The following blog post provides help documentation for Notepad for Kindle Touch.
Downloadable Help documents:
Notepad for Kindle Touch (doc)
Notepad for Kindle Touch (pdf)
Notepad is a Kindle application that allows you to create and store notes on your Kindle.
This help file is specifically for the Kindle Touch version of Notepad.
Notepad adds productivity to your Kindle in addition to the standard e-Reader functions. Basic uses for Notepad include:
- Meeting and Classroom Notes
- To-Do Lists
- Reminders
- Grocery Lists
- Reading and modifying text documents from your computer
Using Notepad
The first time you open Notepad, you will be taken to the All Notes screen and see a Welcome Note with some basic information about using the app. There is also an “If Found, Return To” note that can be used enter contact information in case you misplace your Kindle Touch and whoever finds it is inclined to return it.
Help Pages
The Help section (available in the Menu) provides quick notes on using different features in Notepad.
To navigate through the various Help pages, use the finger slide left for Next Page and finger slide right for Previous Page on your Kindle Touch.
Adding a New Note
A new note can be added from the All Notes and Recent Notes screens by clicking on the New Note button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
Once the New Text Note screen is up, you can simply start typing in the note’s title/name and body. If the note becomes longer than one Kindle screen in length, you will see the Page 1 of 1 legend at the bottom of the screen expand to match the current length. In addition, a running character count also displays in the bottom of the screen. The notes are limited to 3099 characters and titles are limited to 20 characters.
There are four buttons at the bottom of the screen.
- Save – saves the note with the current title. If no title has been provided, you will prompted to enter a title. Note remains open for further editing/additions.
- Save As – saves the current note under a new title. New note remains open for editing/additions.
- Save & Exit – saves the current note and returns to the previous Note display screen.
- Cancel – if no changes have been made to the note, leaves the note and returns to the previous Note display screen. If changes have been made to the note, you will be prompted to save (if desired).
As with any electronic device, it is recommended that you get in the habit of saving your work often in case of system interruption.
Naming Notes
We recommend using note titles that will make it easy for you to determine the contents of your note.
Note titles/names are limited to 20 characters. In order to meet the criteria of Text (.txt) files on most computer operating systems, only letters, numbers and certain special characters are allowed in note titles.
Viewing and Editing Notes
To View or Edit Notes, press on the name of a desired note and you will see a pop-up with options to View, Edit, Delete, or Cancel.
You can tap directly on a note name in order to open it for editing.
All Notes vs Recent Notes
The All Notes screen provides a record of all notes available in Notepad. This list can be sorted by note title or by date. To navigate to additional screens of notes, use the finger slide method for Next Page or Previous Page on your Kindle Touch.
The Recent Notes screen provides the 20 most recent notes accessed in Notepad. If there are fewer than 20 notes available, the list may be shorter. This list can also be sorted by note title or by date. To navigate to additional screens of notes, use the finger slide method for Next Page or Previous Page on your Kindle Touch.
Searching Notes
Note titles and contents can be searched using either the Search Notes screen or via the “search by keyword” feature on the All Notes and Recent Notes screens.
The Search Notes screen allows you to search by note title and/or by text in the body of the note. A combination of searching in both fields allows you to search even deeper. This can be very useful when you have many notes in the application. The results of the search will come up automatically as you type search strings. These results display in the following format:
Note Title A
Note A string snippet (starting with search string)
Note Title B
Note B string snippet (starting with search string)
…
The “search by keyword” feature searches through both note title and body for the search string. The results of the search will come up automatically as you type search strings. These results display in the following format:
Note Title A Time or Date
Note Title B Time or Date
Sorting Notes
Notes can be sorted either alphabetically by note title or by note date (the last time the note was saved). The default option is alphabetically by title.
You can choose to sort notes by selecting ‘Sort by Date’ or ‘Sort by Title’ in Menu.
Backup and Restore Notes
Using Backup and Restore on both the Kindle Touch and your computer will guarantee that you will have your files when needed. For more details on how to backup and restore your files, please refer to the section on Backup and Restore Notes.
Transferring Notes
Transferring Notes between your Kindle Touch and a computer is a very quick and easy process. For details, please refer to the section on Transferring Notes.
Closing Notepad
Notepad can be closed by pressing the Home key.
Backup and Restore Notes
The Backup/Restore page provides you the ability to both backup your entire sets of notes, and restore a set from among your backed-up sets. This is a good habit to get into because you never know when you might modify or delete an important note that you will need later.
In order to get to the Backup/Restore page from any screen in Notepad, press the Menu key. Navigate through the Menu and select ‘Back up Notes’ to enter the Backup/Restore page.
Prior to making your first Backup, the page will show six empty Backup slots as well as an ‘auto save’ slot we have added for additional Backup safety.
Creating a Backup:
Tap to select the Backup slot you would like to use (order does not matter).
Press on the Backup slot and you will see four available options:
Backup Delete Restore Cancel
Select ‘Backup’
A pop-up box will open allowing you to enter a description/title for your Backup. Enter the desired name and then select the Backup button. We recommend naming the Backup with some useful tag such as ‘First Weekly’ or ‘Before Cleanup’.
