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Organizing Your Kindle Content

Content on the Home Screen

Illustration of the Kindle Home screen with labels describing features.

Kindle books: Books are shown by title and author, as well as any collections you have set up. Below the book title are a series of dots which give you an approximation of how long the book is. Bold dots within the series indicate how far along you are in the book based on the last page you viewed.
Periodicals: Periodicals include newspapers and magazines that can be purchased as a single issue or as a subscription delivered on a regular basis. Your Home screen lists the most recent issue of each periodical you have on your Kindle. Older issues are listed in "Periodicals: Back Issues" on your Kindle.
Blogs: Subscription-based that appears on the Home screen as a single entry like books. Depending on the size and frequency of the entries, approximately 10 to 20 recent blog entries are available on your Kindle, and older entries are rolled off.
Audiobooks: Audiobooks look similar to books, but they will be labeled in the Home screen as audio content. Like regular books, they have a progress indicator that shows where you are in the audiobook.
Personal documents: Any personal documents such as text files or Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free e-books will appear on the Home screen or be saved in your Archived Items. All personal documents sent to your Kindle's email address will automatically be saved to your Archived Items and available for download.

Sorting Content and Using Collections

Kindle allows you to choose how the content on the Home screen is sorted.

To change how your content is organized on the Home screen:

Move the 5-way controller up to the top of the screen to underline the current Sort setting. The default setting is "By Most Recent First."
Move the 5-way to the right to see the Sort options.
Select your desired option using the 5-way controller.

Here's a list of the Sort options available:

Most Recent First: Sorts your content by the most recently added or recently opened items first.
Title: Sorts your content alphabetically by title of the item.
Author: Sorts your content alphabetically by the author's last name or publisher's name. If you choose this option, periodicals will be sorted by their dates.
Collections: Sorts content based on categories you create on your Kindle to organize your content.

Creating Collections

If you store a lot of content on your Kindle, you can create collections to improve your organization. A collection is a category you create on your Kindle Home screen. You can then move your books, audiobooks, and personal documents from the Home screen to the collections you create. Your Kindle will sort your content by collections after you create your first collection.

Kindle Home without Collections	Content Organized into Collections

To create a collection:

Select "Create New Collection" from the Home screen menu.
Enter a name for the collection.
Select "Save" with the 5-way controller when finished.

To rename or delete a collection:

Highlight the collection name on the Home screen.
Move the 5-way controller to the right to reveal the collection options.
Select the desired action with the 5-way controller.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: Deleting a collection from your Kindle does not remove the content stored on your device. Items previously placed into the collection that are stored on your Kindle will appear on the Home screen after the collection is deleted.

To sort your Home screen content by collection:

Move your cursor to the top of the Home screen to highlight "Showing All Items" and your current viewing option.
Move the 5-way controller to the right to reveal available viewing options.
Select "Collections" from the options.

Managing Content in Your Collections

After you create one or more collections, you're ready to associate books, audiobooks, and personal documents on your Kindle using those collections. Please note that subscriptions such as newspapers, magazines, and blogs cannot currently be added to collections on the Kindle. Here are a few handy collection features:

Collections are stored on Amazon: When you create a collection on a device, we'll save your collection so it appears in Archived Items on other devices registered to your Amazon.com account. This allows you to transfer collections across registered Kindles.
Kindle content is associated with a collection until removed: If you add a book or other content to a collection on your Kindle and then delete the book from your device, it remains associated with that collection in Archive Items. If you download the item again, it will automatically appear in the appropriate collection on your Home screen.
Books and other content can appear in more than one collection: You can associate a single book or other item from your library with multiple collections if you wish.
Collections don't change device or Archived Items content: If you delete Kindle content from a collection or delete an entire collection from your Kindle, it does not change the actual items saved on your Kindle or in your Archived Items. When you delete a collection from your Kindle, any downloaded items from that collection will appear the Home screen instead of in the collection.

To add or remove collection items:

Highlight the collection name on the Home screen using the 5-way controller.
Move the 5-way controller to the right to reveal the collection options.
Select "Add/Remove Items" with the 5-way controller.
Highlight and select a title you wish to add or remove. Items currently in the collection will display a check mark to the right of the title.
Select "Done" at the bottom of the screen when you've finished editing your collection.

To import a collection from another Kindle:

Select "Archived Items" from the Kindle Home screen.
Select "Add Other Device Collections" from the Archived Items page.
Select the desired collection to import and select "OK" to confirm.

Note: Importing a collection from another device does not import the books or other items to your Kindle if they aren't downloaded already. However, books already on your Kindle that are associated with a collection will automatically appear under that collection name on your Home screen.

Searching on Kindle

Kindle's search function allows you to find related items in your content and on the Internet.

To perform a search:

Type in your search term, the Search line will automatically appear. You can use whole words or partial words, and no distinction is made between lower and upper case. You can enter up to 255 characters.
Move the 5-way to the right to highlight the content or location to search and press the 5-way to select. The arrow indicates that more Search options are available if you scroll in the direction indicated.

