Kindle FAQ for newbies (with the main applications of Caliber, a good companion of Kindle)

Thank you for your responses. When writing this FAQ, I am worried that it will be a detailed instruction manual, which will lose the meaning of the FAQ, so I will try to control the word count and not write too detailed steps. For content that requires detailed steps, relevant post links will be given. In short, I hope that friends who have not yet started can build a rough impression after reading it. The first step is to organize the questions that come to mind into it. The second step is to find out the questions that are often asked in the forum and add them. The third step is to adjust the content to make it more concise and add enough links.

Note: This article mainly explains the operation of the original Kindle 3 system. Kindle DX/DXG has a lot of content that you can refer to. The operation of the Duokan system is relatively simple and there is no special explanation. Unless otherwise specified, the content described applies to the official system. This product cannot replace the pinned post, nor can it replace the instructions for use. If you are unclear about related content, you can refer to the manual and official documents. No matter what the forum is, the search function is very helpful.

In October last year, I bought a Kindle 3 Wifi during the National Day and have been using it until now. If you ask me what is the most valuable electronic product I have bought in the past two years, my answer will definitely be the Kindle. Nowadays, I visit forums less and less, because Kindle is not a complicated product. Even if I try all kinds of things that can be done, it will be finished in a few weeks at most.

There are fewer people coming to the forum, but more problems are discovered. For example, some questions frequently asked by novices often appear. A few weeks apart, I can see question posts with almost the same title, and I think I have traveled back in time, but these questions are answered in the pinned posts. For another example, certain software and websites will be introduced every once in a while. I think these problems are related to personal forum usage habits, and are also closely related to the mood of just getting a strange device. So I wrote this FAQ and attached the main application instructions of Caliber software. Experts will naturally laugh it off, but I think it can still help some novices. It will be expanded if necessary.

1. Instructions for getting started

To get the Kindle, the first thing is to find the power button at the bottom, slide it to the right, the green light will turn on, and start the Kindle. Kindle contains instructions for use, it is recommended to browse it to get a basic concept. You can also read the Chinese version of the manual here.

1. How to charge Kindle for the first time?

Like most digital products, there is no special charging method. It usually takes more than two hours to fully charge a Kindle. When you first get it, it can be fully charged before use. When the battery is low, you can charge it. Over-discharge is harmful to the battery. No matter how you are used to charging, if you use it normally, it will not have a significant impact on the battery life during the two or three years you use the Kindle. The bottom indicator light is yellow when charging.

2.What formats does Kindle support? How to obtain books in these formats?

The main formats supported by Kindle are: txt (general support), prc, mobi, azw, pdf. The more widespread e-book format epub is not supported by Kindle. prc, mobi, and azw are all in mobipocket format, where azw is essentially an encrypted mobi format. Most books purchased from Amazon are in azw format (a few other books are tpz), and the formats other than pdf sent through Amazon's push service , will also be converted to azw format. azw cannot be read directly on devices other than your Kindle and needs to be decrypted before it can be used.

Buying directly from Amazon is of course one of the ways to obtain Kindle e-books. For self-made books, you can find mobi or pdf formats in forums. In addition, there are some websites that provide Kindle-usable formats, such as Haodu.

In addition, you have to do it yourself and convert other existing formats to mobi format through caliber. The rich txt and epub formats available on the Internet can be used. If you don't want to install caliber, Amazon provides the official command line conversion tool kindlegen. If you have a format such as epub, you can easily convert it to mobi.

3. How to sleep, shut down and restart Kindle?

Slide the power button to the right, the screen saver will appear, and you will enter sleep mode. Kindle's sleep mode saves power and takes a long time to start up, so it usually doesn't need to be shut down. To wake up the Kindle, slide the power button. After using it for a period of time, the power button may become loose and the slide may need to be slid all the way to take effect. This is normal.

If you need to shut down, slide the power button to the right and hold it for more than five seconds. (It is usually not necessary. If you do not use your Kindle for a long time, you can shut it down after it is fully charged.)

If you need to restart, press the "Menu" key on the home page, enter "Settings", and then press the Menu key. Select "Restart".

4.How to access the Internet on Kindle? What networks are supported?

Press the "Menu" button to display the menu, select the first item "Turn Wireless On", and then make corresponding settings according to the network conditions. Kindle 3 is divided into Wifi and Wifi 3G versions. The earlier Kindle and Kindle DX do not support Wifi.

5.What is the Kindle’s microphone used for?

It is currently useless, just a decoration.

6. Why is my Kindle turning pages slower than before?

Check whether Debug mode is turned off. In addition, under low temperatures, Kindle page turning will become slower.

7. Is Kindle easy to break? What should I do if it breaks?

Unlike LCD screens, e-ink screens are protected by a thick layer of glass. The screen is easily damaged after being pressed, so it usually needs protection such as leather cases and hard cases. But it is not as fragile as imagined, and it will not break if you touch it. Usually the damage is caused by not paying attention, accidentally crushing or breaking it. After using it for a period of time, the tightness of the buttons will change. This is considered a normal phenomenon and does not affect the use.

