Kindle 3 Keyboard Shortcuts and Tips (Ver 1.16)
Latest Version of these tips
In .mobi format – with Table of Contents and chapter marks
In .azw format – no TOC or chapter marks
Searching
To copy text from a book to the search box (eg to search for a character's
name): Use the 5-way to cursor down to the beginning of the text you want to
copy
Click the 5-way to mark the beginning
Use the 5-way to move right, selecting the word(s) you want to search for
Instead of clicking again as you would to save a highlight, press SPACEBAR
The selected words are now in the search box. Move the cursor down or right,
delete any extraneous characters, then move down and right to highlight
'Find'. Click to search.
Clear text from search/edit box: ALT+DEL
Default search action: when the action on the right of the search box is the
one you want, you do not have to use the 5-way to move to highlight it
first; you can just press ENTER (or click) Similarly, if the cursor is in
the URL field of the web browser, the action shown to the right is the
default and you can just press ENTER
When searching 'My Items' from the Home screen, you can change the order in
which search results are displayed: v1.16 Use the 5-way to cursor to the top
of the screen, where the number of items found is displayed
Use the 5-way to move right and display the available sort orders
Use the 5-way to move to the order you want and click to select it
The SYM key is only active when a search/edit box is active To start a
search from the Home screen with a symbol, press DEL or ENTER to open up a
search box, then press SYM
In other screens, DEL or ENTER will not work; to open a search/edit box so
you can use SYM, type a space and then delete it
For when you don't even know what day of the week it is: Search for DATE or
TIME from the home screen
The current date and time is the first item in results; select it to see the
day and time zone information To just see the time without searching, press
MENU
When you have a book open: Enter DATE or TIME as a search item
Use the 5-way to cursor right to 'my items' and select
Again, the current date and time is the first item in results, and can be
selected for more information
The BACK key will return you to your place in the book
@help - list all functions available for searching from the Home screen:
@dict <keyword>
@help
@print [no idea what this does]
@store <keyword>
@url <url> (goes to browser if no URL)
@web <google search term >
@wiki <keyword>
@wikipedia <keyword>
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Start/Stop: SHIFT+SYM To start at a specific spot, use the 5-way to position
the cursor first
When TTS is on, BACK turns it off
Pause/Restart: SPACEBAR When TTS is turned on, most of the keyboard is
locked; if you press SPACEBAR or use Aa to pause TTS, you cannot manually
navigate through the book because TTS is still active, and it may appear
that the Kindle has frozen. Press SPACEBAR to resume TTS, or press
SHIFT+SYM, BACK or HOME to turn off TTS entirely. The Aa key also still
works.
TTS only works when you have a book open
TTS won't work if the publisher has disabled TTS for the book; TTS status
can be found under the book pricing in the Kindle bookstore
When TTS is on, use the Aa key to: Change between male and female voice
Change the reading speed
Stop or pause TTS
Pages are turned automatically when TTS is turned on. By turning the volume
right down and adjusting the reading speed, this feature can be used as an
automatic page turner.
TTS continues playing even if you put your Kindle to sleep by sliding and
releasing the power button. Sleeping your Kindle while TTS is playing allows
you to continue listening but locks all of the keys and buttons so you don't
inadvertently press one.
Voice Guide
Turn on/off: SHIFT+SPACEBAR (A shortcut at last! It's only available if you
have the Version 3.3 update) v1.16
HOME->MENU->Settings->Page 2->click 'turn on'/'turn off' If you only have
one page of settings, the Kindle is not yet registered or has not yet
'talked' to the Amazon servers; you need to turn on wireless (if you don't
have wi-fi (or 3G) yourself, you may need to find a wi-fi hotspot)
The voice guide, which lets you navigate your Kindle with spoken menus,
selectable items, and descriptions, is separate from TTS, which reads the
text of a book/document (unless the publisher has disabled that ability)
Background Music
Play/Stop: ALT+SPACEBAR
Next track: ALT+F
Music files must be MP3s in the Kindle's 'music' folder
Games
Minesweeper: ALT+SHIFT+M from Home screen MENU for game options
GoMoku: G from Minesweeper
Home Screen
Rescan for files: ALT+Z
Jump to page: <number> then click or ENTER To type numbers, use ALT+Q to P
for 1 to 0
Jump to Author or Title: <first letter> then click or press ENTER when in
Author or Title sort order respectively. For example, to go to titles
beginning with 'M': First make sure it says 'By Title' on the right near the
top of the Home screen; if it doesn't: Use the 5-way to move up to that line
Move right with the 5-way to display the sort options
Use the 5-way to underline 'Title' and click the 5-way
Back on the Home screen, press the letter 'm'
The search box will appear with the letter 'm' showing, along with the
wording 'click to got to M titles'
Click the 5-way
To view the list of books in your archives: v1.15 MENU->View Archived Items
'Archived Items' also appears as a clickable title on the Home screens, but
may be difficult to find if you have a lot of items.
