How to Operate the Amazon Kindle

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This wikiHow teaches you how to get started with your Amazon Kindle e-reader. Unlike a traditional tablet, the Kindle e-reader is made to look and behave more like a physical book—it even uses a special technology called e-ink that's easier on both your eyes and your battery. Modern Kindles even have touch screens and Wi-Fi capabilities, making it simpler than ever to borrow, purchase, and flip through thousands of e-books. Once you learn your way around your Kindle—be it the standard Kindle, Paperwhite, Oasis, or Voyager—you'll see how convenient and fun e-readers can be!

Part 1 of 5:

Getting Started

An amber light will illuminate near your Kindle's charging port to indicate that the device is charging. You will also see a battery status indicator at the top of the screen that displays your progress.
When the Kindle is fully charged, the light will turn green.

If you have a Kindle Oasis, you'll have a thin oval power button on the top edge toward the right.
Kindle Voyage models have round power buttons on the their back sides.
Most standard Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite models have oval power buttons on their bottom edges, close to their power ports.
The earliest Kindle models have power switches rather than buttons. The 1st generation Kindle's switch is on the back of the device, while the 2nd generation model's switch is at the bottom next to the charging port.

Turn your Kindle on. If your Kindle is charged and the screen is blank, press and hold the power button for about 7 seconds to turn it on. Or, if you're using an early model, slide the switch to the On position.

If you have an Amazon Echo device connected to your home Wi-Fi network and a Wi-Fi password saved to your Amazon account, your Echo will automatically connect your new Kindle to Wi-Fi.

If you've purchased e-books with your Amazon account in the past, they will be synced to your library once your device is registered and online.

Navigate to the home screen. Once your Kindle is registered, you'll be taken to the home screen, where you'll find your library of books, Goodreads reading lists, and book recommendations from Amazon. If your Kindle has a touch screen, as most do nowadays, you can access the home screen at any time by tapping the house icon at the upper-left corner. If your Kindle has a physical home button, press that to go to the home screen.

Adjust the light on your kindle. If your Kindle has a built-in light, you can adjust the light as needed. Just tap the gear icon in the toolbar at the top of your home screen, and then drag the slider or use the plus/minus buttons to change the brightness. [4] X Research source

To turn your Kindle's screen off, press and hold the power button until you see the "Power" menu. Then, select SCREEN OFF.
To turn your Kindle on, just press the power button until the light illuminates.
Even when your screen is off, your Kindle is able to do updates in the background as long as it has access to the internet. To conserve battery power, put your Kindle into airplane mode when you're not using it. [5] X Research source To do this, tap the gear at the top of the home screen and then tap the Airplane Mode icon.
To reboot your Kindle, press and hold the power button until the Power screen appears. Then, tap RESTART.

Advertisement Part 2 of 5:

Purchasing a Book on Your Kindle

Wake up your Kindle. If you're not actively using your Kindle, it will go into sleep mode and display a screensaver. You can always wake your Kindle by pressing and releasing the power button.

If you're currently reading a book and want to access the Home screen, tap the top area of the page to bring up the toolbar, and then tap the house icon.

You can also buy Kindle books when you're browsing Amazon on your computer, phone, or tablet. Just find the e-book you want to buy, make the purchase, and choose the option to send it to your Kindle.
If you have a Kindle-compatible e-book saved to your computer that you didn't get from Amazon, such as one in the EPUB or PDF format, you can also transfer it using a USB cable or email it to your Kindle.

Tap Browse Categories to check out the category list. This is also where you'll find Newsstand, which allows you to download magazines and newspapers to your Kindle.
To see audio books by Audible, tap the Audible link at the upper-right corner of the store.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Store page and tap First Reads to find free books for Prime users.

If your Kindle doesn't have a touch screen, use the directional button below the screen to navigate, and then press the button at the center to make selections.
Some e-books also have audiobook versions that you can purchase at a discount if you are purchasing the audiobook. If your Kindle supports audiobooks (most modern models do), you can download both and use your Kindle to read and listen at your leisure.

If you're not connected to Wi-Fi or have disabled syncing, you won't see the book in your library until you're back online and have synced.
To sync manually, tap the Settings gear in the toolbar, and then tap Sync Your Kindle.
To view your library, tap Home at the top-left corner. Your recently-added titles will appear on the front page. You can see more titles by taping YOUR LIBRARY in the upper-left corner.

Advertisement Part 3 of 5:

Reading a Book

If your Kindle is sleeping and the screensaver is active, press the power button to wake it.
If your Kindle doesn't have a touch screen, press the Home button.

If your Kindle doesn't have a touch screen, use the directional buttons below the screen to navigate, and press the center button to make selections.
If you see the book you want to read on the home screen, you can select it there instead.

If your Kindle is linked to a Goodreads account, you'll be asked if you want to mark the book as "Currently Reading" when you open it for the first time. Use the slider to choose whether you want to do this.

Use the page-turning buttons or tap the side of the screen to turn pages. If your Kindle has page-turning buttons on the right side, you can use those to turn each page. The button at the top goes to the previous page, while the bottom button continues to the next page. If you don't have these buttons, you can turn to the next page by tapping the far-right side of the screen, or go back a page by tapping the far-left side.

