QUESTIONS: DO YOU HAVE ANY? If so, add them to Comments area and I'll either reply with an answer or do blog entries on some. I'd like to start a Question Bag in any case.
Q: I don't see real page numbers in my Kindle books. Shouldn't they be there now?
A: That depends on several things:
1. Are you using a Kindle 3?
I have no idea whether Amazon will upgrade older Kindle software for Kindle 2 and DX's to have these. I would think they'd be included eventually. Amazon often takes 6 months to get to the old Kindles with updated software and it's been longer than that for some changes that should have been added to the DX Graphite at least. The Kindle 1 with its different type of screen probably would not be updated, as the added calculations could slow down more that slower model.
2. Is your Kindle 3 using Update v3.1 ?
Press Menu button, then Settings, and your software version no. will be at the bottom right. If by now, you don't have v3.1, I'd call Customer Support at 866-321-8851 but if you're outside the U.S., try Call me, which is able to call back people in several countries but provides an email form if your country is not on the Call-me list. Ask them to help you with it, if a manual download (rather than automated) is required at this point. Sometimes, they can send one to your Kindle, if the update should have been sent earlier.
If you're comfortable with using your Kindle's USB cable (that is part of your power cord), to download an update and put it on your Kindle, see this blog's article on software update v3.1 for information on how to do that.
3. If you have Kindle 3 with v3.1 software, have you tried pressing Menu button?
That is the only way to see the real page numbers. Amazon decided to keep the location and real-page numbers out of the way and showing only the percentage of the book you've read so far. Press Menu and you'll see the page number *IF* Amazon has added them to that book..
4. Most Kindle books don't have page numbers yet.
Amazon is adding page numbers to books and they definitely prioritize them.
The books must be matched to a specific printed edition and its ISBN #.
If a book has been processed by Amazon to add real-page numbers, this information will show up in the product page's Product Detail (you need to scroll down a bit to see that).
In their original announcement, they said they've "“added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books.”"
They've continued adding them at a fast pace, from what I read a couple of weeks ago, and they include the usual publishers and also university press books.
5. NON-Amazon books definitely won't have them, as Amazon can't calculate page numbers on books they don't have on their servers.
Amazon wrote the following in a Kindle Post Daily over a month ago.
' We created algorithms to match the text of print books to Kindle books and organized all of this in the cloud, using our own AWS platform. The results of this work are stored in Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, where we track the complete history of every page matching file we’ve produced.
We even found a way to deliver page numbers to books that customers had already purchased – without altering those books in any way, so customers’ highlights, notes, and reading location are preserved exactly as they were.
Some other e-bookstores have added virtual “page numbers” to e-books, but we’ve found that these approaches can be confusing and often inconsistent – they don’t map to the page numbers in physical books, and in some cases they don’t account for title pages, blank pages, and other nuances that we see in print books.' [ Andrys' note here: Sony and iBook page numbers don't map to print-book pages. ] '... We want you to lose yourself in the reading, so page numbers are only displayed when you push the menu button... '
Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
Andrys,
ReplyDeleteJust a couple of notes:
1. For at least the Kindle for the PC App, no special menu button pushing or anything else seems necessary to display page numbers.
2. According to Kindle Nation Daily, the Special Apps $114 kindles have been shipped early.
Regards, Don Lloyd
Thanks for posting kindle news. I added your page to my favorite.
ReplyDeleteDon,
ReplyDeleteThanks much for the added info for the PC's Kindle app. While this blog entry was about the Kindle device itself, I'm interested to know how it works for any of the Kindle apps.
Wish they'd make it easier for us too. Not too hard to press Menu! but I like seeing it down there, actually, while reading. Old habit maybe.
As for the early shipping of $114 Kindles, it's been true for several days, and the product page shows this if people are interested in it, and the model shows up on all the Kindle pages along with other models. I just didn't deem it particularly newsworthy.
If it were a really new model, yes. Thanks though for making sure I knew.
Andrys,
ReplyDelete"...As for the early shipping of $114 Kindles, it's been true for several days, and the product page shows this if people are interested in it, and the model shows up on all the Kindle pages along with other models. I just didn't deem it particularly newsworthy. ..."
This is true, but but my experience is that if KindleWorld doesn't have it, it likely didn't happen! The sheer mass of Amazon content leaves me more than content to let you filter it.
Thanks, Don Lloyd
Hi Andrys, any idea what Amazon are doing where there is no print version, that is the book has only ever been published in ebook format? Will those get page numbers or not?
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteSorry, I got behind. Actually, no, I actually don't carry some of the press releases or stories I see that others do, so it's good to go visit a lot of blogs on this :-) Thanks for making sure I knew about something.
Dave,
I've not heard that they're planning to add 'virtual' page numbers to ebooks that have no equivalent print numbers. Probably too much on their plate, but it'd be nice if they did although it would start ocnfusing people on which 'pages' were 'real' and which weren't :-)
Dianne Gorman said on a thread I read today, that a Calibre plug-in will provide relative page-numbers for Kindle books that don't have them. If you use Calibre (which everyone agrees is a great organizational program), that'd be a good solution for now.
Dan,
ReplyDelete'confusing' rather than 'ocnfusing' :-)
HI!
ReplyDeleteI have both the K-3 and DX. I can not seem to send a document to them with working clickable links. I create the doc in word the links, work perfectly, then create PDF @ doc2pdf.net, links work still, then send to K's but not with clickable links. I tried other PDF makers same result. I transfer via USB to K's. I have no problem with any other doc's I create and send to K's. I am looking to create a doc with links to webpages.
LOVE THIS BLOG!!!
Annmarie
Annmarie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for such nice words + exclamation points :-) Glad you're enjoying it and the feedback is appreciated.
What you should do is just create the Word doc with links as you have and then send it to your special Kindle email-addresses from whatever address you approve for being able to send material to your Kindles at ManageYourKindle.
You'd send the doc to [you]@free.kindle.com
-- the [you] being the email-name you chose for a particular kindle's email name. Mine are 'andrysk3@freekindle.com' for my K3 and 'andrysgiant@free.kindle.com' for my DXG.
Amazon will convert the doc to a normal Kindle file with links intact.
They'll do it via WiFi for your Kindle 3 when you're connected.
With the DX, however, there's no WiFi, so it would cost 15 cents per megabyte of a file to send it by 3G wireless via the regular 3G-cellular capability of your DX (this is done by sending to [you]@kindle.com (no 'free.' in the address, in this case.
BUT, an alternative for the DX:
If you send to [you]@free.kindle.com and you have a 3G-only device like the DX or DXG, Amazon will convert the file and send your regular computer email a link to the converted Word doc file and you can download the converted file to your computer and move it to the Kindle DX's "documents" folder.
A quicker way for downloading to the DX is to attach the USB cable from the DX to the computer USB port and it'll be seen as a separate drive with the 'documents' folder visible (via your file manager).
Then you can download it straight into the Kindle's "documents" folder that way instead of to the computer first.
Will you be able to see the page number on a DX 4th Generation if you download a book that Amazon has placed page numbers in?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteSorry to say, I've not seen any update for the DX that gives them the real page numbers or added PDF features given the Kindle 3 in February 2011.
I do think it's ludicrous that this hasn't been done for the higher-priced DX with pearl screen.
I'm about to publish my book, both for kindle and createspace. How do I format my Mobi document with the page numbers from my createspace version, or is this something only Amazon can do?
ReplyDeleteScruffy,here's the formatting section of the Kindle Publishing forum. You should be able to get a good answer there.
Delete