General
Capital letters when typing: Hit SHIFT first, then the letter; no need to
hold them down together
Numbers: ALT+Q to P = 1 to 0 or press SYM when search/edit box is active
Like SHIFT for capital letters, ALT is sticky, so you can type ALT followed
by a letter on the top row (ALT, Q, ALT, W, ALT, E types 123)
Redraw screen: ALT+G (removes ghosting)
Screenshot: ALT+SHIFT+G or ALT+SHIFT+H (saves a .GIF in the Kindle document
directory) The screen flashes for both ALT+G and ALT+SHIFT+G. As it is easy
to do an ALT+G by mistake, ALT+SHIFT+H may be a safer way to do a
screenshot.
Display the time: MENU displays the time at the top of the screen
Display amount of space left on the Kindle: MENU from the Home, Settings, or
Experimental screen
To see if you still have books indexing, from the home screen type a
nonsense search like 'xzwwx' [or even just a period, which is quicker] and
press ENTER. If the search result says 'No items', indexing has finished; if
one or more items are listed, indexing is still in progress. If a book gets
'stuck' on indexing, delete it, let other items finish indexing, then
re-download the book to see if it will index.
Shop in the Kindle store: ALT+HOME
The search window can be used as a simple calculator. Simple expressions
like "5+6", "2*8/3" and "sin(8)" work. See Kindle Calculations below for
details.
Display Serial No and Barcode: ALT+SHIFT+. (period)
To restart your Kindle 3 (solves a myriad of problems): If it is charging,
disconnect from the power/computer
Soft restart (when the buttons are working):
HOME->MENU->Settings->MENU->Restart
Hard restart (when everything seems frozen): Slide and hold the power switch
for 30 seconds, then wait a minute or two
When you restart, you will see the boy reading under the tree and a progress
bar If you wait a couple of minutes and still only see a blank screen, you
have not held the power switch for long enough and have turned the Kindle
off
To turn the Kindle off completely (blank screen), slide and hold the power
switch for around 7 seconds. It is recommended to only turn the Kindle off
if it is not going to be used for a long time (weeks).
If you are in the habit of turning the Kindle off rather than letting it go
to sleep, always go to the Home screen first so it has a chance to save your
current book location.
From Settings screen: Change 3G provider: type 311 (ALT+EQQ)
Kindle Serial No et al: type 411 (ALT+RQQ)
3G Modem information: type 611 (ALT+YQQ)
Wi-fi Modem information: type 711 (ALT+UQQ)
Reading
Add/remove a bookmark for the current page: ALT+B
Bookmark a specific location: use the 5-way to position the cursor at the
location, then double-click the 5-way's centre button. This is useful when
viewing bookmarks because the first few lines are displayed.
Zoom in on an illustration: use the 5-way to position the cursor over the
picture; the cursor will change to a magnifying glass with a + sign; click
to zoom; the K3 will display the illustration in landscape if that is a
better fit than portrait
Chapter marks: some, but not all, books have dots along the reading progress
bar when you first open them You can use the 5-way to move left and right
between chapters
Your bookmarks, notes and highlights also add dots to the progress bar; you
cannot use the 5-way to move between these marks
Since the Ver 3.1 firmware update, you need to press MENU to see location
and page number (if available)
Also press MENU to also see the status bar with book name, time and
wireless/battery indicators
To get back to the beginning of a book: v1.15 With the book open, press MENU
and select 'Go to...' To ensure you are right at the beginning, select
'cover'.
At the bottom of your Manage Your Kindle page on the Amazon web site is an
option to "Manage synchronization between devices". If you have this turned
on, the Kindle will continue to ask if you want to synch to the furthest
page read. To reset this to the beginning of the book, you must call Kindle
Support.
Visual indication of book length/proportion read: v1.16 Book titles on the
home screen (or inside a collection) have a line of dots under them The
length of the line is an indication of the length of the book.
Darker dots are an indication of how much of the book you have read; if you
remain on the last page when you finish a book, the entire line will be
darker, indicating that the book has been read.
Nudge the selection frame when a PDF document is zoomed, or when panning a
zoomed document: SHIFT+5-way direction
Delete multiple bookmarks, highlights, notes: Select 'View My Notes & Marks'
from the Menu
Use the 5-way to move to the note/mark to be deleted
Press DEL
Repeat for each note/mark to be deleted
When reading an Amazon format book, use the Aa key to: Change font size and
typeface
Change line spacing and words per line
Turn on Text to Speech if enabled for your current book
Change screen orientation
When reading a PDF, use the Aa key to: Change zoom level
Change contrast
Change screen orientation
Vista and Windows 7 users: if you want to continue reading whilst charging
from your computer's USB port, using the 'Safely remove hardware' on the
computer's task bar is not sufficient. You need to eject the Kindle by
selecting Computer from the Start menu; find the Kindle drive, right-click
on it and select the 'Eject' option.
Adding Books to Collections
To create a Collection: From the HOME screen, press MENU and select 'Create
New Collection'.
