Sunday, March 11, 2012

Amazon finally has RESET FURTHEST PAGE READ feature for Kindle books. Update

RESET FURTHER PAGE READ Feature is Finally Here

Jesslyn of Knuckleheadnetwork alerted us to it on Twitter about it March 7, and I saw and retweeted her info on March 8 and then forgot to write about it on the blog, so here it is.

Jesslyn gives the basic steps with images, so click on that link to see her announcement of and intro to a feature we've long screamed for requested from Amazon.  They finally quietly delivered.

Amazon Help wording doesn't quite match what you see
But, for the record, for readers here --

Essentially, at your ManageYourKindle page at Amazon (UK version here), you reset the last-page-read IN the Kindle book listing in that library by choosing, from the long, light-green 'Actions' button, to 'Clear' the furthest page set, and you're asked if you're sure.  If you're sure, confirm, and then when you NEXT open the book on one of your devices, that will be the actual "furthest page read" that will be sync'd across all your devices and apps.

  Preparing last-page-read before starting this process
  So, what Amazon is not saying is that you should make sure you're on the page you DID last read and want recorded as 'last-read' before you start this process, so that when you next Open that book, you're on the page you want registered as last-page-read.

  In their Learn more Help section, they:
  1.  don't (today, 3/11) show on this Help page's action area the new option
       that is newly included under the Actions button
  2.  mis-title, in their description, the button option as "Reset..." rather than "Clear..."

  They do, though, have that descriptive paragraph on it with the slight mislabeling.

It could be that they haven't checked the added section yet and that's why no general announcement's been made.


Upshot: It's about time!  Very welcome feature.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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6 comments:

  1. This bit of news has just made my day.

    I love the ability to synch locations, but constantly made that reference useless by occasionally touching a citation number (which takes you to the back of the book), or inadvertently touching the progress bar (thus moving the pointer) ... both on the Kindle Fire.

    Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too, Anonymous. A footnote in the back of the book just ruins the whole thing.

      Sure thing. I'm glad Jesslyn was aware of the change, which has not been announced as far as I can see.

      Delete
  2. Unfortunately I have books not purchased from Amazon that I emailed to my kindle. Those do not show in the manage screen to clear furthest read. Now that my wife is reading a series that I have already read (17 book series) this has become a massively annoying issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nick, you're right of course, because the feature is for "Kindle books" and those have special formatting features involving server processes that manage everyone's reading of any book but they chose not to allocate server time to change last-read (at this point at least) for books from other sources. At least they're not only readable, but I can use the dictionary, search Wikipedia (or the general web) for a word or phrase and also annotate and copy passages.

      There IS the old-fashioned way of doing it, which isn't too hard. Tap on the top edge to get the Menu and choose GoTo (depending on which Kindle you're using) and choose to go to Location 1. Then tap the top again and choose Home icon to SAVE where you are in the book.

      Then reopen the book and it puts you on the Location you went to -- and in my case just now, Location 1.

      They were probably free books? DRM'd books can't be emailed to your docs area, so that means you could remove them from the Cloud and re-mail them to your account, and then you'd get a fresh start. She could read your book without your annotations or bookmarks. But the first method takes much less time....

      Let me know you got this and whether or not it helps in your case. Thanks.

      I tested with a doc that was an article from the NY Times.

      - Andrys

      Delete
  3. Be even more awesome if they allowed you to clear this from your kindle device rather than having to log on to your account on your PC.

    Rick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think they do this because iet's too easy to remove a book permanently this way, inadvertently, or even for someone else using your phone, say, to do it without knowing.

      Once you remove it from the servers or 'Cloud' area, it's final, and if you ever decide you want to look up something in that book, you'd have to pay for it again...

      Delete

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