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5 tips and tricks to make your Kindle Paperwhite even more useful

Kindle Paperwhite is probably the reading buddy you take everywhere. It’s waterproof, so you can take it in the tub or poolside. It can hold dozens of books so you always have plenty to read. It can’t get any better than that, right? There are actually a few tips and tricks that can make it even more useful. Give these five a try.

Take a screenshot

Find a passage or image you want to share? Taking a screenshot with Paperwhite is easy. Put one index finger on one corner of the screen and your other index finger on the opposite corner. Then, push the fingers towards each other. The screen will flash, indicating that the screenshot was successful.

To share your screenshot, plug your Paperwhite’s USB cord into your computer. You can email the screenshot, post it to social media or whatever, just like any other image file using your computer.

Get articles in your pocket

If you tend to save articles online, and then end up never reading them, Pocket to Amazon Kindle may be the solution. This service delivers your articles to your Kindle on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, or you can send them instantly. So, the next time you’re in a reading mood, you’ll have a nice stack of articles waiting for you. All you have to do is go to the Pocket to Amazon Kindle website and follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.

Get free books

Libraries aren’t just for paper book patrons. You can load up your Paperwhite with free books by borrowing from your local library using the free site Overdrive. All you need is your library card. Just choose your library on the site and check out some books. Once you have books added to your Overdrive account, go to the book you want to read on the Checkouts page and then choose Read now with Kindle.

You can also find free eBooks and Kindle eBooks from various sources, including the Kindle Store itself. All you have to do is check it out, or subscribe to various services that notify you of free or discounted Kindle eBooks.

Organize your books

This is one of my favorites. You can organize your ebooks much like you would your bookshelves at home with just a few taps. Tap the Menu icon on the top right-hand side of the Home screen. Choose Create New Collection, give it a name and tap OK. From there, check the box next to the books you want to add to your collection and tap Done to finish. Unfortunately, though, this doesn’t work for newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

Read PDF ebooks

I use my Kindle account as my ebook library. Since a lot of ebooks online that aren’t downloaded directly from Amazon or other bookstores are PDF files, I like uploaded them to my Kindle account and read them from a plethora of devices, using the Kindle app.

Just because they’re PDFs doesn’t mean you can’t read them on your Paperwhite, though. Make sure you have the Kindle app downloaded on your phone and that you’re signed in. Then, download the ebook to your phone, then go to the downloaded file, hold your finger down on the file name until the share option comes up and choose Send to Kindle from the list. Your ebook will be sent to your Paperwhite through your Kindle account. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the ebook to arrive on your reader, so be patient. You can also send it via email to your Amazon Kindle account.

If that doesn’t work, another option is to turn the PDF file into an EPUB file. Here’s how.

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