Your Kindle must be registered and must connect to Amazon's servers at least
once in order for Collections to become available. If your device is
registered but you have not yet connected to Amazon's servers, then: When
you press MENU from the Home screen, the option to 'Create New Collection'
will be greyed out
When you go to the Settings screen, you will have only 1 page of settings
If you do not have wi-fi or 3G at home, you can go to somewhere that
provides free wi-fi (eg Starbucks, McDonalds), connect to their wi-fi, and
do a 'Sync & Check for Items'
To add multiple books to a collection (or to remove multiple books): On the
Home screen use the 5-way to move to the collection
Move the 5-way to the right to display the collection's detail page and
click on 'Add/remove items'
Use the 5-way to move up and down the list of all your books, clicking on
each book you want in the collection
If you have just purchased books and are now adding them, it's easier to
find them if you move to the top line, move the 5-way right, and change the
sort order to 'Most Recent First' v1.16
A check-mark appears next to books in the current collection; click again to
remove a book from the collection
Use Next Page and Previous Page if you have multiple pages of books
When you are in the list of books, pressing MENU gives the option of adding
all items on the current page of the list
There is no need to click 'Done' when you are finished. Your selections are
saved immediately, so you can just go BACK or press HOME.
To add a book to (or remove a book from) one or more collections: On the
Home screen use the 5-way to move to the book title
Move the 5-way to the right to display the book's detail page and click on
'Add to collection ...'
Use the 5-way to move up and down the list of collections, clicking on each
collection you want the book to be in
A check-mark appears next to each collection in which the book will be
listed; click again to remove it from that collection
Use Next Page and Previous Page if you have multiple pages of collections
There is no need to click 'Done' when you are finished. Your selections are
saved immediately, so you can just go BACK or press HOME.
Books added to collections will still be listed on the Home screen unless
you change your sort order to 'By Collections'.
When setting up collections, it is a good idea to have wireless on and and
to periodically do a 'Sync & Check for Items' from the Home or Settings
menu. This saves your collections on Amazon's servers for later importing to
another Kindle.
If you have created collections but they have now disappeared from the
Kindle: v1.15 First turn on wireless and try a reset
(HOME->MENU->Settings->MENU->Restart).
If that doesn't work, go back to the Settings screen, deregister the Kindle
and then re-register it.
It is not currently possible to create sub-collections. However, each book
can be in as many collections as you like (for example, a book could be in a
genre collection, an author collection, and a to-be-read collection). v1.15
Sorting Collections
When in Collections sort order, the collections will display in sequence of
most recently accessed, followed by subscriptions, books not in any
collection and Archived Items.
When in Title sort order, the collections display along with all your
individual books, in Title sequence.
You can control the Title sort order by using collection names that start
with a symbol that sorts before the alpha characters in book titles. My
collections are: (Reading: current)
(Reading: fiction)
(Reading: non-fiction)
[Genre 1]
[Genre 2]
[Genre 3] etc
{Author 1}
{Author 2} etc
On the Home screen, use the 5-way to move to the top line, move right, and
change sort order to 'Title'.
When in Title sort order, my collections display first in the order shown,
followed by all the individual books.
I created collections with names in the form 'x mmm', where 'x' represents
one of the symbols available via the Sym key. I then sorted by Title and
they sorted in this sequence: " ? } ; , . ' / ] \ " " ¡ ¿ ! @ # % & * ) - _
: ` ^ ~ ( [ { $ € £ + < = > | 0 1 2 b B c C a A (because the sort algorithm
ignores leading words like 'a' and 'the')
For all these collections, I then renamed them, removing the space after the
symbol so all names were in the form 'xmmm'. I resorted by Title and came up
with an entirely different sort order: _ , ; : ! ¡ ? ¿ / . ` ^ ~ ' " " " ( )
[ ] { } @ $ € £ * \ & # % + < = > | 0 1 2 a A b B c C
This testing was done with Ver 3.0.3 firmware. After upgrading to Ver 3.1,
there have been report that some prefixes (such as . (period) and @) do not
sort correctly. Personally, I: Stick to various braces and the underscore
Do not put a space after the symbol (the title sort algorithm attempts to
remove non-significant 'words' from the beginning)
Other naming options include using different or multiple starting symbols,
starting collection names with AAA or numbers etc. It has been reported that
starting collection names with a period causes problems and that if you
start with an asterisk, you should put a space after the asterisk.
To change the name of a collection, move the cursor to the collection, move
right using the 5-way, and select 'Rename Collection'.
To see just your collections (plus subscriptions and books not yet in a
collection), on the Home screen, use the 5-way to move to the top line, move
right, and change sort order to 'Collections'.
You can also change the order in which books are displayed inside your
collections. Open a collection, use the 5-way to move to the top line, move
right, and choose the desired sort order.
If you use calibre to manage your books, it has an excellent plug-in for
managing and creating collections on you Kindle. v1.16
Photo Albums
Make sure your pictures are not too big - 600 x 800 is recommended.
Converting them to greyscale will also reduce the file size.
