Kindle 2 and Kindle DX Keyboard Shortcuts
1 of 11 in Series: The Essentials of Using a Kindle
Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of keys that you can press on your Kindle to perform various functions. Often, you can access these same functions using the five-way controller to select a series of menu options. But the keyboard shortcuts offer a convenient and faster way of carrying out commonly needed functions.
In addition to key combinations, you can enter shortcut commands in any search field. (To get to the search screen, press the Home button, press the Menu button, and then select Search.) You can see a list of those shortcut commands by entering @help in the search field. Then press the Enter key, which is right below the Del key.
To enter the @ symbol, press the SYM key on the Kindle keyboard and use the five-way controller to select the @ symbol — or any other symbol you need. You need to be in the process of typing text for the symbols to appear.
Here are the keyboard shortcuts and shortcut commands available for your Kindle:
| To Make This Happen | Do This |
|---|---|
| Show the time | Type @time or press the Menu button (the time appears at the top of the screen) |
| Display free memory | Press the Menu button (free memory appears in the top-left corner of the screen) |
| Capture a screenshot | Press Alt+Shift+G (the image is saved as a .gif file in the documents folder, and you can copy or view it when the Kindle is connected to your computer) |
| Go to the Kindle Store | Press Alt+Home button |
| Open the Kindle store with search results for book titles containing keyword | Type @store keyword |
| Jump to a particular page on your Home screen | Press and hold Alt, type the page number, and then press the five-way controller |
| Go to the next article in a newspaper or magazine | Move the five-way controller to the right, or press Alt+Next Page or Alt+ Prev Page |
| Quickly search the Web from your Home screen | Type your search terms, use the five-way controller to move the cursor to the right, and then select Google as the search category |
| Add a bookmark | Press Alt+B |
| Play or pause an MP3 track | Press Alt+spacebar |
| Advance to the next song | Press Alt+F |
| Pause an Audible audiobook | Press the spacebar |
| Start or stop the Text-to-Speech feature | Press Shift+SYM |
| Pause or resume the Text-to-Speech feature | Press the spacebar |
| Change the spacing and number of lines per page (the default is 3) | Press Alt+Shift+number (where number is from 1 through 9) |
| Delete all text in the editing window | Press Alt+Del |
| Refresh the display | Press Alt+G |
