Kindle owners do lots of things with their Kindles – some this you may already know how to do, but there may be a lot of you who never thought to do it.  There is a discussion thread going on over at the Amazon site where members are posting some of the random things they do with their Kindles in addition to “just” reading books.  I will be profiling some of these over the next few weeks – after all, part of the title line of this blog is supposed to be about Kindle tips vs. just a feature on free books!

The below is one of the tips from the discussion board:

I have a paper notebook where I’ve written down my favorite recipes and cut-and-pasted (scrapbook style) recipes from magazines into it. Now that I have the Kindle, I’ve typed all these favorite recipes up into a text document, sent it to my kindle with the USB cord, and now I have it with me all the time!

If someone asks me for the recipe for something I brought to a potluck or if I’m going to buy groceries on the way home from work, I have my recipes with me. I can also search this cookbook that I made, so I can instantly jump to whichever recipe I am looking for. 

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips.

Looking for more or a reliable source of free books for your Kindle?  Click here for my “Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them” book (in the Kindle format, of course)

I’ve sent out a couple of posts on where free books are located away from the Amazon website – and a couple of you are probably scratching your heads saying “that’s nice, but how in the world do I get these books to my Kindle?”  Well, here is your quick instruction guide – yes, this is a repeat from last month, but there are quite a few new folks who just opened up their new Kindle 3’s or acquired a gently used Kindle from the upgraders

The following is an excerpt from my book Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them which I just revised, updated, and added to it in July and is available from the Kindle store by clicking here.  Shameless plug, I know – but this part below is free! 

Transferring Books to Your Kindle

If the only way you have added content to your Kindle is via the Amazon website, and assuming you may have missed the section in the Kindle User Guide of other methods to add content to your Kindle (and the user guide is not very helpful), you may not know how to put content (think books) on your Kindle.  It is a fairly simple process, and we will briefly review four ways to put material on your Kindle; this is certainly not meant to be an all-encompassing “how-to” guide.  The four methods are:

1.   Purchase / download it from the Kindle store section of the Amazon website.  I am going to assume you know how to download books from the Kindle store;

2.   Transfer the material from a computer to your Kindle using the USB cord;

3.   Email it to your Kindle with your unique Kindle.com email address; and,

4.   Place the material on an SD memory card and insert the SD memory card into your Kindle (please note the Kindle 1 is the only version of the Kindle to utilize an SD memory card, and later generation Kindles are equipped with enough memory to hold 1,000+ books).  If you have purchased and are using an SD card, I am also going to assume you know how to transfer and manage content to the SD card.

Transfer Using a USB Cord 

To me, this method is the most straight-forward method – plus, it doesn’t cost you a cent to manage your content with the USB cord provided with your Kindle.  If you are familiar with moving things around with a digital camera, an iPod / MP3 player, or a thumb memory drive you will find you are already familiar with transferring content with the USB cord.  If you are reading this and don’t know what the USB cord is, it is the cord you use to recharge the Kindle’s internal battery; it is a separate cord for the Kindle 1.

To transfer content with the USB cord, here are the simple steps in order:

1.   Turn on and boot up your computer if it is not already on.

2.   Turn on your Kindle.

3.   Plug the large end of the USB cord that came with your Kindle into an open USB slot on your computer; if you’re looking at the USB cord and just see something that plugs into an electrical socket (Kindle 2 and later generations), that portion that looks like the end to be plugged into an electrical socket can be pulled apart to reveal the USB portion.   If you are not certain where the USB slot on your computer is, please consult the instructions manual for your computer.

4.  Plug the small end of the USB cord that came with your Kindle into the open USB slot on your Kindle.

If you followed the steps above in order, take a look at your Kindle’s screen – it should be indicating the Kindle is in USB mode, and on my Kindle 2 tells me I am unable to read or connect to the Internet; the specific message is “if you want to use your Kindle and continue charging, please eject your Kindle from your computer.”  That’s exactly what we want it to say – you’re going to be making additions, etc. to your Kindle from your computer screen and not from the Kindle.

Now, let’s go to your computer.  If you are using a Mac, you will use a program called OS Finder; if you are using a Windows-based computer, you will click on “My Computer” or “Windows Explorer.”  The following instructions assume you are using a Windows-based computer, but for those of you with a Mac the process is very similar.  Clicking on My Computer, you will see your hard drives and other locations as well as your Kindle; if your computer automatically opened up the Kindle folder after recognizing it subsequent to plugging in the Kindle to your computer via the USB cord, that’s ok and you can work from there, too.

Books and other written manuscripts are contained in the “Documents” folder of your Kindle.  This is the location you will drag and drop, copy / cut and paste (or whatever process you are most comfortable with) the documents you have downloaded from the specific areas we will review in this book.   After you have transferred or moved the content to your Kindle, you can disconnect your Kindle from your computer and start reading away at your leisure.  The books you just transferred to your Kindle will show up as “new” in your Kindle home page.

One important safety note to protect your Kindle – I would not recommend just pulling the USB cord out of your computer or the Kindle without having your computer to “safely eject hardware” before disconnecting.