Types of Searches

Here's a quick description of the available search options:

Find: Searches the item you're currently reading for the search term(s).
My Items: Searches all of your content (including text, metadata and annotations in downloaded items, archived items, personal documents, and local reference materials) for the search term(s).
Store: Searches for your term(s) in the titles, descriptions, and content of items available for purchase from the Kindle Store.
Google: Searches Google.com for indexed websites containing the search term(s).
Wikipedia: Searches Wikipedia.com for entries containing the search term(s).
Dictionary: Searches your default dictionary on your Kindle for the search term(s).

Viewing Search Results

Kindle displays a Search Results page when the requested search is completed. Use the Next Page and Previous Page buttons if there are more results than fit on the current page. If your results contain a specific item or website, you'll be able to underline and select specific items using the 5-way controller.

My Items

Kindle displays all titles that contain your search term(s) and shows total instances for your term(s) in each item to the left of the title. To see all results for a specific title, select it with the 5-way controller.

Illustration of available search results on Kindle

After you select a specific title from the search results or if you limited your search results to a specific title originally, you'll see a results page that displays all the locations where the search term(s) appear. You can select and view the locations listed using the 5-way controller. Use the Back button to return to your results page.

Illustration of reading location entries from search results on Kindle

Kindle Store

A Store search takes you to the Kindle Store where you can browse available titles.

Definitions

When you look up the meaning of a word, Kindle displays definitions based the primary dictionary selected on your Kindle. You can use the 5-way controller to select specific words within the definition to see them defined at the bottom of the screen.

Illustration of definition detail from search results on Kindle

Remote Searches

When you're connected to Whispernet and select "wikipedia" or "google" as your search option, Kindle opens Basic Web and displays the search results from the chosen website. If links are available, you can navigate to other web pages using the 5-way controller.

Setting Show and Sort Options

You can choose how the Kindle content listed on your Home screen is sorted.

Sort Options

Here's a list of the Sort options available:

Illustration of Show options for type of content displayed on Kindle.

Most Recent First: Sorts your content by the most recently added or recently opened items first.
Title: Sorts your content alphabetically by title of the item.
Author: Sorts your content alphabetically by the author's last name or publisher's name. If you choose this option, periodicals will be sorted by their dates.
Collections: Sorts content based on categories you create on your Kindle to organize your content. Learn more about Sorting Content and Using Collections.

To change how your content is organized on the Home screen:

Move the 5-way controller up to the top of the screen to underline the current Sort settings. By default, these are typically "Showing All Items" and "By Most Recent First."
Move the 5-way to the right to see additional Sort options.
Make your selection using the 5-way controller.

Downloading New Content

If you just purchased content from the Kindle Store, are waiting for a personal document to be delivered, or are waiting for the most recent issue of a periodical to be delivered, you can use Kindle's Home menu to start the download.

To download content pending delivery:

If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home key.
Check the wireless status indicator to make sure you are connected to wireless. If not, select "Turn Wireless On" from the Home menu.
Press the Menu button and select "Sync & Check for Items" using the 5-way controller.

If you use lose your wireless connection while downloading, the download will resume once you regain your wireless connection.

Illustration of download progress

Downloading Archived Content

Kindle displays the items you've downloaded on the Home screen. If you have Kindle content or personal documents stored in your Kindle Library that isn't displayed, you can download it from your Kindle Library on Amazon.com when connected to wireless.

To download Archived Items:

Select "Archived Items" from the Home screen or press the Menu button and select "View Archived Items."
Select the item from the Archived Items screen.

Removing Kindle Content

All books you purchase and personal documents you send to your [name]@kindle.com e-mail address are automatically backed up on Amazon.com.

Note: For personal documents to be saved in your Kindle Library, the AutoArchive setting must be activated in Manage Your Kindle.

To permanently remove a book so that it will no longer appear in your Archived Items, See Managing Your Kindle Content.

To remove content:

If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
Underline the item you want to remove with the 5-way controller.
Move the controller to the left and select "Remove from device."

Move the 5-way controller up or down to cancel.

Removing Personal Content

Personal documents you transfer to your Kindle via your [name]@kindle.com e-mail address are backed up in your Kindle Library if the AutoArchive settings have been selected in Manage Your Kindle. The default setting is activated.

If you transferred your personal document via USB or your AutoArchive settings were not activated when you transferred the personal document wirelessly, and you wish to keep a backup copy, you'll need to save them to your computer or another storage device before deleting them from your Kindle.

Removing Content with Annotations

When you remove a Kindle book you bought from Amazon that is available for re-download in your Kindle Library, we automatically save all of your annotations for the book. To store annotations online, select “Sync and Check” from the Home screen Menu before deleting the content from your Kindle.

The "My Clippings" file on your Kindle will still remain as a separate file containing all the clippings you added regardless of whether the content is a book, subscription, or blog, regardless of whether it was purchased from Amazon or not. See Customize Your Reading for more information.

Keeping Subscription Content

Older issues of newspapers and magazines appear inside a grouping called "Periodicals: Back Issues." Selecting the grouping takes you to a screen that displays the back issues you have on your Kindle.
Kindle automatically deletes newspaper and magazine issues that are more than seven issues old to free up space for new content. An exclamation point next to a magazine or newspaper issue indicates that it will be deleted soon. If you'd like to keep a copy of an issue, follow these steps:

To keep a back issue:

Open the specific issue from the Kindle Home screen.
Press the Menu button and navigate to "Keep This Issue" using the 5-way controller. Press to select.

You will then see the word "keep" to the left of the issue title in Home.