Cool Paperwhite feature I never knew about!

[Vmurph]

Hey, I just discovered a cool feature on the Paperwhite that I never knew existed.

I was removing (yet another) cat hair from my Paperwhite's screen when I accidentally performed a PINCH gesture on the touch screen. Much to my surprise, the font size shrunk in response! So I did a reverse pinch and the font enlarged.

Am I the only one who didn't know about this shortcut? I'm pretty tech-savvy when it comes to my devices, but I had no idea about this one.

A little rectangle appears on the screen while you're pinching, showing you which size you're selecting. It disappears as soon as you stop pinching.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Vmurph

Am I the only one who didn't know about this shortcut? I'm pretty tech-savvy when it comes to my devices, but I had no idea about this one.

You'd have known about it if you'd read the User Guide. It is provided for a reason . Seriously, it is worth at least skimming through.

This feature has been there since the Kindle Touch.

[Vmurph]

Lol, you know, after all these years of owning Kindles, I don't think I even looked at it. There's hubris, for you

I'm also one of those people who assembles things without taking the instructions out of the box.

[HarryT]

There's all sorts of "not-so-obvious" features of the Kindle's UI. Eg, I only discovered by reading the User Guide that, if you sort the home screen by author or by title, you can jump directly to any given point in the list by tapping the page indicator at the bottom right of the home screen, and then entering a string to jump to (eg I have my home screen sorted by author, so I can jump directly to my Agatha Christie books by tapping the page number, and entering "CHR", then "Go".)

[Vmurph]

Interesting! I didn't know that either. Probably because I only sort by Collections. But still. I think I'll have to check out this mysterious users guide.

Joking aside, I think the reason I haven't looked at it is because most of the user guides I see tend to be rather lame. Older Kindles' guides never had anything in them that I didn't learn myself just from messing with it a little while. I guess I just stopped reading them because I assumed they were all the same.

[tomsem]

The pinch-to-adjust-text gesture also works on Kindle for Android app. You can adjust the brightness by sliding two fingers vertically up or down. Neither feature works on the Fire, and I've long wished Paperwhite had a gesture to adjust brightness exactly like this.

LOL! "User Manual? We don't need no stinking User Manual!" As a retired technical writer I used to get so upset when people wouldn't read the darn manuals. But then I noticed I often didn't read them either. (Except the ones I wrote of course.) Like most people I would pull something out of the package and immediately try to determine how to operate it without first reading the manual. I guess that is just human nature. I do read the manuals later on to get all the details though.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Vmurph

Interesting! I didn't know that either. Probably because I only sort by Collections. But still. I think I'll have to check out this mysterious users guide.

So do I, and I am given the option "Titles starting with:_____", at least on my Kindle Touch.

This is regardless of what sort I used before Collections (Recent), so it seems to be the default option.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by jswinden

But then I noticed I often didn't read them either. (Except the ones I wrote of course.) Like most people I would pull something out of the package and immediately try to determine how to operate it without first reading the manual. I guess that is just human nature. I do read the manuals later on to get all the details though.

Ready, fire, aim!

[mystika1]

I am guilty of not reading the manual. Because I had been reading on a kobo glo, I didn't think that I needed to. I really enjoy the pw2. The feature that I discovered last night was the "article view" in the web browser. I was amazed and thrilled. Tonight I will actually read the manual just so I can see what else I have overlooked.

Penny

[tompe]

Originally Posted by tomsem

The pinch-to-adjust-text gesture also works on Kindle for Android app. You can adjust the brightness by sliding two fingers vertically up or down. Neither feature works on the Fire, and I've long wished Paperwhite had a gesture to adjust brightness exactly like this.

And it is very annoying since I often do the pinching by mistake.

[Vmurph]

Originally Posted by tompe

And it is very annoying since I often do the pinching by mistake.

That's why I was so surprised that I hadn't discovered it before now. I have 6 cats and 2 dogs, so I'm constantly plucking pet hairs off my screens (performing every imaginable gesture on my tablet). And yet in all these years, I only just now did my first accidental pinch on my Paperwhite?

[discopig]

I find it very annoying too, sometimes it seems to trigger itself when I try to go to the next page.

[Vmurph]

Originally Posted by discopig

I find it very annoying too, sometimes it seems to trigger itself when I try to go to the next page.

How many fingers do you use to turn a page?

A "pinch" gesture requires two criteria in order to work: 2 fingers on the screen AND motion. So it shouldn't happen at all if you're using only one finger, especially if you're tapping instead of swiping.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Vmurph

How many fingers do you use to turn a page?

A "pinch" gesture requires two criteria in order to work: 2 fingers on the screen AND motion. So it shouldn't happen at all if you're using only one finger, especially if you're tapping instead of swiping.

For me it only happens on the phone and not on my PW1.