Tips & Tricks: Using the Fire While Charging, Book Notes, and Adjusting Screen Timeout

Continuing our theme this week of looking at some of the basic functions of the Kindle Fire, we'll spend a little time today looking at some of the tools available to you while you're reading for things like looking up words in the dictionary and taking notes. After that, we'll dive into the settings a bit more and tell you how to control the time it takes for the screen to dim while inactive.

But first, we got a very cool tip from on of our readers about a great way to make better use of the Fire while it's charging. I don't know about you, but for me I rarely use the Fire while it's charging because of the cord and everything, making the device so cumbersome, but Billy Crow found a great solution that makes reading or watching videos while charging a much better experience. Considering the Fire can use cell phone chargers, he found that some other accessories work as well, name the Micro USB SKN6258 Adapter.

In Billy's own words, "I got my part in today to make the Fire a little easier to use while it's charging. All this is, is a connector with an elbow (or L). You don't have the usb cable coming straight out of the bottom of the fire causing pressure on the connection. I can rest it on my stomach and read the Fire while its charging. I've tried it out today and it works great."

And it's very nice to see that the Micro USB SKN6258 Adapter only costs about $4.00.

Also worth mentioning is that there's an extra loooong 6 feet USB Data Sync cable for the Fire that's an astounding 70% off! It's the CCM®, 6 Foot Long USB to Micro-USB Cable.

Kindle Fire Reading Tools

There are a number of helpful functions at your disposal while you're reading, should you come across a word you don't know or something that you want to remember. Perhaps the easiest one is to use the magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen to search your document for a specific word. I'll often use this when I'm trying to find a specific section, but I'm not sure where the location of it is. Remembering an usual word or two that was there makes it easy to search for a passage.

A function that's a little less obvious is the ability to highlight sections and take notes. When you find something in the text that you want to take note of, touch your finger to the beginning of the phrase, line, or paragraph and drag it to the end of the section you want to mark. Lift your finger, and you'll see an options menu that'll allow you to Highlight or Take Notes. Highlighting just one word in this way will also call up the dictionary definition, which is handy and quick.

Setting the Screen Timeout

The time it takes for your Fire to activate the screensaver is fully adjustable, giving you the option of having it come on after as little as 30 seconds of inactivity, as much as an hour, or for it to never come on. The default is 5 minutes, I believe, but if you're a serious energy-saver or are having issues with the screensaver coming on while you're using applications or something, you may want to change it. Here's how.

First, tap Settings in the upper right hand corner, and then tap More to bring up the expanded settings menu. Tap Display and then Screen Timeout to see the various options you have: 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15, 30, 45, 1 hour, or never. Make your selection, and voila!