If you have a Kindle for reading e-books – maybe a new model like the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition or the Kindle Colorsoft – then you will know that these devices are very simple in terms of interface and controls. Focus on the text and whatever you are going to read. Behind the simple and friendly interface, Kindle has more features and tricks than expected. Of course, this e-reader will not compete with iPads for functionality, but there is a lot that can be done with them-from managing the reading experience to taking other content from ebooks to the screen.1. Look Up Words Don’t get confused by unknown words while reading. You can get any definition on the screen just by pressing and holding the word. When the definition appears, you can swipe left to see if there is a Wikipedia entry for the word, and swipe left again to translate the word into another language.2. Send Web Articles to Kindle You can also use Kindle to read online, by sending web articles to your device. Perhaps the easiest option is the official Kindle extension for Google Chrome—as long as you only want to post articles from your desktop web browser. Once you’re signed in to your Amazon account, transferring articles takes just a few clicks. The Kindle extension is fast and free, but it doesn’t always format web pages correctly, and it doesn’t work on mobile. Instapaper does a better job with its own Kindle-sync service, but you’ll need a $6-a-month premium plan to access it. Push to Kindle is also great, but a $3 per month subscription is required to post more than 10 articles per month. Use the Kindle Chrome extension to send articles to your e-reader. David Nield 3. Take PicturesYou can take pictures on your Kindle, if you want to share your library or share a passage from a book on social media, for example. Just touch two diagonal corners, in the corner. The screen flashes, and the screengrab is saved. Connect your Kindle to your computer with a USB cable, and you will find all the images saved in their own dedicated folder.4. Sort Ebooks into Collections As you add more ebooks (and web articles) to your library, it can get a little overwhelming—and sorting to find your next read becomes even more difficult. You can reduce this to some extent by creating a collection. This is a folder for sorting titles, whether by genre, author, or how much you want to read. To get started, from the Kindle homepage tap the three dots at the top right, then Create Collection. Give your collection a name, and mark it as a favorite if you want (which makes it more visible on different screens). You can then choose to sort your Library pages by collection—just tap the sort icon, the three horizontal lines at the top right.