For domestic users, if their Kindle is broken, they can only contact the merchant to send it back to the United States for repair, or ask friends abroad for help.

8.Does Kindle need a film?

The advantage of using a film is that you are not afraid of scratching the screen. The disadvantage is that the screen will reflect light (matte film is slightly better), which is not as comfortable as a bare screen. If you are not careful when using things, it is recommended to stick a film on it. If you are more careful, it doesn't matter if you don't stick it on.

2. Registration, cracking and upgrading

1. Do I need to register Kindle?

If you need to buy books from Amazon, please register. If you need more setting options, please register. If you need Amazon's push service, please register.

2. What should I do if Kindle displays garbled Chinese characters?

The simplest solution is to change your e-book to UTF encoding, turn on the debug mode in Kindle, and adjust the encoding to a compatible encoding. Don't forget to turn off debug after setting up, otherwise the speed will slow down. If you are planning to jailbreak, you can skip this step. After installing the font cracking package, the Chinese display will be normal.

3.Does Kindle need to be jailbroken?

The main purpose of jailbreaking Kindle is to change fonts and screen savers. Further, you can install some special software, such as Chinese input method.

If you are not satisfied with the Chinese effect of Kindle, or the Kindle cannot display some uncommon Chinese characters, you can change the font. If you want to use your own picture as a screensaver, you also need to jailbreak. Jailbreaking is very safe if you follow the correct steps.

It should be noted that, considering performance issues, the browser font will not change after the reading font is changed, and separate settings are required.

4. What is watching more? Do I need to pretend to read more?

Duokan is a self-made system for Kindle produced by a domestic development team. After installation, it coexists with the original Kindle system and theoretically does not affect each other. Duokan has the following advantages: 1. Supports epub and other formats, and has better support for txt, pdf, etc. 2. Use shortcut keys to achieve faster operations without having to press the direction keys. 3. It has an instant flip function, so you don’t have to black out the screen every time you turn a page of the book. 4. There are some built-in Chinese bookstores and some other designs that are in line with the habits of domestic users. The disadvantages are: 1. Not as stable and power-saving as the official system. 2. The network function can only be used to access the built-in bookstore. There is neither a browser nor a push service. 3G cannot be used. 3. The support for mobi format is not good.

When installing Duokan, the jailbreak operation will also be performed. Compared with simply jailbreaking, installing MultiView is more risky.

5. How to upgrade the official firmware of Kindle?

Kindle firmware is still being improved. Generally speaking, new firmware has upgrade value. Currently, the latest version of Kindle 3 is 3.1. The 3G version of Kindle will automatically push firmware updates, and the Wifi version needs to be downloaded manually. The address is here.

3. Start reading a book

1. Where should the book be placed on the Kindle?

Connect the Kindle to the computer with a USB cable. The Kindle will be connected through the USB disk mode. The Kindle will display the USB connection screen and the Kindle device will appear in the resource manager. Just put the files supported by Kindle, such as mobi, into the Kindle's documents folder.

2. Can’t eject Kindle?

Under Windows 7 system, after clicking "Safely Remove Kindle" in the system tray, the Kindle may still display the USB connection. Although the Kindle uses flash memory and there will be no major damage if it is pulled out directly, there is a possibility of damaging the files. The safe way is this. In the resource manager, right-click the Kindle drive letter and select "Eject". After a few seconds, the Kindle no longer shows the USB connection, so you can unplug the USB cable. If you don't unplug it, the Kindle will remain charged.

3. How to adjust reading options?

Press the "Aa" key in the reading interface to adjust the font, direction, etc.

4. How to excerpt or highlight?

In the reading interface, move the direction keys, press OK at the beginning of the excerpt you want, move to the place you want to end, and press OK again to complete the highlighting. Enter text and it becomes a comment. The marked content will appear on the main page, named "My Clippings", and the file will be in the documents folder under the Kindle root directory, named "my clippings.txt".

5. How to look up the dictionary?

Move the cursor in the reading interface and stop at the word you want to look up. A definition will appear. Press Enter to display the complete definition. If you want to modify the dictionary used, enter Settings, press Menu, and select "Change Primary Dictionary". The dictionary is in special mobi or prc format and can be opened as a book in Kindle. There is an input box for entering word queries.

6. What is Location?

For electronic books that cannot be fixedly typed, page numbers are meaningless, so Amazon uses the Location value to represent the location (mobi/prc/azw format). For the same file, enter the same Location, and jump to the same location. Amazon has added real page numbers in firmware 3.1, which I personally think is only useful for purchased genuine books.

7.What languages ??can Kindle read aloud?

Currently only supports English. Duokan can support Chinese reading aloud.

8. Why does Kindle go dark every time you turn a page? Can it be dark?

A black screen is a normal phenomenon when e-ink refreshes the page. Watch more supports partial refresh, and it will turn dark after turning a few pages.

4. Official services

After registering Kindle, you can use some official services. The relevant settings are in Amazon's account settings, select Digital Contents->Manage Your Kindle.

