Kindle Paperwhite for Dummies (39 page)

Browsing basics

Your Kindle Paperwhite web browser displays the web address, or URL, in its address bar for the last web page that you accessed. To change that URL or enter a new one, tap the address bar and use the onscreen keyboard to enter your desired URL. Tap the arrow to the right to navigate to the site, as shown in Figure 9-13.

When entering the URL, you can leave out the
http://
prefix, as well as the
www
part of the address. For example, you can type
cnn.com
rather than
http://www.cnn.com
.

On web pages that have more content than can fit on one displayed page, a scroll bar appears on the right side of the browser. You can drag your finger around the page to scroll up and down to view more of the page.

You can use bookmarks to save frequently used web pages and to avoid re-entering long URLs from the Kindle Paperwhite’s onscreen keyboard. Here are the essentials for working with web browser bookmarks:

Adding a bookmark:
Tap Menu⇒ Bookmark This Page.

Accessing your saved bookmarks:
From the web browser, tap Menu⇒Bookmarks. Use this method to access the sample bookmarks that Amazon has preloaded on your Kindle Paperwhite as well.

Deleting a bookmark:
Tap Remove at the bottom of the bookmarks screen. A check box appears for each displayed bookmark. Tap the check box for one or more bookmarks, and then tap Remove.

Editing a bookmark:
Tap Edit at the bottom of the bookmarks screen. Tap a bookmark to edit its name.

Given the nature of the Kindle Paperwhite’s display size, you’ll probably want to zoom in on areas of a web page. Unpinch on the display to zoom in, and pinch to zoom out. (See Chapter 3 for more on how to navigate the Kindle Paperwhite’s touchscreen.) When the page is zoomed in, you can pan around the web page by swiping your finger across the display.

Figure 9-13:
Kindle Paperwhite’s web browser offers stripped-down but usable Web-surfing capabilities.

Special settings

You don’t often have to be concerned about the default settings of your Kindle Paperwhite’s web browser. However, situations may arise in which tinkering with the settings can resolve problems and improve the speed of browsing from one page to another.

You can see the available options from any web page by tapping Menu⇒Browser Settings. The following options are available:

Clear History:
Your Kindle Paperwhite saves the URLs and content from web pages you’ve visited previously, to speed up load times when you visit those pages again. Use the Clear History option to delete this saved information.

Clear Cookies:
Some web pages save small strings of information, or
cookies,
on your Kindle Paperwhite’s hard drive. Cookies can be used, for example, to save your login information so you don’t have to re-enter it on each page of a site. Use the Clear Cookies option to delete this information. You may want to do this if your web browser doesn’t respond or responds very slowly.

Disable JavaScript:
Many websites use JavaScript to provide enhanced functionality, such as submenus that appear dynamically when a main menu option is selected. If you find that the web browser responds slowly, try using this option to disable JavaScript.

Disable Images:
Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, web page graphics and pictures can be slow to load. You can choose to eliminate the images and view only the text content of web pages by selecting the Disable Images option.