Connect your Kindle via USB
Method 1 Create a folder called 'pictures' in the root directory of the
Kindle; it should be on the same level as the 'documents' folder and you
must use the name 'pictures'
Open the 'pictures' folder and, inside it, create a new folder with the name
you want your album to have (eg 'Family') You can create multiple albums by
creating multiple folders inside the 'pictures' folder
Copy your JPG, GIF and/or PNG pictures to the album folder
The biggest drawback of this method is that the only way to delete the album
is to connect via USB and manually delete the subdirectory. Deleting the
album using the Kindle appears to work, but the subdirectory and pictures
are still there; the next time the home screen listing is refreshed, the
album will reappear. v1.15
Method 2 Package your pictures into a zip file, naming the file with the
name you want to give your album (eg 'Family.zip')
Copy the zip file into your Kindle's 'documents' directory
This method has the advantage that, when you use the Kindle to the delete
the album, the zip file is actually deleted.
Safely eject the Kindle when the copying has finished
Go to the Kindle Home screen and press ALT+Z to refresh the listing
Your album will appear as a new 'book' which has one page for each picture
When in an album, the MENU and Aa buttons have picture-specific options If
you are viewing pictures larger than the screen, the menu option to anchor
at the Top Right is useful for manga, which usually follows the Japanese
right-to-left convention
If you 'Enable Pan to Next Page', the 5-way up and down will also go to the
next picture
The Kindle remembers you Menu options, but ignores them next time you open
an album; you have to turn the option off and then on again for it to be
active
I have found the following shortcuts tend to be rather intermittent. They
may function better after a restart of the Kindle. I get the feeling that
using ALT+Q to nudge disables using Q to zoom. q : zoom in
w : zoom out
e : reset zoom
r : rotate
f : toggle full screen mode
c : toggle Actual Size setting
Panning when the picture is larger than the screen: 5-way directional
buttons
Numbers nudge right - the picture moves left (eg ALT+Q to nudge, ALT+W to
nudge a little more)
When in full screen mode, you have to repeat the number (ALT+QQ), as the
first press brings up a scale
Repeating numbers eventually takes you to the next picture
Archives and Deleting Books Forever
Background: When you look at 'Archives' on your Kindle, you will see a list
of books purchased from Amazon that are not on your Kindle.
Amazon books on your Kindle + Books listed in archives = all books purchased
from Amazon.
If you remove an Amazon book from your Kindle, the number of books on your
Kindle decreases by one, and the number of books listed in your archives
increases by one.
All books purchased from Amazon are stored on the Amazon servers and can be
downloaded to any Kindle (or Kindle app) registered to that account.
'Archives' contains links to Amazon-purchased books, enabling you to
download a book by selecting it from the archive list (as long as you have a
Whispernet connection).
For personal documents (including books purchased from sources other than
Amazon): v1.16 If you transferred them to you Kindle via USB, they are not
stored on the Amazon servers and you must keep your own backup copy.
Documents emailed to your Kindle via the Personal Documents Service are now
stored on the Amazon servers (5 Gb is provided free by Amazon for personal
document storage). You can turn off archiving of personal documents in the
Personal Documents Settings section of Manage Your Kindle.
Personal documents can only be seen in and downloaded from your K3's
archives if you have the Version 3.3 update.
Archived personal documents are not viewable/downloadable in the archives of
Kindle devices released prior to the K3. However, Archived personal
documents can be sent to these older devices from the Manage Your Kindle
page.
I have "Whispernet Delivery Over 3G (Fees Apply)" disabled in the Personal
Documents Settings section. Nevertheless, when I sent an archived personal
document to my K2 (on 14 October 2011 US time), it was delivered to the K2
via 3G. I am very surprised that documents are being sent to 3G only devices
when delivery over 3G is not enabled. This behaviour may change.
Whispersync of bookmarks, annotations, and your last page read is available
for archived personal documents that are in Kindle format (this does not
apply to unconverted pdfs, nor to documents transferred via USB).
To see the books that are in your archives: HOME->MENU->View Archived Items
v1.15 This is a list only; the books are not taking up space on your Kindle.
'Archived Items' also appears as a clickable item on the Home screen, but
may be difficult to find if you have a lot of items.
Removing books from the Kindle To remove a book from your Kindle, use the
5-way to move to the book title and then move the 5-way to the right to
display the book's detail page. You can also move the 5-way to the left, but
it's very easy to accidentally delete a collection when you do that.
Select the option "Remove from Device". If the option is "Delete This
Document" rather than "Remove from Device", the book was not purchased from
Amazon; if you delete it, there will not be a backup copy on Amazon's
servers.
Occasionally, a book gets "stuck" and cannot be removed; instead, it remains
greyed out on the Kindle even after you remove it. If this happens, connect
the Kindle to you computer via USB and manually delete the book's .azw (or
.azw1 or .tpz) file and its matching .mbp (or .tan) file.