1. What is the use of the push service of the official system?

The official push service is a way to transfer book files to Kindle via email. This method can play two roles: 1. Convert formats not supported by Kindle to formats supported by Kindle. 2. Deliver books to Kindle via wireless network. Officially purchased books are also delivered to Kindle via wireless network (Wifi 3G version takes priority over Wifi), and you can also choose to download them to your computer and transfer them via USB.

In the Kindle settings page, there is an email address ending with @kindle.com. This address is the address where you submit files. First, you need to add the sender's email address to Amazon's whitelist (your Amazon registered email address is already on it). For example, if the address is hp@kindle.com, then you send the email containing the file to hp@kindle.com or hp@free.kindle.com. The difference between the two is that the former can be collected via 3G network (charged) or wifi, while the latter can be collected via Wifi (Amazon will send you an email to notify you, and the email also contains the download address available for PC. Once downloaded on PC, it will not be delivered to Kindle). For Wifi version Kindle users, there is no need to worry about push charges.

2. What else can the push service be used for?

The main file formats pushed are txt, mobi, prc, and pdf. epub is not supported, so the main purpose of this conversion service is to deliver files. There are already some network services based on Amazon push. The principle is the same as delivering files yourself. They send a file to a specified address, and then Amazon sends the file to your Kindle. Related services include dogear.mobi (delivering RSS subscriptions), kindle.im (delivering some books), Send to Kindle (delivering desired web content to Kindle in a desktop browser), and the famous online service Instapaper.

3. What is the use of the official synchronization and sharing functions?

In order to comply with the trend of social service development, Kindle includes sharing and synchronization functions. If you have multiple Kindles, or use Kindle for Android and Kindle for PC at the same time, the sync feature may be helpful.

The synchronization function requires turning on "Annotations Backup" in the Kindle settings, which can synchronize the farthest (instead of the last) reading position, Collections, etc. Press the Menu key on the Kindle reading interface and select "Sync to furthest read". Kindle will ask whether to synchronize the current location with the location saved by the server. Books purchased from Amazon and some self-made mobi can be synchronized. You can use the latest version of caliber to convert the mobi to synchronize (by adding ASIN, but this may not allow you to share excerpts and notes, so you cannot have both worlds).

Kindle for Android will automatically sync after you close a book, so be careful when closing the book, especially when the reading progress is still at toc (toc is usually at the end of the file). There is currently no way to manually manage the furthest reading position.

The sharing function is mainly to share some highlights and notes. You can check your sharing status here. Shares can be sent to Twitter or Facebook, authorized to Amazon via OAuth, and then the Kindle only needs to communicate with Amazon. (You know...) This function is not bad for officially purchased books. You can choose to display popular summaries and so on. Although self-made books can also be shared, only a link will be given in the sharing information to jump to the Amazon page, and the name of the self-made book will not be displayed.

4. What should I do if I transfer or lose my Kindle?

Before transferring your Kindle, you need to deregister it in the settings so that others cannot spend your money to buy books through your Kindle, and the books you buy from Amazon in the future will not be pushed to this Kindle. If your Kindle is lost, you can set it up on the Amazon website. Of course, the better way is to contact Amazon customer service.

5. How to purchase books or magazine subscriptions from the Amazon Kindle Store?

You need to use a credit card, domestic credit cards are also acceptable, as long as it supports foreign currency payment. If you subscribe to a magazine, the first issue is free. If you don’t want to subscribe again after reading it, you have to cancel it in your Amazon account settings, otherwise the fee will be automatically deducted.

5. Processing books (Caliber application)

If you want to read books on Kindle, you can: 1. Buy Amazon books on Kindle (you need to register first) 2. Browse on Kindle Browse the web directly in the device 3. Push files to Kindle through Amazon push service (requires wireless connection) 4. Share with LAN through Caliber (requires wireless connection) 5. Download via web browser on Kindle 6. Transfer files via USB. In addition, there are USB network and other methods.

If you want to manage a large number of books, or if you want to freely access the books in your own library, you can use Caliber and it is recommended. Caliber is an open source software, free and accepts donations. It is positioned at book management, similar to the music management software iTunes. Both have the characteristics of unix-like software, that is, importing files into their own folders for management. It can be considered that Caliber is a full-featured e-book software, and it supports the installation of plug-ins to achieve richer functions. Caliber supports most e-book devices, including Android, Symbian and other systems.

For Kindle users, when installing Caliber for the first time, set the path to store e-books (you can change it later), and select Kindle as the default device (so that the default e-book format is mobi). If you need to modify these settings, choose to run the Welcome Wizard in the Caliber options.

1. How to organize a large number of books?

For PC, the easiest way to organize e-books is to import e-books into Caliber (drag the files directly into it). You don't need to care about how these files are placed in the Caliber folder, processing these files only needs to be done in Caliber.

If you put many books in your Kindle, you can use the official system's Collection to classify them. Collection does not change the storage location of books, and a book can also be placed in multiple Collections.

If there are too many books, or you want to create a collection with a Chinese name, there are special PC-side management software that can be managed after connecting the Kindle to the computer, such as Kindle Collection Manager and Kindelabra. The simplest method, I think, is to use the Caliber plug-in, which supports Chinese naming. The first time you use it, you may need to restart the Kindle to take effect.