If you followed those steps – congratulations!  You are well on your way to reading the books and other content you have downloaded: go check out the home page of your Kindle and you should see “New” listed next to each item you just transferred.

Email to Your Unique Kindle.com Email Address

You may already know, or maybe you don’t, each registered Kindle owner has their own unique youname@kindle.com email address, where you and others that you grant permission to beforehand can email material directly to your Kindle.  This could come in handy for sending Word documents, etc. from work for the “gotta read it” on the plane, but you can also use it as a method to transfer books to your Kindle. 

One word of caution, however – as of this writing Amazon will charge the Kindle account holder fifteen cents per document emailed, up from ten cents a year ago (can you say 50% rate increase in the middle of a recession?).  While fifteen cents may not seem like much, those fifteens can add up over time!

If you do not know your unique kindle.com email address, it’s easy to find out: log into you Amazon.com account, and click on the “Manage your Kindle” link located at the top of the page.  Underneath the “Your Kindle(s)” section will list each of the Kindles registered to your account as well as the unique kindle.com email address to send material to each particular Kindle.

I mentioned earlier you can have others you grant permission in advance to send material to your Kindle; if you scroll down on the same page that lists out your Kindle email addresses, you will also see the pre-authorized email addresses allowed.  I would exercise caution with who you put on there, or the next thing you know your spouse or significant other will use that as a tool to send you reminders of chores to do, errands to run, or other emails all at fifteen cents a pop!

Types of File Extensions

There are many different file formats for eBooks.  Many are supported by the Kindle software, while others are not.  While I am certain you can write an entire book on the advantages and disadvantages of each file format (and there probably is such a book available for sale out there), for purposes of this guide I am going to focus on what I believe are the four most compatible file formats for your Kindle:

• Text files
• Amazon extension files
• Mobipocket files
• PDF files

Text Files

Amazon is making changes to its Kindle operating software periodically, and the types of files available to be read by your Kindle could be enhanced beyond what I am listing here: that means you possibly could have an even greater free library ahead of you than what I will show you in this Guide.  Let’s talk about the types and file extensions you will see in selecting the best format for your Kindle.

Text files are probably the most abundant free eBook files out there, although many web sites are converting their text documents into Kindle-ready and other formats.  Text files are easily identifiable as having a *.txt extension, where the “*” represents the file name and the “txt” portion says it is in text format.  You can not only read these on your Kindle, but you can read them on your computer with, for example, Notepad, Microsoft Word, or any other word processing program out there.  My experience has also shown that most *.txt files, while great at containing the underlying data, are not so good as being 100% compatible for your Kindle.  For example, I have found the formatting is a little off, as line and even page breaks will show up in the strangest places.

Amazon Extension Files

Amazon’s proprietary format uses the *.kzw format.  I haven’t found too many free books with the *.kzw format, although they are out there, unless I have downloaded it directly from the Amazon website – then it is usually copy-protected and I couldn’t, for example, email a file I had downloaded to my sister for her to also enjoy on a Kindle.

Mobipocket Files

The Mobipocket format (*.mobi) (“Mobi”) is becoming more and more prevalent as sites that have previously offered, for example, their content only in *.txt format have converted to the Mobi format.  Mobi is a subsidiary of Amazon, and they offer a conversion tool for authors and others to convert documents to an eBook reader format.  Tthey also have some of the most unhelpful instructions for the layperson to convert files, but that is a subject for another day.  Books and other documents in the Mobi format are typically ready to go without formatting issues, can either be copy-protected or not, and read like any other eBook you purchase from the Amazon website.

PDF Files

You can also read PDF files on your Kindle, but unless you have a Kindle DX I wouldn’t recommend it.  My experience with the Kindle 3, Kindle 2, and the original Kindle, PDF’s usually come out looking very strange or the page is significantly compressed and is unable to be enlarged.  The Kindle DX, however, has a much larger screen so PDF files should be good to go.  My standard caveat is actual results may vary – and some PDF’s show up just fine on my Kindle 2 and Kindle 3, but the price is right (e.g., free) so what do you have to lose?   

How to Download Books to Your Computer

As I mentioned earlier, I thought it important I explain just a few of the ways to transfer materials to your Kindle as well as provide a brief discussion of the various formats of this free material.  We need to cover one more thing – how to download the free books – and then you will be ready to hunt away for free content.  The listing of known sites for free books are numerous, but if you don’t know how to download the material it’s pretty much useless information to you.  For the majority of the sites, for each book listed they will typically have a bold underline or the entire text is in a different font, color, or both for the title.  Like anything else with computers, there are probably 1,001 ways to do things, but here is the way that works best for me (your results may vary): 

• Using your mouse, right click on the file you want to save / download.
• In Windows, several options come up, but select the one called “Save As” or “Save,” depending upon which version of Windows you have installed on your computer.
• Save this book into the “My eBooks” file folder in My Documents or, if you don’t have a file folder called “My eBooks” create one.  You can create one with the “Make New Folder” option.
• Your book should download to the My eBooks folder.
• Transfer the book to your Kindle using one of the methods previously described in this guide.

That’s it, and I hope that helps!

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips.

Looking for more or a reliable source of free books for your Kindle?  Click here for my “Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them” book (in the Kindle format, of course)