Kindle Paperwhite for Dummies (15 page)

Front Matter:
Content that appears before the start of the book, such as a dedication.

Chapter listing:
The list of chapters, similar to a traditional table of contents. Then tap a chapter title or number to go directly to that chapter.

If the chapter listing is more than one page long, swipe up the list with your finger to advance to additional chapters. A scroll bar indicator on the right provides an approximation of the length of the list (refer to Figure 4-6).

About the Author:
Biographical information about the author of the book.

Also Available:
A list of additional books by the same publisher.

Copyright Page:
Legal and copyright information and the ISBN for the book.

End:
The end of the book.

Figure 4-6:
Use the Go To menu to move to different sections of a book.

Finding your place

The Kindle Paperwhite gives you several options for knowing your location in a book.

As you read, the area at the bottom of the screen displays a location number for the text currently in view and a percentage indicating how much of the book you’ve read. Tap the location number to cycle through the minutes left in the chapter, the hours and minutes left in the book, and the location. Your final choice becomes the default.

All e-books have location information, but not all have page numbers. (For example, if a book exists only in e-book form, page numbers are not available.) Time to dig into the difference in these terms and how you may use them to reference different parts of a book:

Location:
The concept of a fixed, printed “page” doesn’t apply to e-books because you can vary the font type, font size, line spacing, and words per line; these changes affect how much of the e-book is displayed on a given screen. Instead of page numbers, e-books use
location
as a marker indicating how far you are in the e-book. The location remains constant even if the screen or font size changes.

One “unit” of location is equivalent to 128 bytes of information in the e-book file.

Page number:
Many e-books can also display a page number that reflects the page number in the printed edition of the book. This information is helpful, for example, if you’re in a reading group in which some members use Kindles and others use printed copies of the book. Note, however, that you must tap the top of the screen to see the page number display, which appears at the bottom of the screen along with the location, the percent read, and the time left in the book and chapter.

For e-books that display page numbers, you may be curious as to which version of the printed book matches those page numbers. You can find this out by going to e-book’s product details on Amazon (between the editorial reviews and customer reviews). The matching print edition is displayed as the Page Numbers Source ISBN.