Deleting books forever To permanently delete a book from the Amazon archive,
you need to go to yourpage on the Amazon web site
Locate the book in 'Your Kindle Library' v1.16
From the 'Actions' button on the right, choose "Delete from library"
Warning: this is a permanent delete. If you want to read the book again, you
will have to re-purchase it from Amazon.
If a book has been removed from your Kindle and does not appear in 'Your
Kindle Library', but still appears in your archive list on the Kindle, you
have probably moved the book to trash in Your Media Library. To check: Go to
Your Account on the Amazon web site
In 'Digital Content', click on the link to 'Your Collection'
Once in Your Collection, click on the drop-down "view" box and select
'Trash' v1.16
Take the book out of Trash
Go back to Manage Your Kindle; the book should now appear in Your Kindle
Library and can be deleted.
Web Browsing
If you know the address, you can get to a web page directly from the Home
screen: Press HOME to make sure you are on the home screen
Type in the address - the search box will open when you start typing use Sym
to select a "/" and numbers
there is no need to type 'http://' in front - eg just type
bit.ly/k3shortcuts
Use the 5-way to move to the right until 'Go To' is highlighted
Press the 5-way; if wireless is not on, it will ask if you want to turn it
on now
You can get to Google or Wikipedia from any search box by typing in your
search term and then using the 5-way to move to the right until 'Google' or
'Wikipedia' is highlighted, and then pressing the 5-way.
I don't know of any shortcut for opening the web browser. One option is to
create a 'book' which contains link(s) to one or more favourite sites. The
book can then be opened and you can click on a link without having to go to
the Experimental screen to open the browser: Create and save an html file
containing link(s) to your favourite sites (Word can be used to save a file
as html)
To make the html file readable on the Kindle you can do one of the
following: Use Amazon's document conversion service: send an email to
yourname@xxxxxxxxxx or yourname@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the html file as an
attachment
Use a program such as calibre to convert the html file to mobi
Rename the file to have a .txt extension (eg rename Bookmarks.html to
Bookmarks.txt), connect your Kindle to your computer via USB, and copy the
.txt file to the Kindle's 'documents' directory
When in the web browser, MENU and Aa have browser-specific options.
MENU->Article Mode is great for pages that have columns to the left and
right, though it's not so great for home pages
MENU->Zoom In is also useful for improving readability; use the 5-way to pan
Readability can also be improved by using Aa to change to landscape mode
When you are zoomed in (the entire web page does not fit on the screen and
there is a progress bar along the bottom) you can: Use ALT+H and ALT+J to
nudge left and right
Use the Next Page and Previous Page buttons to move up or down within the
web page
Use the 5-way arrows to move left, right, up and down within the web page
SHIFT+the 5-way arrows to pan without waiting for the cursor
When the cursor is in the browser's address field, ALT+DEL will delete the
field
When in Google Reader, you can use full screen mode and some other keyboard
commands [Wired's Gadget Lab article} In the Kindle browser, log into your
Google Reader account
Navigate to your feed list and select a feed
Once in the articles, use the Google reader keyboard command 'f' to turn on
full screen mode
Use the Aa button to increase the text size if desired
Use the Kindle's next and previous page buttons to scroll through the
articles, or use keyboard commands such a 'n' and 'p (or 'j' and 'k')' to go
to the next/previous item, and 'shift+u' to toggle the navigation menu and
the list of feeds [Google Reader's keyboard shortcuts]
Works best for feeds which show complete articles, as the Kindle browser
will not open articles in a separate window
In Facebook, most keyboard shortcuts seem to be Alt+number combinations,
which are not possible on the K3 keyboard. However: ALT+M displays the 'new
message' box when in Facebook
Kindle Calculations
The search window can be used as a simple calculator. Steven Ehrbar has
kindly provided most of these details: Standard operators are +
(addition), – (subtraction), * (multiplication), / (division), % (modulus),
and ^ (exponentiation).
Parentheses () work for grouping, {} and [] do not.
You can assign values to variables with =; for example, test=9.
The results of the last operation are stored in the variable _ (underscore).
Assign _ to a variable before using it in further calculations. I have found
that using _ directly results in the calculation being done twice. For
example, if you enter 5*2, then _ is 10. Entering _*2 results in 40, not 20.
However, if you enter y=_, you get a result of y = _ = 10. y*2 then
correctly results in 20.
The values of pi and e are stored in pi and e, respectively.
Functions, which work on a value or expression in the parentheses, are: Trig
functions: acos(), asin(), atan(), cos(), cosh(), sin(), sinh(), tan(),
tanh() Arguments for trig functions must be in radians
radians = degrees * (pi/180)
You can assign pi/180 to a variable (eg k=pi/180)
To find the tan of 10°, you can then type tan(10*k)
Other functions: abs() [absolute value], exp() [e to the power of], ln()
[natural logarithm], log() [base 10 logarithm], sqrt() [square root].
