I have always been a big fan of E-ink Technology. When I first came across the notion of low-power paper-like displays in its early days, it was obvious for me that the next generation of ebook readers would be coming to the market soon.
Since then, I have used more than a dozen ebook readers in different brands and models, starting with my first Kindle in 2008. It is unquestionable for me that Amazon makes the best ebook readers you can buy. Depending on your needs and budget, you might choose the entry-level Kindle, the mid-range Paperwhite, or the high-end Kindle Oasis. No matter your choice, every one of these ebook readers is excellent.
The Kindle is fairly simple to use, but it does take some learning to unlock all its secrets. In this tutorial, I’ll skip the basics and show you some power features that’ll ignite your learning from books.
Here are the topics that I covered in this article:
Privacy and utility tips to get started
Privacy
One thing I’ve been taking more seriously across all my apps and devices are privacy and one thing about the Kindle that I learned is they’re actually tracking every single thing you do on the the device. There’s actually a setting you can turn off tracking.
All Settings > Device Options > Advanced Options > Privacy > Disable
Removing ads and special offers
If you choose to save money on your Kindle’s purchase price by accepting the “With Special Offers” discount you may get tired of the ads at some point. I personally don’t like such of distractions in my productive zone, but the real annoyance is that every time you want to unlock your device, you also have to swipe after pressing the power button.
But no worries, you can actually remove ads from your Kindle’s Lock Screen without paying anything. Here’s the simplest and most painless way to do this:
Start a chat with Amazon Customer Service Bot
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us
All you gotta do is select anything on the kindle device list (I selected Amazon Unlimited) and ask if they can remove the ads. Took about 30 seconds for them to do it.
Turning off all the recommendations
One of the first settings I changed on my Kindle when I got it was turning off all the recommendations that make a mess on my home screen and they don’t make it easy to do this. It’s actually buried really deep in the settings here’s how you do it:
All Settings > Device Options > Advanced Options > Home & Library > Home Screen View > Disable
Showing clock
I don’t know about you but sometimes when i’m reading on my Kindle I completely lose track of time and the default feature on the Kindle is the clock is not going to be showing while you’re reading the book.
You can actually have the clock come up while you’re reading and always be there again just like a phone or iPad the clock on the top. Here’s how you do it:
Open a book > Formatting Options (Aa) > More > Show Clock While Reading > Enable
Okay with these settings we are all set and ready to roll. Let’s reveal the “Big Guns”
Automatically exporting your highlights
We all know one of the most powerful features of Kindle is digital highlights. While you’re reading on Kindle you can easily highlight and take notes with your finger and all your notes are accessible as long as you have the kindle app on your phone or your computer.
However, even with having this feature, there are still some problems. Getting to your notes in the kindle app it’s not as easy as it should be. You have to go through a few menus and the Kindle app is not one of the most intuitive apps out there.
I use Sparkler (my own product) for having quick access to my Kindle highlights with an easy, one-step process.
Sparkler is basically like the Google for your personal knowledge and it helps you capture ideas and find them fast. So, for my Kindle highlights:
- It automatically exports my Kindle highlights along with my notes
- While exporting, it categorizes them by author, book, and other related tags
- I can easily find any highlight with a quick search such as “the alchemist personal legend”.
(It is in private beta right now, feel free to sign-up)
As an alternative, you can also use Readwise. Readwise connects to your Kindle and syncs your highlights into the Readwise app and then the app regularly emails you random highlights from all the books that you’ve read.
Since I am not a big fan of spaced repetition, I couldn’t find much use for myself but it’s definitely worth checking out and it’s good to mention, at any point, you can connect your Readwise account to Sparkler and have all your Readwise highlights on your reach; of course with the rest of your notes and inspirations.
Email PDF’s to your Kindle
One really helpful feature the kindle has is emailing PDFs to your Kindle so you can read them on your e-reader. This is great for things like ebooks that you may have on your computer. You can just email them to your kindle even with changing its format into Kindle’s native format MOBI. Let me show you how to do it:
So, documents can only be sent to your Kindle devices or apps from email accounts that you added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List on you Amazon Settings.
To add an e-mail account:
- Go to Manage Your Kindle. and from Preferences scroll down to Personal Document Settings.
- Under Approved Personal Document E-mail List, add your email address.
To send a document to your Kindle device or app, simply attach it to an e-mail addressed to your Send-to-Kindle email. - Under Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Settings, find and record your Kindle’s email address. This address should end in @kindle.com. This is the address that you will send PDF files to.
- To change this email address select Edit next to your device, enter a new email address, and then select Save to save your changes.
- Now you’re all set to send PDFs to your Kindle. If you want to convert your documents into the Kindle format, type “Convert” in the email subject line.
Sending web articles to read on your Kindle
Since we read a lot of different blogs and articles on our computer, you may have come across a time where you wish you could read these things on your Kindle. Surprisingly it’s really easy to do that.
Amazon has a Chrome extension called Send to Kindle just for this purpose and if you’re not a Chrome user they also have different apps you can download on your computer that send things to your Kindle.
Kindle also has both Pocket and Instapaper integrations, but I don’t think all the articles you have in your read-later app would be something you want to have for your Kindle.
Vocabulary Builder
One of the best things about reading is you can dramatically expand your vocabulary by learning new words and the Kindle makes it super easy to do that. They have a built-in feature called the Vocabulary Builder. To turn it on and the way you do that is:
All Settings > Reading Options > Vocabulary Builder > Enable
Once you have this setting turned on it’ll remember every single time you look up a word in the dictionary by pressing and holding on a word while you’re reading it’ll remember all these words that you’re researching and add them to your Vocabulary Builder.
After using this feature some time and adding a bunch of words to your Vocabulary Builder, you’ll see all the words that you’ve looked up in the past and you can quiz yourself with flashcards.
Word Wise
Word Wise is a one of my favourite feature that helps you to understand complex content better. With Word Wise, you can see simple definitions and synonyms displayed inline above more difficult words while you read. It’s an absolute beast for language learners.
Here is the setting that you need to turn-on:
Open a book > Formating Options (Aa) > More > Word Wise > Enable
Wrapping it up
I tried to cover some powerful features that will make the most of your reading experience but there is still a lot to discover. I am dropping a few that I haven’t mentioned. You might want to check out.
- You can take screenshots with your Kindle
- Xray: A content enhancement feature that allows you to explore the ideas, topics, characters, and places.
- Calibre: A book software that enables easy transfer and format conversion of your books between your computer and e-reader.
- Goodreads integration.
- Loan Your Kindle eBooks to others
- Listen Audiobooks with your Kindle
Got any important ones that I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments.
