Kindle Fire Tips & Tricks & How-To's

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by bertram1970

how do you remove items in the carousel

You can't remove books but if you clear the data in the appmanager app it will remove the apps icons and websites for the moment till you use them again.

[jimad]

Originally Posted by jimad

Sorry, I just went back and tried carefully again. This isn't working on my KFire.

OK, after playing some more here is what I CAN get to work:

Download a free book to /Download

Use a file manager to move that book to /Docs

touch it up using File Expert.

now I go Home, go Docs, and at least some of the time my book is there.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jimad

OK, after playing some more here is what I CAN get to work:

Download a free book to /Download

Use a file manager to move that book to /Docs

touch it up using File Expert.

now I go Home, go Docs, and at least some of the time my book is there.

What format is the book? If you reboot do they all show up?

[salsaguy]

Cant u just hit synch instead of reboot for some book types?

Originally Posted by Blossom

What format is the book? If you reboot do they all show up?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by salsaguy

Cant u just hit synch instead of reboot for some book types?

No. Sideloaded books loaded other then the USB method wont show up unless you Restart or use File Expert to open them via the Kindle app.

[jimad]

Originally Posted by Blossom

What format is the book? If you reboot do they all show up?

The book in question was a mobi. In general I have been having trouble getting all the books I have in /Documents to show up, even after reboot. I just touched up a txt file I had there using File Expert, and now I can open that in Quickoffice. Strange that File Expert doesn't allow one to touch up a txt file to tell it to open in "Kindle" -- given that Kindles support txt files.

I also touched up a .prc "Thank You" letter from Amazon that is in /Documents and it still doesn't show correctly.

So, it all kind of works but not really and I haven't been able to figure out they why or where for.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jimad

The book in question was a mobi. In general I have been having trouble getting all the books I have in /Documents to show up, even after reboot. I just touched up a txt file I had there using File Expert, and now I can open that in Quickoffice. Strange that File Expert doesn't allow one to touch up a txt file to tell it to open in "Kindle" -- given that Kindles support txt files.

I also touched up a .prc "Thank You" letter from Amazon that is in /Documents and it still doesn't show correctly.

So, it all kind of works but not really and I haven't been able to figure out they why or where for.

Sounds like something is wrong. I would do a factory reset.

[Sylvia2]

Originally Posted by Blossom

To get sideloaded books to show up in the carousel you need to remove the pdoc tag from the mobi book.

You can do this in Calibre.

From Calibre's Book Conversion window click on MOBI output
Find the box that says Personal Doc Tag: [pdoc]
Delete [pdoc] from the box and reconvert book.
It should now show up with your other books on the Fire.

You can set Calibre to permanently do this in
Preferences/Output options/MOBI output.
Find the box that says Personal Doc Tag: [pdoc]
Delete [pdoc] from the box and click apply at the top.

Note: If you don't care about the books showing up in the carousel then just email them to your Kindle. This will use the Personal Documents Cloud and you will be able synch those without modifying them in Calibre.

I have followed these directions yet every third to fourth book I add using Calibre shows up in documents. I can't be the only person who can't understand simple directions, can I?

I use the convert book (brown book) box at the top of the Calibre page; along the left hand side of the new page under Mobi output I have deleted the [pdoc] label even though there is seldom one there. I also set up preferences for permanent deletion of pdoc; yet the books still insist on going to documents. Please help - and please tell me what to do in a simple way.

BTW - has anyone figured out how to best handle series of books on kindle? The series I have added do not show the name in books - only the book cover. How are people handling this?

Thanks - I'm a newbie and I love my KF - giving one to my husband for Christmas!

[ratkity]

I found that if I deleted all the formats in Calibre except mobi (there's a command that will let you do that in a batch), make sure I have covers for each book.... THEN, reconvert with [pdoc] removed to mobi (the old mobi's will rename and not transfer over) . Then all my books would go to the books area.

There were several books that I had that I couldn't scout covers for - I just let Calibre make covers for them, then I'd have the title.

Regarding series: the only way I know to put them in order is to put a number in the title before the last mobi conversion that removed the pdoc tag.

Hope this helps!

Hugs,
Ratkity

[Sylvia2]

I hate to sound quite so stupid, but could you give mre specific steps for this?

1 - Select several books at a time?

2 - Delete formats except MOBI - this puzzles me- how do I do this? Which screen am I using? edit metadata? convert?

I am really sorry - I just can't see the steps to take.

[Sylvia2]

Hmm - I did something that worked - I selected a group of books and then clicked edit metadata. There is a little box on the top left of the screen that says remove format = thereare 3 choices and I selected remove original mobi. On conversion page I unchecked a box that says "use saved conversions". Not sure which it was or the both together, but now they are books! Thank you.

[ratkity]

Originally Posted by Sylvia2

I hate to sound quite so stupid, but could you give mre specific steps for this?

1 - Select several books at a time?

2 - Delete formats except MOBI - this puzzles me- how do I do this? Which screen am I using? edit metadata? convert?

I am really sorry - I just can't see the steps to take.

1. Open Calibre
2. Select All Books (ctl-a)
3. Select remove books and hit the down arrow - select remove all files except of a specific format
4. Select all books again
5. Select covert books in bulk - change the Mobi OUTPUT to remove the pdoc tag
6a. Select ok
6. Now sync your books to your KF

Hope this helps,
Hugs,
Ratkity

[kdoc]

I have trouble keeping home pages and favorites working (via history) in the installed browser and in Opera. I find working with the browsers much more difficult than with a laptop--pages open when they shouldn't. Can't open a page. And when I use the mobile mode, the fonts are too small, and you can't zoom. A mouse, laptop, and a favorites seems to be much easier. Suggestions?

kdoc

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by kdoc

I have trouble keeping home pages and favorites working (via history) in the installed browser and in Opera. I find working with the browsers much more difficult than with a laptop--pages open when they shouldn't. Can't open a page. And when I use the mobile mode, the fonts are too small, and you can't zoom. A mouse, laptop, and a favorites seems to be much easier. Suggestions?

kdoc

At someone else's suggestion here, I downloaded the Dolphin Mini browser, and I use it exclusively now on my Fire. I need big fonts by default, and it lets me do that (although to be fair some pages look a little bit "scrambled" in the title lines when I have the page showing really big. On those pages I just go smaller.) It uses a beautiful customizable speed dial as the home page. The best thing about it, though, is that when you hit the menu icon at the bottom and then hit "exit," it exits and deletes history so nothing comes up on the carousel except the green dolphin logo. I got so frustrated trying to actually get out of the Silk browser cleanly. I never use it at all anymore.

[kdoc]

Well, apart from the larger fonts when on a "mobile" site, does it allow you to save many pages on the speed dial with ease, and retrieve them quickly?

Incidentally, Opera has something like that, but I'm damned if I can figure out how to set them and keep them set. What I've set seems to come and go.

kdoc