Kindle 3 FAQs and Hacks
FAQs: I have covered some FAQs in earlier sections. The list below is the
beginnings of a highly selective miscellany. Does the Kindle have a
backlight? No. The Kindle has an e-ink screen which, unlike an LCD screen,
is not backlit. E-ink emulates a 'real' book and you will need a lamp or
booklight to read in the dark. However, e-ink screens can be read in direct
sunlight, are considered by 'many' to be more restful for the eyes, and give
very long battery life.
Can I read library books on a Kindle? If you live in the US, the short
answer is 'yes, if your library uses Overdrive'. In other parts of the
world, the short answer is 'no'. See Public Library Books for Kindle for
details. v1.16
I have already bought the hardback/paperback edition of a book. Can I get
the Kindle version at a discount or for free? No.
My Kindle is frozen/I can't get rid of something on my screen/my Kindle is
behaving strangely. What do I do? The first step when your Kindle misbehaves
is always to try a restart: If the keys are still working:
HOME->MENU->Settings->MENU->Restart
If the keyboard is locked up: slide and hold the power switch for 30
seconds. Then wait for the Kindle to restart.
If your K3 often reboots and locks up and it's in a non-lighted cover which
uses the hinge system, try removing the Kindle from the cover. Non-lighted
covers which use the hinges may cause problems.
If all else fails, use the 'Contact Us' button at Kindle Support to get
help.
Why isn't [insert book title here] available for the Kindle/in my region? In
general, you can assume that Amazon would sell the book if it could. There
are several possible reasons a book may not be available; for example: The
author won't allow the book to be published as an e-book (JK Rowling, Harper
Lee, Ray Bradbury)
The e-books rights have not yet been negotiated with the author (or the
author's estate)
The publisher that holds rights for your region has not yet digitised the
book and made it available
The publisher does not have a publication agreement with Amazon
How do I get back to the beginning of a book? With the book open, press MENU
and select 'Go to...' To ensure you are right at the beginning, select
'cover'. At the bottom of your Manage Your Kindle page on the Amazon web
site is an option to "Manage synchronization between devices". If you have
this turned on, the Kindle will continue to ask if you want to synch to the
furthest page read. To reset this to the beginning of the book, you must
call Kindle Support. v1.15
I have added books to my collections, but the books still appear on the home
page. How do I get rid of them? From the Home screen, use the 5-way to move
to the top of the screen. Move the 5-way to the right to display the sort
options. Move to 'Collections' and click. This changes the sort order to 'By
Collections'. See Sorting Collections.
I created my collections, but now they have disappeared. How do I get them
back? First turn on wireless and try a reset
(HOME->MENU->Settings->MENU->Restart). If that doesn't work, go back to the
Settings screen, deregister the Kindle and then re-register it.
I have a brand new ebook and already it has highlights. How do I get rid of
them? These are 'Popular Highlights'. They show passages highlighted by
other Kindle users. To turn them off, go to the settings screen
(HOME->MENU->Settings) and click on 'turn off' next to the Popular
Highlights option. v1.15 Note that the Settings screen does not show the
current setting for an option; instead, it describes an action to be
performed.
How do I update to the latest firmware version? You can leave wireless
turned on and wait for an update to be pushed to your Kindle. However that
may take weeks. To update manually, go to Kindle Software Updates and follow
the instructions.
I have firmware version 3.1 but can't see any page numbers. What do I do?
Page numbers are only displayed when you press MENU while reading the book,
and they are only available for books purchased from Amazon (and pdfs which
have page numbers as part of the layout). For non-Amazon books and Amazon
books without page numbers, there is an APNX Generator plug-in for calibre
which will generate an apnx file, which is the file required for the Kindle
to display page numbers; these generated page numbers are an estimate and do
not bear any relationship to a printed edition. v1.15 For Amazon purchases
with page numbers available: Front matter (Title page, copyright information
etc) generally does not have page numbers. Use MENU-> Go to... to check if
the option to go to a Page is available.
Check that the book you are reading has page numbers available by going to
the Amazon product page (on the Kindle, you can use the 5-way to highlight
the book, move right, and select 'Book description'). Look in 'Product
Details' to see if it contains the line: Page Numbers Source ISBN:
xxxxxxxxxx
That line contains the ISBN of the print edition with page numbers that
match the page numbers in the Kindle edition. v1.15
If page numbers are available, turn on wireless and wait (im)patiently. Page
number information is stored in a separate file that has to be downloaded,
so wireless must be turned on to get that file.
You could try HOME->MENU->Sync & Check for Items, though I'm not convinced
it makes a lot of difference. Downloading information for existing books
seems to be somewhat erratic, at least in these first few days after the
release of the 'early preview' of Ver 3.1.
Make sure your Kindle is registered to the same account you used to purchase
the book, in case that is relevant.
I don't have a wireless connection. Is there any way I can get page numbers
to display on my Kindle? At the moment, using 'Transfer via Computer' to
load books does not also download the apnx file required for page numbers.
However, the apnx file is not device-specific. If you have a Kindle app
which supports page numbers, you can copy the book's.apnx file from the app
to your Kindle via USB. v1.15 The apnx file must have exactly the same name
as the book file on your Kindle (except for the apnx extension), and must be
in the same directory as the book file..
