to synchronize the furthest
page read in your book and your bookmarks among your devices. With Whispersync
turned on, you can start a book on your Kindle, and pick up where you left off on
your Kindle.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 14 ·
Convert Your Own Documents
In addition to all of the great reading material you can get from the Kindle Store,
Amazon can also convert your own documents so you can read them on Kindle. You
can e-mail Microsoft Word, TXT, HTML, RTF, PDF, or image files like JPEGs and GIFs
to your dedicated Kindle e-mail address (found on the Settings page on Kindle or the
Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com). We will convert the document into Kindle
format and wirelessly deliver it directly to your Kindle for a small fee or back to your
computer for free. Currently, the conversion of PDF documents is an experimental
feature on Kindle, and some complex PDF files might not format correctly on
your Kindle.
Learning More
This ends your brief introduction to just some of the capabilities on Kindle. The
chapters that follow give a more complete overview of these and other features.
Remember, you can always search on a particular feature or learn more about
how to do a particular task by opening this guide and typing on the keyboard to
activate Search.
The Table of Contents for the Kindle User’s Guide shows you all of the topics covered
in this guide. You can get to the table of contents by pressing the Menu button from
any page. Move the 5-way down until you underline “Table of Contents” and press the
5-way to go to it.
You can also navigate by clicking an underlined word or words like the “Table of
Contents” above. Underlined words indicate a link to somewhere else in the material
you are reading, like a footnote, a chapter, or a web site. In the example above, when
you navigate the 5-way controller over one of the underlined words, a hand icon
will appear. Pressing the 5-way will take you to the beginning of the table of contents.
Press the Back button to go back to where you were reading.
If you bought your Kindle with your Amazon account, it is already registered with your
account information and you are ready to go. When you go to the Home screen, check
the top left corner of the screen to see if your Amazon name (the same one you see
when you are shopping on Amazon.com) is shown. If it says “My Kindle” instead of
your Amazon account name, you need to register your Kindle. To register, first press
Home to display the Home screen and then press the Menu button. Select “Settings”
and then select “register” on the page that appears to enter your Amazon user name
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 15 ·
and password. If your Amazon user name or password contains characters not present
on the Kindle keyboard, press the Symbol key on the bottom of the keyboard to
see a menu of the extended characters and use the 5-way to select the character you
require. Alternatively, you can register your Kindle by visiting the Manage Your Kindle
page on Amazon.com at:
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
You can leave the Kindle User’s Guide, or any item you are reading, at any time by
pressing the Home button. If you are done reading, you can put your Kindle to sleep
by sliding and releasing the power button located at the top of your Kindle (you wake
up Kindle the same way). Sleeping your Kindle will extend battery life and also lock
all of the keys and buttons so you don’t inadvertently press one while not using your
Kindle. When your Kindle is asleep, you will see an image on the screen. To turn
off your Kindle completely, slide and hold the power switch for four seconds, then
release. The Kindle screen will blank and the device will turn off. If you ever need
assistance, you can use the Web or your telephone to contact us. See Chapter 9 for all
of the Kindle Support contact options.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 16 ·
CHAPTER 1:
Getting Started with Your Kindle
In the Welcome chapter of the Kindle User’s Guide, you read about many of the things
you can do with your Kindle. This chapter reviews all of the physical features of Kindle
and covers the basics of using the Kindle buttons, menus, and keyboard.
1.1 Views of Kindle
FRONT VIEW
The front of your Kindle contains the screen the keyboard, and the navigation controls.
These features are illustrated below and explained in the list that follows.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 17 ·
Volume controls — controls the headphone or speaker volume for audiobooks,
background music, and text-to-speech.
Previous Page button — takes you to the previous page in your reading material.
Home button — shows content stored on your Kindle as well as content archived at
Amazon.
Next Page button — takes you to the next page in your reading material. To
accommodate different ways of holding the Kindle, there is a Next Page button
on both sides.
