Kindle for PC

To download and install Kindle for PC:

(1) Go to the Amazon Free Reading Apps page. Click here to go to Amazon’s page about their Free Reading Apps. The page should open in a separate window. So that you can see my instructions and Amazon’s page at the same time, do the below:

• Make sure this browser window is not maximized to full size. You need to be able to see a piece of your Desktop.
• Go to the top of this window and look for the tab that says Amazon.com.
• Click on that tab, hold down your mouse button, drag the tab out of the window, and drop it on your desktop. Now you’ll have my instructions and Amazon’s pages both open in different windows.

The link in (1) will take you to the web page in Figure 1. If you have an Amazon account and aren’t signed in, go ahead and sign in now. If you don’t have an account, move your mouse over “Your Account” at the top right (in blue oval in Figure 1) and a drop-down menu will pop up. Click on “New Customer? Start Here” to register an account.

Under the middle section of the page–“Download our Free Kindle Reading Apps”–you’ll see all the available options for downloading. Go ahead and read that and the bulleted text while you’re on the page.

(As an aside, on the far left under “Kindle Cloud Reader,” is a link (highlighted in green) to “Read instantly in your browser.” If you click on that link, you’ll see that Amazon’s cloud reader works with Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox browsers, but it doesn’t work with Internet Explorer (IE). So if IE is the only browser you have installed, you’ll need to install one of the others to read from Amazon’s cloud. If you install Mozilla Firefox, then you can use it to read from Amazon’s cloud, and you can also read ePUBs that you download to your computer from other places. You can install Firefox from the Amazon cloud page or you can read my instructions on downloading and installing Firefox.)

(2) Click on the link for your specific computer system. On the Amazon Free Reading Apps page in Figure 1, under the Computers column, there are options for Mac and for Windows systems. For simplicity, the rest of this article assumes you’re downloading for Windows 7, XP & Vista (link highlighted in yellow in Figure 1). Whichever link you click on, it will  will take you to a page similar to the one in Figure 2.

(3) Download the application. Click on download now (inside the red oval in Figure 2). A window will open showing a folder on your PC where the installation file will be downloaded to. You can change the location if you want. You won’t need the file once you’ve install the program.

The window in Figure 3 will open behind the download window. It tells you what choices you’ll have (Run, Save, Cancel). However, when I downloaded, my choices were different, i.e., they were to Run, to Download, or to Download and Run. I chose Download and Run which means Windows will save the file to your hard drive and will install the Kindle for PC application. (Note: If you pick Download or Save, rather than Download and Run, you’ll get another prompt to Run the installation after the download is complete.)

The application should download and Kindle for PC should open on your computer. If it doesn’t, click on the link (highlighted in yellow) in Figure 3 and follow their prompts.

That’s it! If you read the bulleted text on the page shown in Figure 1, then you already know some of the things you can do to make your Kindle for PC reading a more enjoyable experience. I’ll list a few things briefly:

• Under Tools, click on Options, then Registration and make sure your Kindle for PC is registered to your Amazon account. If it’s not, you can’t have your books sent to it.
• Under Tools> Options> Content, you can check to see where the Kindle books are stored on your computer (e.g., in which folder) in case you want to place a kindle book there from a memory stick.
• Under the Tools menu, click on Sync and Check for New Items (or press your Function Key F5). Your Kindle books (those you paid for or free ones that you “purchased”) will show up in a minute or two.
• If your books don’t show up, click on Manage Your Kindle. That will take you to your Amazon account > Manage Your Kindle page, assuming you’re connected to the internet. Once you’re in the Manage Kindle account, to the right of a book title, you can mouse over the Actions button and click on Deliver to my … If you don’t have a Kindle reading device, your only choice will be Kindle for PC.
• You can view your library of books either as a list or as icons showing the book covers; see yellow highlight on Figure 4 which shows I have the rectangular icon image selected for the view so that I can see the book covers.
• You can click on the drop-down menu to sort by title, author, or most recent.
•  You can click on the plus mark to the right of COLLECTION to make a new collection. I made several: Reference, Stephie Smith books, Historical Romance, etc. Then you can drag your book (regardless of which view you’re in) over to the left where the collections are listed and drop the book into the collection you want it filed in. You can add the same book to more than one collection. To remove a book from a collection, open the collection, right-click on the book, and select “Remove from Collection.”

Figure 4 – Kindle for PC Library

Once you open a book, the collections pane goes away, as does the view buttons, but in their place will be a set of icons that allow you to change your background color, text color and size, number of reading columns, etc. Check all that stuff out.

To the left will be three little icons — one’s for the Table of Contents, one is for searching within the book, and one displays your notes.

So go ahead and get started by going to the Kindle Book section of Amazon. Click to the left on the category you want. To the far right of the page should be a list of Kindle Best sellers with two tabs. The tab on the right is for the Top 100 Free. If you see something you want to read, click on it. Make sure the Kindle Price is still listed as $0.00 and Buy now with 1-Click!

Happy Reading!