Are:
Easy recipe:
1) Go to
www.mobipocket.com and install Reader.
2) Save your .doc file as a .rtf file. This isn't always necessary, but it improves the reliabiltiy of the process.
3) Open Reader and drop the .rtf file into it. It will be converted to .mobi and show up in the Mobipocket library.
4) Find the folder the new ebook appears in. On my Vista machine, it's 'username'\Documents\My ebooks. YMMV.
5) Hook your Kindle up to your computer with the USB cable.
6) Open the Kindle as a "removable storage device", like a thumb drive.
7) Move the file to the Kindle 'Documents' folder.
8) Close all the windows (or whatever) and safely remove the Kindle.
You're done. You can also have Reader move the file, but it puts it in the wrong folder on the Kindle. You then have to move the file to the 'Documents' folder manually, so save a step.
There are more sophisticated tools and methods for this, but converting a .doc to a .mobi will give you arguably the best result. Using the .rtf intermediary strips out some MS cruft that you probably don't want in the file and makes a cleaner conversion. (Thanks to Steve Jordan for that tip.)
PDFs can be generated similarly, but you need a lot more sophistication in the process. The easiest way to do that (AFAIK) is to use Open Office, set the page size to the screen size of your reading device, and export a PDF file. It took me quite a few tries to get a good result.
Regards,
Jack Tingle