What are those numbers at the bottom of the screen when I am reading? Prior
to the Ver 3.1 firmware update, the Kindle did not use conventional page
numbers and used locations instead. It is said that a location represents
128 bytes or one image. From Ver 3.1 on: Only the percentage read displays
when reading.
To see your current location and page number (if available), press MENU.
While the menu is active, above the progess bar you will see: Page x of y •
Location a of b
If a book has page numbers available, those page numbers are tied to the
ISBN of a particular print edition of the book. The 'Product Details'
section for the book at the Amazon store will contain a line like: Page
Numbers Source ISBN: 0349122393
The page number information, if available, will be downloaded wirelessly and
stored on the Kindle in a .apnx file (including books you bought prior to
page numbers being made available).
Prior to Ver 3.1: The number on the left shows how far you are though the
book as a percentage.
The locations currently on screen are displayed in the middle. This will
vary according to font size and margin settings. A smaller font displays
more locations.
The number on the right is the total number of locations in the book. As a
*very* rough guide, dividing that number by 20 may give a crude indication
of the number of pages.
For all versions, the progress bar gives a visual indication of how far you
are through the book: The small inverted triangle shows your starting
location for the current reading session.
If there are small black dots on the progress bar, these indicate chapter or
section markers. You can use the 5-way's left and right arrows to move back
and forth between chapters/sections.
If you add highlight, notes or bookmarks, these are also indicated by small
dots on the progress bar. You cannot use the 5-way to move between these
markers.
Can I change/remove the screensaver pictures? No, not unless you hack your
Kindle. See the hacks section below.
Is there a way to turn pages automatically? If text-to-speech is turned on,
the pages turn as they are read. So you can try turning on TTS (if it's
enabled for your book) and turning the volume all the way down. Use the Aa
key to adjust the reading speed and the space bar to pause/restart.
Other sources on the web: Amazon Kindle 3 Support
User's Guide
Unofficial Kindle Users' FAQ
Amazon Kindle discussion forum
Hacks and work-arounds : this list is presented only for the more
adventurous and mostly contains links to instructions. Use them at your own
risk. I have not personally tried these and cannot offer advice or
assistance. Sleep (screensaver) mode: The Kindle normally goes into sleep
mode after 10 minutes of inactivity, or when you slide the power switch
briefly.
In sleep mode a 'screensaver' is displayed and all keys are disabled. This
can be inconvenient if you are trying to follow a recipe on your Kindle.
Disable sleep mode: This is not a 'hack'; it simply uses built-in, but not
publicly documented, commands.
For each of these commands, from the HOME screen press DEL to bring up the
search box. Then press SYM so you can type the first character.
Type ;debugOn and press ENTER. Nothing appears to happen.
Type ~disableScreensaver and press ENTER.
This not only disables the automatic sleep mode, but also disables manually
putting the Kindle to sleep using the power slider.
Re-enable sleep mode
To re-enable sleepmode, type ~resumeScreensaver.
To see other commands available in debug mode, type ~help.
To turn off debug mode, type ;debugOff.
Enable the hidden text justification menu: Enables you to toggle between
full and left justification from the Aa menu (as long as the book isn't
formatted to force justification).
Restore the text justification menu toggle without a hack
I tried this after updating to Ver 3.1 firmware and it is working, though I
have quite a few books that seem to be formatted to force full
justification.
If you use calibre to manage your books, the plug-in for managing and
creating collections also allows you to modify your Kindle settings,
including horizontal margin, justification, and fonts. v1.16
Change the 'screensaver' pictures: This does involve jailbreaking your
Kindle and installing a hack. I believe this will not invalidate your
warranty, but may violate your Terms of Service agreement with Amazon.
Kindle Screen Saver Hack for all 2.x and 3.x Kindles and Fonts &
ScreenSavers Hacks for Kindles
The screen saver hack does not currently work on the "Kindle with Special
Offers", which uses the screen savers for advertising. On the mobilereads
forum, NiLuJe says, "Besides, circumventing this on these specific devices
isn't something I'm particularly inclined to do, for obvious reasons..."
v1.15
Install new fonts: Unlike earlier Kindles, the K3 does have some font
options (press Aa to see the available typefaces) and the new Pearl e-ink
screen is a vast improvement on earlier screens.
Kindle Font Hack for all 2.x and 3.x Kindles and Fonts & ScreenSavers Hacks
for Kindles
Duokan is an alternative OS developed for the Kindle: Duokan FAQ
There are other hacks but if you can't find them yourself you definitely
shouldn't be using them ;)
Book File Formats
AZW: This is the format of most books purchased from Amazon; it is a
modified version of the .mobi format and can be read only by the Kindle and
Kindle apps. Most, but not all, books purchased from Amazon have Digital
Rights Management (DRM) which prevents copying from one device to another.
DRM'd books must be downloaded separately for each device.
Samples are usually DRM-free.
Associated files include: Bookmarks, notes etc are saved in an .mbp file.