Tap and hold one of the words you want to highlight or leave a note on.
After a few seconds, a menu will expand, and sliders will appear on either side of the word.
Drag the sliders to select the entire section you want to highlight or notate.
Tap Highlight on the menu to highlight, or tap Note to type a note for yourself. When you're done typing a note, tap Save.
You can access your notes by tapping the top of the screen, selecting Go To, and tapping the Notes tab.

Tap the top of the page to open the controls.
Tap Go To in the upper-right corner.
Select a chapter or section. Or, to go to a specific page, tap Page or Location and enter the page number.
If you've added any notes to the book, you'll find those on the Notes tab of this section.

Tap the top of the screen to bring up the controls.
Tap the Aa icon at the upper-left corner.
On the Themes tab, you can choose the Standard theme for the default page size and layout, Large for larger text, or select Manage Themes to find more options.
Tap the Font tab to choose a font face, size, and level of boldness for the text.
Tap Layout to change the orientation from portrait to landscape, adjust the alignment, control the amount of spacing between lines, and configure margins.
Tap More for additional options, such as choosing how to display your reading progress (remaining pages, amount of time left in the book, time left in the chapter, or location in the book), whether the clock should be visible, popular highlights by other people who've read the book, and the option to turn on Word Wise, which can show hints above unfamiliar words.
You can also turn off the "popular" highlights that come with the book. Starting at your homepage, press Menu and then go to settings. In settings you'll find popular highlights. Click this to turn them off.
You can also have your device download regular PDF documents either converted to Kindle format or not (so you may read them instead of a book).

Advertisement Part 4 of 5:

Borrowing a Library Book

You can also use the Overdrive app on your Android, iPhone, or iPad to borrow books from your library.
You will need a library card through your public library to borrow books through Overdrive.

Locate your library. To find your library, click Find a Library at the top-right, search for the name of your library, and then click See Digital Collection next to its name in the search results. [6] X Research source

Sign in to your library account. To do so, click Sign in at the top-right corner and enter your library login information. This is the same information you use to sign in to your library's website, which is usually a combination of your library card number and password. If you're not sure about your login information, contact your library.

To restrict your search to display only Kindle-compatible books, click the Ebooks menu on the left side of the page and select Kindle Book.

If the book is available, you'll see a "BORROW" button toward the top. If too many people are currently reading the book, you'll have the option to "PLACE HOLD" instead.
Look for "Kindle Book" under "FORMATS" in the upper-right corner of the page—this means you can read the book on your Kindle.

Place a hold on the book if it's not available by clicking the green PLACE A HOLD button. This displays your hold position in the queue. When it's your turn to read the book, you'll receive an email form Overdrive with instructions for checking it out.

Click BORROW to confirm. Now you'll see some options for downloading the book.

If you're not signed in to your Amazon account, you'll be prompted to sign in now.

You can force your Kindle to sync at any time by tapping the Settings gear in the toolbar at the top and selecting Sync Your Kindle.

When your loan period ends, the book will automatically be deleted from your Kindle and returned to the library. You don't have to return it yourself.

Advertisement Part 5 of 5:

Listening to Audiobooks

Put your speaker or headphones into pairing mode.
Tap Your Library at the top-left corner of the home screen.
Tap the gear icon on the toolbar at the top.
Tap All Settings.
Tap Wi-Fi & Bluetooth.
Toggle the Bluetooth switch to On.
Tap Bluetooth Devices and select your headphones or speaker.

To find audiobooks to buy on your Kindle, tap Store in the toolbar, and then tap AUDIBLE at the upper-right.

Open your Library. You do this this by tapping Home on the toolbar (or pressing your Home button) and tapping YOUR LIBRARY in the upper-left corner.

Tap the audiobook you want to listen to. If your Bluetooth listening device isn't paired, you'll be prompted to pair it now.

Tap the Play button to start listening. It's the sideways triangle at the bottom-center of the screen.

Tap the speaker button to adjust the volume.
Tap Speed to change the playback speed. 1x is the default (normal) speed, but you can make the playback speed faster (choose a higher number) or slower (lower number).
If you want to skip forward 30 seconds, tap the 30 on the bottom-right. To go back 30 seconds, tap the 30 at the bottom-left.
Tap Chapters to view chapters in the book and skip to particular one.
Tap the Reading icon at the bottom-right to switch to the e-book version (if you have it).
Tap the bookmark icon to add a bookmark at a particular location. You can view and return to your bookmarks by tapping the three horizontal dots at the top-right corner of the screen.

Community Q&A

What headphones work on a Kindle? Community Answer You can use any headphones that are compatible with a 3.5 mm head phone jack.

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Can I read books downloaded to a Kindle if I'm in a location without WiFi? Community Answer Yes. You only need to be on WiFi to access books that have not been downloaded to your device.

How do I delete a book that I have already read? Community Answer

Go to where the book is located on your Kindle, then tap and hold it. A little box should pop up showing a delete option.

Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Advertisement You can bookmark your furthest read page.

If, when plugging your Kindle into a power source, you see a large battery icon with an exclamation point or a totally blank screen, your battery is depleted. Leave your Kindle connected to a reliable source—after about 30 minutes, your Kindle should begin charging.

If your screen is frozen or slow (or won't turn on) try holding down the power button for 20 to 40 seconds. If you see a "Power" window pop up, select Restart to reboot your Kindle. If that window never appears, holding the power button down should eventually reboot your Kindle.

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