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13 Kindle Paperwhite Tips Every Reader Needs to Know

Chandra Steele
 & Chandra Steele Senior Features Writer

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Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite puts a library in your pocket. It holds thousands of books within its sleek black casing, while thousands more can be stored in the cloud. The Paperwhite betrays very little from the outside (no subway snooping of what you're reading here), but there's a lot going on inside.

The Paperwhite has adjustable LED lighting so you can see the page while camping under the stars, is now waterproof for blissful beachside reading, and has a feature that lets you follow along with every mention of a character or term without frantic flipping. And if you want to know how many more hours it will take you to finish a book, it can tell you that, too.

But to get the most out of your Kindle Paperwhite, there are some quick tricks. Having trouble seeing or want more words on the page? A flick of your fingers can change the font size: just pinch and zoom to adjust. If you want to save battery life, switch your Kindle to airplane mode when you're not downloading books. Or customize the dictionary for when you're reading books in other languages.

But these are just the basics. We have a few more advanced tips that will maximize the enjoyment and use you get out of your Kindle.

Kindle Matchbook

There are a lot of reasons why the purchase of a physical copy of a book does not come with a free ebook version. But Kindle MatchBook solves this in part by providing digital downloads of the physical books you've purchased for $2.99 or less. There are over 80,000 books on MatchBook, but you might not find a lot of books you own there. Of the hundreds of books I've purchased over the years on Amazon, only eight are available for match and two are books in the public domain.

Highlights of Your Life

If you miss the days of fat yellow highlighters in a textbook, then being able to highlight passages might be one of your favorite features on the Kindle. Place your finger on the text you want the highlight and drag your finger to include more or less text. It will then be grayed out on your Kindle; tap it to delete or to select more or less text. Your highlights are stored on the Kindle Highlights page.

Kindle X-Ray

Sometimes a book is smarter than you and sometimes it's even a genius. The X-Ray feature boosts a book's IQ by letting you examine its bones (ideas, topics, historical figures, fictional characters, and places) in an instant. When you have a book open on the Paperwhite, tap the top of the screen to display the secondary reading toolbar, then tap the X-Ray button. You'll be able to search for more information about key people, places, and ideas in the book and to view a timeline of notable sections. X-Ray isn't available for all books.

Put It in Your Pocket

Catching up on all the reading you have stored in the Pocket app can be like trying to get through a towering stack of The New Yorker. You intended to read every word but now it just seems overwhelming. Send some of those articles to your Kindle Paperwhite and you'll be more likely to read them. You can do that by using Pocket 2 Kindle, which connects your Amazon and Pocket accounts.

Goodreads Recommendations

Goodreads is like a book club that doesn't require figuring out everyone's schedule, making sure your place is clean to host, or arguing over what to read. On the Kindle, tap the Goodreads button on the toolbar (the lowercase "g") and you can sign in to your existing Goodreads account or create one. Books on your Goodreads Want to Read list appear on the Kindle home page for easy access to new titles. You can also see what friends are reading, their opinions on books you're considering, and read a sample before you commit to a whole book.

The Family That Reads Together

Set up a Family Library and you can share books with members of your Amazon Household. On the Kindle, go to Menu > Settings > Household & Family Library > Add a New Person > Add Adult. Enter their email address and password for Amazon and authorize both accounts to share payment information. Now you can choose to share all books or choose which books you'd like to share. To add a child, go to Household & Family Library, select Add Child under Add a New Person. Enter the parental control password, the child's name, birthday, and gender. Then you can select titles for the child's library. Tap Next, then Done, and the account is set up.

Loan or Borrow a Kindle Book

You can borrow Kindle books for your own Paperwhite and lend Kindle books to your friends, even if they don't have a Kindle.

The lending time is 14 days, during which the lender cannot read the book. To lend a book, log into Amazon.com on the desktop. Navigate to the page for the book you want to lend and there should be an option to "Loan this book" on the top left. Or go to your "Manage Your Content and Devices" page, and locate the book you need. Click the three-dot menu on the left side () and select "Loan this title" in the pop-up window. Enter the email address of the borrower (you can include a message), and click Send Now.

If a loan option does not appear, that particular book cannot be loaned. Only one of the 40 Kindle books I'd purchased recently could be loaned.

If you're the borrower, you'll get an email that someone has loaned you a book. Open it and click Get Your Loaned Book Now. When the browser launches, sign in to your Amazon account. Then select the device where you want the book delivered, and click Accept Loaned Book. To return the book, sign into your Amazon account and select Manage Your Content and Devices, find the title, select the Actions button, select Delete From Library, and click Yes.

Borrow Library Books With OverDrive

Just because you've switched to ebooks doesn't mean you can't be a library patron. You can borrow books from your local library through OverDrive if you have a valid library card or student ID.

Organize Books in a Collection

Just like too many apps can clutter your phone's home screen, an abundance of books can do the same on your Kindle. To keep things organized, tap Menu on the top right (), select Create New Collection, type a name for the collection, and tap OK. Check the box next to each book you want to appear in the collection and select Done.

Add or Delete to an Existing Collection

Your collections will now appear on your Kindle home screen. If you want to add books to the collection later on, press down on the icon for the collection, and a pop-up window will appear. Tap Add/Remove Items. Here, you can also Rename a collection, remove it from your device, or delete it entirely. You can also tap into your collection and select the Menu on the top right (), which will produce a drop-down menu with the same options.

Browse More Than Bookshelves

The Kindle Paperwhite has a web browser. It's a bit rudimentary, but it can be useful in a pinch if you've got some Wi-Fi but low battery life on your other devices. Tap the Menu on the top right () and select Experimental Browser. That will bring up a (pretty sluggish) browser; type your desired URL in the menu bar up top. If you have a 3G model, don't think you've discovered a way around your smartphone's data plan. Without Wi-Fi, the browser will only be able to access Amazon and Wikipedia.

Change the Font or Text Size on Your Kindle

If you've got a real thing about fonts, you don't have to live with the one that a book came with on the Kindle Paperwhite. When you're in the book, go to the toolbar at the top of the screen and tap the Aa icon. You can choose from a few fonts and adjust the type size and style.

How to Take a Screenshot on the Kindle

Save what you see onscreen by taking a shot of it. Simultaneously tap either the upper-right corner and lower-left corner or the upper-left corner and lower-left corner of the screen. You should see a flash, which means the image has been saved. To see it, connect your Kindle to your computer and you'll see the image in the root folder (they'll be PNG files).

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme. 

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light. 

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

  • Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
  • Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
  • Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
  • Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life 

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple? 

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player. 

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone. 

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

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