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Lisa
(new)
Jul 05, 2015 06:56PM
Hi. This might seem like a lame question, but how do I get a book into the Kindle viewer (for PC) so that I can check it? I am totally stymied which is rather frustrating since I was able to figure out how to create my own epub and convert it to .mobi. I guess I've met my match with the kindle viewer!
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Two ways. On step 7 in the set up process, simply click the button that says "Preview Book" and an emulator will pop up. I believe it defaults to the fire, but you can check what it would look like on a variety of devices.The other way is right under that and is a little more complicated because you will need to download the book and then send it to your kindle device. Each device, including the PC viewer, has a direct email under the 'about' section. You would need to email it to that address. There may be an easier way on the PC, but I have yet to find one.
Thanks. I'm not sure what you meant by step 7, but I figured it out. I just had to double click on the darn thing and it opened in the kindle viewer. D'oh! I was trying to figure out how to get it 'into' the app so it showed up like a book.
Step 7 is when you upload your file to KDP. I would recommend that you use the file Amazon converts to preview because even if you create a mobi yourself, when you upload it to KDP, it goes through a conversion process and if any formatting errors happen, that is where they will show up.
Download and install MOBI Pocket Reader. When you make your review books, make sure it doesn't have Digital Rights Management checked. Drag and drop the book into the reader. Doubleclick on the icon. Read.
Lisa wrote: "Thanks. I'm not sure what you meant by step 7, but I figured it out. I just had to double click on the darn thing and it opened in the kindle viewer. D'oh! "Sounds like you're talking about the Kindle app for PC. And, yeah, that's all you need to do. I believe when you double click on a .mobi file anywhere on your system, it will open in that app, but it will also place a copy of it in the My Documents/Libraries/Kindle Content folder (something like that).
If you want to check to see how your .mobi would look in different Kindle versions, though, you might want to look at Kindle Previewer (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...).
It's "a graphical user interface tool that emulates how books display across Kindle devices and apps."
If you also install KindleGen (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...) then the Previewer will also let you convert HTML and XML documents (like .opf files), as well as ePub files to KF8 and Mobi formats.
You just have to make sure you follow the install directions for KindleGen to the letter to make that work. Don't ever launch KindleGen by itself unless you're an old school command prompt addict. If you don't know what that is...just don't open it. He, he.
Don't ever launch KindleGen by itself unless you're an old school command prompt addict. If you don't know what that is...just don't open it. He, he."Actually, that's how I ran KindleGen to create the .mobi. Is there another way? LOL
So here's another question, I viewed my book using the Kindle Previewer (thanks Micah for the suggestion) and it looked great in the Fire HD, everything formatted perfectly and it all fit on one page, no scrolling but for the other two (Fire HDX and Fire HDX 8.9) the formatting was fine but you had to scroll down to see the bottom of the page. Is this a problem?
Lisa wrote: "Don't ever launch KindleGen by itself unless you're an old school command prompt addict. If you don't know what that is...just don't open it. He, he."Actually, that's how I ran KindleGen to create the .mobi. Is there another way? LOL"
Yes. There's Kindle Previewer!
Nice thing there is you just tell it where your file is and press convert. It tells you if there are warnings or errors, and if it converts then it automatically opens it in a preview view. Then you can look at it in whatever Kindle device format you like and you can forget that there is even such a thing as a command prompt!
I'm a systems analyst (former developer) so command prompts don't scare me.
I'm a database analyst so I just want to do it the fastest way possible!Convert & view in one process: two for the price of one.
Micah wrote: "I'm a database analyst so I just want to do it the fastest way possible!Convert & view in one process: two for the price of one."
Any thoughts on whether the fact that you have to scroll down to see the bottom of the page for Fire HDX is a concern?
I think that's just a matter of the screen size for that device compared to the viewing pane of the app. I think that device has nearly a 9" viewing size.Shouldn't be an issue.