Popular highlights, if you have them turned on, are saved in a .phl file
Page number information is (if available) is downloaded wirelessly and
stored in a .apnx file (Ver 3.1 update)
The 'Customers who bought this book also bought' and 'More by this author'
information that can now be displayed after the last page of a book is also
downloaded wirelessly and stored in a .ea file (Ver 3.1 update)
TPZ/AZW1: "The dreaded Topaz format" is an Amazon format which can contain
embedded fonts and other rendering controls. Files in this format have an
.azw1 extension when they are delivered via Whispernet or a .tpz extension
when they are delivered via file download.
It is likely all books in this format have DRM.
If the product details for a book show the number of pages but no file size,
it is likely it is in Topaz format.
Associated files include: Bookmarks, notes etc are saved in a .tan file.
Popular highlights, if you have them turned on, are saved in a .phl file
Fortunately, relatively few books purchased from Amazon come in this format,
which often behaves badly. For example, your last-read position may not be
remembered when the Kindle goes to sleep. It often helps to press HOME when
you are finished reading, rather than leaving the book open.
Unprotected MOBI/PRC: The Mobipocket format is based on XHTML. Either the
.mobi or .prc file extension can be used; the .prc extension arose because
PalmOS does not recognise files with a .mobi extension.
The Kindle does NOT support protected .mobi files. Even though Mobipocket is
now owned by Amazon, protected mobi files have DRM which the Kindle does not
handle.
Free books formatted for the Kindle from the catalogues of sites such as
Feedbooks, MobileRead, and Gutenberg will come in unprotected mobi or prc
format.
TXT: Plain text files are small and can be read on almost any device, but
lack formatting.
Non-ADE PDF: PDFs are often used where layout is important and may contain
embedded fonts, tables, diagrams etc. PDFs which require ADE (Adobe Digital
Editions) are protected and cannot be read on the Kindle.
You can read password-protected PDFs on your Kindle.
PDFs are often formatted for A4 or letter size pages and do not reflow
(change their line length and page size to suit the screen size).
If layout is not critical in a PDF, it is often better to convert it to an
AZW via Amazon's conversion service (remembering to put Convert in the
subject line of the email) or using a program such as Calibre.
AZW2: 'Active content' such as games have an AZW2 extension.: These files
have DRM and cannot just be copied from one Kindle to another (Active
content is not yet available to users outside the US, so I can't test this)
Conversion from other formats: Other book formats require conversion to
.mobi format before they can be read on the Kindle. Amazon's conversion
service: Unprotected DOC, DOCX (experimental), TXT, RTF, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP,
ZIP (converts the enclosed files), PDF (with Convert in the subject line)
Calibre: Unprotected CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, ODT, PDB, PDF, RB, RTF,
TCR, TXT
Any file which requires the use of ADE (Adobe Digital Editions) is protected
and cannot be converted.
HTML without conversion: If you have a simple HTML/XHTML file, you can read
it on the K3 without conversion: Change the file extension to .txt (eg
rename Book.html to Book.txt) and then copy it via USB to the Kindle's
documents directory.
The Kindle will display the file complete with HTML formatting. HTTP links
to web sites will work, but not links to other files on the Kindle itself.
Nested tables are not supported, even when converted to mobi format; these
may need to be converted to PDF to retain formatting.
Very large tables, even if they are simple, unnested tables, may not render
correctly.
Just the Keyboard Shortcuts
Text-to-Speech
Start/stop Shift+Sym
Stop Back
Pause/restart Spacebar
Voice Guide v1.16
Start/stop Shift+Spacebar
Background Music
Play/stop Alt+Spacebar
Next track Alt+F
General
Numbers 1 to 0 Alt+Q to Alt+P
Minesweeper/Gomoku Alt+Shift+M from home screen
Rescan files Alt+Z from home screen
Redraw the screen Alt+G
Screenshot Alt+Shift+G or Alt+Shift+H
Kindle store Alt+Home
Display serial no/barcode Alt+Shift+.
Reading
Toggle bookmark Alt+B
Bookmark location double-click at desired location
Next/previous chapter 5-way right/left
Settings Screen
Change 3G provider 311 (Alt+EQQ)
Kindle information 411 (Alt+RQQ)
3G Modem information 611 (Alt+YQQ)
Wi-fi Modem information 711 (Alt+UQQ)
Web Browser
Nudge Alt+H, Alt+J
Clear address Alt+Del
Picture Album Viewer
Zoom in/out/reset Q/W/E
Rotate R
Full screen F
Nudge Numbers (Alt+Q to P)
Thanks to the numerous people who have shared their knowledge via forums,
blogs, web sites and comments.
-----Original Message-----
From: Cheryl Homiak
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2017 7:59 AM
To: vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-kindle] diagram of Keyboard Kindle keyboard
Can anybody post a list of the keys on the Keyboard Kindle? Sometimes I need
to enter something with the keyboard and I once made myself a diagram but
can't find it.
Thanks.
--
Cheryl
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
(Psalm 19:14 HCSB)
