Monday, November 22, 2010

Kindle Skills - Contacts on your Kindle

If you (like many) have a tendency to have your Kindle close at all times, you may want to let it do "double duty" as a personal information manager (pim?).

Create an alphabetized contact list in any word processor. I prefer a word processor because you can keep the formatting simpler and choose how to save it, so it will transfer to your Kindle easily. A .doc file can be converted and transferred to your Kindle without much fuss.

Name (first and last)
Address:
zip:
Phone:
Other Phone:
Notes:
Photo: Yes, you can even insert a small photo if you want. Your working file will need to be a .doc or .rtf file though, to accommodate it (no text file). Then you can use either Calibre or Mobipocket Reader to convert it to a Kindle file you can then drag to your little machine's documents folder.

Make your Contacts document personal. Because it is a list, you can insert each addition alphabetically, as you need to, with the header for each entry as the name of the entry. It doesn't have to be only names. I use mine for all sorts of things. Here is a example where I copied and pasted a portion of an email for documentation:
Once your file is converted and transferred to your Kindle, it will be searchable, like any other "book" and very easy to use. It will always open (with your Kindle) to the last page you were viewing, and will be listed on your home screen by the file name/title you give it.

Keep your original as a working file and update it whenever you want. Then reconvert it and send the new file to your Kindle again and again, replacing the older one with the newer, updated file.

Do whatever you need to do to make this document work for you. And have fun with it.
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