KindleWiki - Getting faster Kindle access to it - Updated

Since all International Kindle owners with wireless access in their countries get free 24/7 Kindle access to Wikipedia, this is a tip on how to do it more easily than with the traditional way.  (See Updates.)

FIRST -- a one time set-up,
  unless needing to 'reset' the Kindle after a memory freeze (it's a computer),
  . Click on Menu button
  . Click on 'Experimental' option
  . Click to get 'Basic Web'

  You'll probably see a 'Bookmarks' page.
  Don't bother with it, even if 'Wikipedia' is listed.

  . Click on Menu button again
  . Click on "Use Basic Mode"

After this, you shouldn't have to go through that again.  But it's how you get into 'Basic Mode' (or 'Advanced Mode' if needed -- which is usually for password log-ons or when javascript is required -- but Wikipedia doesn't need either one).

"Advanced mode" (which we're avoiding for Wikipedia) translates web colors to various shades of gray and tries to emulate the width of a web page -- but it is quite hard to read translated colors on e-ink's 16 shades of gray.  Instead of vivid black, you get words that are grayish and harder to read.  That's a reason I try to stay in Basic mode - and it is faster access also.
  There are no color-translations to be done, no routines to convert words to tiny characters to squeeze them all in to emulate a web page.
  Basic Mode keeps the text larger, blacker, and it wraps (or reflows) text as needed.

  For those with Kindle web-browsers enabled:
  A drawback when web-browsing complex, multicolumn pages:  you have to read the left column material first, but that's not a problem with Wikipedia pages.
So it's best to be in Basic Mode for it.

"Basic Mode" will show at top middle while you're browsing Wikipedia if you have set it up.
It COULD be the default Internet-setting of your new Kindle and that'll save you the above steps.

SEARCHING WIKIPEDIA
* Turn on the wireless to access the Internet.*
  Normally, people would press the Menu button and go to 'Experimental' and then go to the "Bookmarks" page (which is likely on the Kindle International model, even in countries with the web browser disabled currently) and then they would click on Amazon's pre-set 'Wikipedia' link on that page.

  However, you'd then need to type in the Search term, and that keyboard is not optimal as web browser input :-) and there are too many steps involved.

TIP: If I see a word, name, or phrase in a book or article I'm reading and want to know more about it, I can (1) search the book for that or (2) put the cursor in front of the word to get the inline-dictionary summary definition.

Normally, we just type out a word or phrase for a search.

 But there's another way and I use it often.  (This tip works with Kindle (U.S.),  Kindle (Global),  and Kindle DX.)

  I start a "highlighting" process on a word or phrase of interest in a book or article by clicking in front of the word(s) w/the 5-way cursor -- but instead of ending the highlighting at a certain point in the usual Kindle way, I end it with a Spacebar-press and that copies the highlighted word(s) into the search-box that comes up when pressing the Spacebar at that point.

  When doing this:  instead of opting to 'find' the result in my book or periodical, I can choose from the other options in that bar, which include 'Wikipedia' as the search-location ( I love this.)

  Here are the steps.

  1.   Begin to highlight the word or phrase that you want to search, by pressing down the 5-way button where you want to begin the copy of the search-word(s).

  2.   5-way to the right, and when you get to the last character to be highlighted,   be sure to NOT press the 5-way button down to end the highlighting of the name.

  3.   Instead, press the space bar.  That'll bring up a search field at the bottom.

  4.   Your now-highlighted word or phrase is pasted into the search bar.

  5.   "find"  is the default Action shown (at the right) to be done by the Kindle -- and that finds instances of the search-phrase in the book.
  But that's not what we want in this case.

      Instead, 5-way to the right until you see the Action wanted, which is 'Wikipedia' for this topic, and then click on the 5-way while 'Wikipedia' is highlighted.

Tip 2:
Anything you highlight, copy and paste this way, you have the option of searching for in Wikipedia

Caution: The Kindle doesn't search substrings.  You need to search a full word.  Searching just part of a word won't work.  But I can usually find a word that works.

TIP 3:
After browsing Wikipedia search results and reading the one(s) you want,
  press the 'BACK' button to return to the list of results and then press 'BACK' button once more to get back to the page you were on before the search.

You should be back at your book or article.

I hope this helps! To US & Canada folks, a fun, stomach-filling Thanksgiving Night.


UPDATE1
11/28/09 at 3:06 AM (Original posting 11/26/09 at 3:24 PM))
To make your access probably several times faster, if images are not necessary:
  DISABLE IMAGES by doing the below while browsing a webpage:
  . Click on Menu button
  . Click on 'Settings' option
  . Go down to "Disable Images" and click on that.
Remember to go back and "Enable Images" when you want them though.

UPDATE2
11/28/09 at 3:06 AM (Original posting 11/26/09 at 3:24 PM))
For Wikipedia lookups, the Kindle 2 and DX automatically take you to http://en.m.wikipedia.org.

  Some other mobile units use http://mobile.wikipedia.org, which has no images and makes sure that sub-categories are links you have to click, rather than included on the page as happens with the Amazon Kindle's choice.
  I prefer the Kindle's inclusion of other pages, even if that takes longer to load, since then you can page through them instead of moving the cursor to the link and clicking and then waiting for each page-set.  Load-times for just one section at a time will be faster with the mobile.wikipedia.org choice over the default Amazon choice that loads pages for all the subcategories at once (but I prefer the latter).

  When you try to do a new bookmark for the alternate Wikipedia, the Kindle feels it's the same one and will do it only if you allow it to overwrite the Wikipedia bookmark that is already there.  I wouldn't do that though.
  Disabling images if you need speed will be fast enough (for me).