Menu button — displays application and navigation choices that are related to the
screen you are viewing.
5-way controller — selects an item or action when pressed down. Moves the
on-screen highlight or cursor up and down when moved up and down. Moves
the on-screen highlight or cursor side-to-side when moved left or right.
Keyboard — use to enter search terms, notes in your content, URLs for Web sites, etc.
Back button — retraces your steps on Kindle just like the back button on a web
browser. For example, you can follow a link in a book and then press the Back button
to return to your place.
Symbol key — presents a menu of punctuation marks and symbols. Move the
5-way controller to select the desired symbol and press the 5-way to select.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 18 ·
Text key — changes the size of the text while you are reading and presents
available controls for Text-to-Speech. Move the 5-way controller to select the optimal
text size or a Text-to-Speech action.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 19 ·
BACK VIEW
The back of your Kindle contains stereo speakers for audio content.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 20 ·
TOP VIEW
Power switch — puts your Kindle to sleep, wakes it up, and turns your Kindle on or
off. To put your Kindle to sleep, slide and release the power switch; a full screen
image appears on the display. While your Kindle is asleep, other keys and buttons are
locked so that you don’t accidentally change the place in your reading. To turn your
Kindle off, slide and hold the power switch for four seconds until the screen goes
blank and then release. To wake up or turn on your Kindle, slide and release the power
switch again.
If your Kindle does not power on or is unresponsive during use, try resetting the
device by disconnecting your Kindle from any power source, and then sliding and
holding the power switch for 15 seconds before releasing.
Tip: Your Kindle will also go to sleep by itself after ten minutes if you are not using
it. If your Kindle had wireless on prior to going to sleep, it will continue to receive your
regularly scheduled subscriptions while in sleep.
Headphone jack — plug in headphones to listen to an audiobook, background music,
or content read aloud through text-to-speech. Attaching headphones turns off the
built-in speakers.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 21 ·
BOTTOM VIEW
The bottom of your Kindle contains the charge indicator light and a micro-USB port.
Micro-USB/power port — attach the USB cord that came with your Kindle into the
micro-USB/power port and into the Kindle power adapter. Plug the adapter into a
power outlet to charge the Kindle battery. The charging status light will turn yellow,
indicating that the battery is charging; you can continue to use your Kindle while it
charges. A green light indicates that the battery is fully charged.
Check to make sure the power adapter is not covered by anything that could cause
it to overheat. If the charge indicator light does not light up, make sure that the USB
cable is fully inserted into your Kindle and the power adapter. If Kindle still is not
charging, try another electrical outlet.
Tip: The Kindle power adapter is a universal power adapter and will work
worldwide. If you are traveling outside the United States, and want to recharge your
Kindle, connect the power adapter to a country-approved physical plug adapter (not
included) for the country that you are in.
To transfer content between your computer and your Kindle, connect the provided
USB cable to the Kindle and to the computer’s USB port. If your computer’s USB port
or powered USB hub provides power, your Kindle will charge over USB.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 22 ·
1.2 Getting Around
To get around on your Kindle, you use the buttons, menus, and the keyboard—all of
which are explained here.
USING THE BUTTONS
In the Welcome section you learned about the navigation buttons (Previous Page,
Next Page, and Back). For an explanation of what each button does, see Front View
of Kindle.
USING THE MENUS
In addition to the physical buttons, you also navigate Kindle using the menus. Kindle’s
menus are context sensitive, but they all work the same way.
You use the 5-way controller to navigate within the menu and press the 5-way to select
an item.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 23 ·
The illustration below shows the Home menu; the bold line under “Shop in Kindle
Store” indicates that it is ready to be selected.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 24 ·
THE APPLICATION MENU
You can display a menu from any screen on your Kindle. When you press the Menu
button, it displays choices related to the screen you are viewing. The sample screen
below shows you the screen you would typically see when you press the Menu button
from within a book.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 25 ·
1.3 Entering Text
To use the Kindle keyboard, most people find it easiest to hold the device in both
hands, and use the tips of their thumbs to press the keys.
