Amazon Kindle Tips: Sending Documents to Your Kindle

The Amazon Kindle, and e-readers in general, is changing how the world reads books. With its portable size and design along with its easy-on-the-eyes screen, the Kindle is also ideal for reading long business and personal documents and PDF files. Whether you need to carefully read a contract before signing it, have a huge report to read, have a recipe you want to try, or have invested in an eBook in PDF format, sending your files to the Amazon Kindle is as easy as sending an email message.

One of the Best Amazon Kindle Tips: Find Your Amazon Kindle Email Address

First, you'll need to find out what your Amazon Kindle email address is. When you register your Kindle with Amazon, Amazon automatically assigns you a username@kindle.com email address. You can find your Kindle email address on your Kindle by going to Home > Menu > Settings > Device Email. Note: You may need to use the next page button to scroll down to the Device Email section.

The Difference between @Kindle and @Free.Kindle Email Addresses

Before you send yourself a document to your newly discovered Kindle email address, it's important to be aware of the fees involved. When you send a document to your Kindle email address, Amazon will charge you a small fee of $.15 per megabyte for the service when the Kindle is located in the United States and $.99 per megabyte when the Kindle is out of the country. To avoid this fee, use Kindle's free service by sending the document to username@free.kindle.com.

So, why would anyone use the paid service when you can get your documents delivered to your Kindle wirelessly for free? The free service works when you have Wi-Fi access. If your Kindle is connected to a 3G network and you do not have access to a Wi-Fi access, then the free service will not work. In this situation, you'll need to use the standard Amazon Kindle email address and pay the fee. Alternately, you could use the USB cable and manually transfer the files to your Amazon Kindle. Tips for doing this include:

1.) Find the USB connector (if you have the Kindle 3, it's cleverly hidden inside the standard electrical plug)

2.) Don't forget to "eject" the Kindle before disconnecting it from your computer.

Add Your Free Kindle Email Address to Your Contact List

Adding your free Kindle email address to your contact list is easy and convenient. Name your contact "Free Kindle" or something memorable and then use it whenever you want to read a long document from the comfort of your Kindle.

Allowing Others to Send Documents to Your Amazon Kindle Email Address

This is one of the Amazon Kindle tips that may not occur to you. While you could have your colleagues send documents to your standard email address and then forward the messages to your Kindle email address, it may make sense to have your colleagues email the documents directly to your Kindle. Before you give out your Kindle email address, you must first add individuals to your Kindle's approved email list. Do this from the "Manage Your Kindle" section of the Amazon website. Once you've added your colleagues as approved senders, give them your free Kindle email address and instruct them to send long documents directly to your Kindle.

Types of Documents to Send to Your Amazon Kindle Email Address

The Amazon Kindle supports Microsoft Word documents and PDF files as well as several image types. You can even combine files into a compressed ZIP file before sending them to your Kindle. Send documents, PDFs, and photos to your Kindle and enjoy reading computer content away from your computer monitor.

Once you're comfortable with these Amazon Kindle tips and sending documents to your @free.kindle email account, you'll soon see the possibilities. Before long, you'll be emailing documents of all types including: business reports, manuscripts, instruction manuals, training materials, recipes, photos, calendars, and more.