I’ll start with our personal use of Kindle’s Personal Documents.
My husband prefers to read and store important manuals and technical documents on his Kindle. If they exist on the web as word processing or PDF files, they normally can be sent successfully to Kindle.
I use the personal document feature to send chapters of my novel-in-progress to the Kindles of a few readers for early reactions. Seeing pages on Kindle gives me a different sense of the flow and pace of the story, something helpful for editing.
I also put research on my Kindle. Recently when I wanted to know more about mules used in transportation, I downloaded then sent to my Kindle a reprinting of The Mule, an instructive document written by Harvey Riley in 1867, made available by Project Gutenberg. Underlining and notes made on the Kindle are easier to retrieve than on paper or in a hard-copy book.
Other neat uses found on a Kindleboards forum: Shopping lists, driving schedules, camera manuals, notes for presentations—anything you want to take along in a compact format.
One of the best: A teacher puts her lecture notes on her Kindle and lets the Kindle read them aloud as she drives to work. Also great: A mom puts her kids’ textbooks on Kindle. Another mom surprised and delighted her daughter by sending to her Kindle a story the girl had written.
You can find your Kindle’s email address on Amazon by going to Your Account/Manage your Kindle. On the left side of that page, find the menu for Personal Document Settings. Clicking that link takes you to a page where you see the email addresses of Kindles to which you can send personal documents.
To exchange files with other Kindle owners, you need to add their Kindle addresses and they need to add your email address on their Approved Personal Document Email list, which is also on that page. In other words, exchanging files this way requires something to be done by both parties.
To send a file to a Kindle, attach it to an email that you send to the designated Kindle address. The address will be something like yourname@Kindle.com. In the subject heading, I type ‘Convert’ but I’m not sure if that’s necessary. Remember, the Kindle’s address is preset, and you find it on your Personal Document Settings page.
You can find other options for sending files to Kindle and Kindle apps at http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle.
Kindleboards posters noted problems in sending some types of PDF files to Kindle. You can find their discussion and solutions here: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,134169.0.html
How have you used Kindle’s Personal Documents?
I have used it, but hadn’t thought about downloading and
sending manuals to my kindle. That’s a great place to store
them. Thanks for the suggestion!
When something truly good comes along, people find amazing ways to use it.