LOWERCASE AND UPPERCASE LETTERS
To enter lowercase letters, press the appropriate letter key. To enter uppercase letters,
hold down the Shift key , and then press the desired letter key like you do on your
computer keyboard. Alternatively, you can press and release the Shift key and then
press the desired letter. Only the next letter will be capitalized.
NUMBERS, PUNCTUATION, AND SYMBOLS
The number keys are located at the top of the keyboard. If you need a punctuation
mark or a symbol that is not shown, press the Symbol key on the bottom row of
the keyboard. You will see a menu of punctuation marks and symbols.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 26 ·
Use the 5-way controller to choose the character you want and it will appear in your
text entry box.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 27 ·
1.4 Status Indicators
At the top of every screen, you also see Whispernet and battery life status indicators to
keep you in the know.
WHISPERNET STATUS INDICATORS
The Whispernet status indicator shows you whether the wireless radio is turned on or
off, the signal strength of your Whispernet service, and the connection speed. Here are
the possible indicators and their meanings.
The Whispernet service is active and your Kindle has a strong signal. The more
bars that are filled in with black, the stronger the wireless signal.
None of the bars are filled in. This means the wireless signal strength is too low
to connect. You will not be able to connect to the Kindle Store, Basic Web, register
your device, retrieve content from Archived Items, or receive your subscriptions.
The bars are outlined in grey. This means Whispernet is checking for signal
strength. This usually lasts less than 30 seconds.
The Whispernet service is turned off. You can turn on the wireless by pressing
the Menu button, and using the 5-way controller to navigate to “Turn Wireless On.”
When you activate a menu, a 1X or 3G icon appears to the left
side of the signal bars that indicates the speed of your Whispernet service. The 1X
icon indicates that your Kindle is connected to the 1XRTT wireless network, which is
slower than the 3G Whispernet service. Kindle will automatically switch back to the
faster 3G EVDO network when available.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 28 ·
BATTERY STATUS INDICATORS
You have your Kindle plugged into power and the battery is charging. The
charge indicator light on the bottom of your Kindle also lights up. Note that if
your Kindle is plugged into a low powered USB port such as those found on some
keyboards or older computers, you will only derive enough charge to avoid depleting
the battery but not enough to recharge it.
These images show the various states of the battery as it
discharges. As you deplete the battery, less of the battery indicator will be filled in.
The battery is too low to power the Whispernet service. You must charge your
Kindle battery to restore wireless service.
ACTIVITY INDICATOR
Your Kindle is busy downloading new content, checking for new items, searching
for an item, or loading a web page.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 29 ·
CHAPTER 2:
Getting to Know Kindle Content
The Kindle Home screen gives you an overall picture of what you currently have on
your Kindle. It shows you what has arrived recently, what you are reading, and where
you are in your reading. It also allows you to remove content from your Kindle and to
move content from Amazon.com to your Kindle. Read below for more details.
2.1 The Home Screen
Your Home screen displays a list of all of your Kindle reading materials — books,
newspapers, magazines, blogs, personal documents, as well as audiobooks. It serves
as a personal bookshelf for all of your reading material, as well as a starting point to
access other Kindle features.
To display the Home screen, press the Home button on the right edge of your Kindle.
By default, the Home screen lists all of the items that you have on your Kindle
beginning with the most recently viewed (or acquired) items. Each type of content
has a slightly different description and label. You can read more about the types of
content available in Chapter 3.
KINDLE BOOKS
Books are shown by title and author. Below the book title are a series of dots which
give you an approximation of how long the book is. Bold dots within the series
indicate how far along you are in the book based on the last page you viewed.
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 48 hours.
KINDLE USER’S GUIDE 3rd EDITION· 30 ·
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