(If you decide to not make a Backup at this time, select Cancel.)
The Backup description/title will now appear in the chosen slot. The date and timestamp for your Backup will appear on the line below.
If you run out of slots and need to make additional Backups, you can either overwrite a previous backup that is no longer needed, or copy Backups to your computer and free up a slot. (See section on Copying Backups to a Computer).
Deleting a Backup:
If you have run out of slots and want to make additional Backups or no longer need a Backup you created for a special purpose, it is very simple to delete a Backup. Please make sure that you no longer need this Backup because this action is permanent.
From the Backup/Restore page:
Tap to select the Backup slot you would like to delete.
Press on the slot and you will see four available options:
Backup Delete Restore Cancel
Select ‘Delete’
You will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete this backup. If you are sure you want to delete the backup, select ‘OK’. If you are not certain you want the delete the backup, select ‘Cancel’.
Restoring a Backup:
If you have deleted/modified one or more notes that you need to be able to access, the Restore feature on the Backup/Restore page allows you to Restore an entire set of notes.
Note: This feature will restore a previous set of notes over your current set of notes. Any changes or additions to your notes that have been made after the date and timestamp of the Backup you choose to Restore will be lost. We recommend making a new Backup of your current data prior to the Restore.
In order to Restore a set of notes, from the Backup/Restore page:
Tap to select the Backup slot you would like to restore.
Press on the backup slot and you will see four available options:
Backup Delete Restore Cancel
Select ‘Restore’
Your previous notes will automatically be restored to their condition at the time the Backup was made.
Viewing Backups on a Computer without Restoring:
Plug the USB cable into both your Kindle Touch and the computer.
The Kindle Touch should shift into USB Drive Mode.
Your computer should open a prompt asking you which action you would like to take. Select ‘Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer’. Click OK.
Your computer should open Windows Explorer to the root of the drive assigned to your Kindle Touch (this may be different depending upon your computer setup).
Double click on the ‘.active-content-data’ folder.
Look for the subfolder named ‘8a5982e82ae68fb201 2bc688405e0026’ and open this folder.
Your Backups are stored in the ‘backup’ subfolder.
Please refer to the screenshots in the help file to see the relationship between the backup slots on the Kindle Touch and their backup folders on your computer. The first Kindle slot on the list corresponds to subfolder ‘Slot 0’, the second Kindle slot corresponds to subfolder ‘Slot 1’, etc. Notice that the <empty slot> in the Kindle does not have a backup subfolder (this would be named ‘Slot 2’) until a Backup is stored there.
Copying Backups to a Computer:
Plug the USB cable into both your Kindle Touch and the computer.
The Kindle Touch should shift into USB Drive Mode.
Your computer should open a prompt asking you which action you would like to take. Select ‘Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer’. Click OK.
Your computer should open Windows Explorer to the root of the drive assigned to your Kindle Touch (this may be different depending upon your computer setup).
Double click on the ‘.active-content-data’ folder.
Look for the subfolder named ‘8a5982e82ae68fb201 2bc688405e0026’ and open this folder.
Your Backups are stored in the ‘backup’ subfolder.
Select all desired Backups that you want to transfer. You may select more than one Backup by holding down the CTRL key and selecting the folders one at a time or select a group of Backups by holding down the Shift key and selecting the first and last folders in the contiguous group.
Right click and select Copy.
Navigate to the desired folder on your computer where you want to transfer the Backups.
Right clock and select Paste.
When done transferring Backups, eject the Kindle Touch from your computer and disconnect the USB cable.
Transferring Notes
Transferring notes between the Kindle Touch and a computer is very easy to do. In order to transfer notes, you will need to have the USB cable that was provided when you received your Kindle Touch.
Transferring Notes from your Kindle Touch to a computer
Plug the USB cable into both your Kindle Touch and the computer.
The Kindle Touch should shift into USB Drive Mode.
Your computer should open a prompt asking you which action you would like to take. Select ‘Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer’. Click OK.
Your computer should open Windows Explorer to the root of the drive assigned to your Kindle Touch (this may be different depending upon your computer setup).
Double click on the ‘.active-content-data’ folder.
Look for the subfolder named ‘8a5982e82ae68fb201 2bc688405e0026’ and open this folder. (It is easiest to just look for the folder name ending in e0026).
Choose the ‘work’ subfolder.
Your notes are stored in the ‘user’ subfolder.
If your Kindle Touch is the D: drive on your computer, the path/folder will be – D:\.active-content-data\8a5982e82ae68fb2012bc688405e0026\work\user.
Select all desired notes that you want to transfer. You may select More than one note by holding down the CTRL key and selecting the note titles or select a contiguous group of notes by holding down the Shift key and selecting the first and last notes in the desired group.
Right click and select Copy (or Cut – if you want to permanently move them off your Kindle Touch).
Navigate to the desired folder on your computer where you want to transfer the notes.
Right click and select Paste.
Note: All transferred files will be saved in Text (.txt) format.
When done transferring files, eject the Kindle Touch from your computer and disconnect the USB cable.
Transferring Notes from a computer to your Kindle Touch
Plug the USB cable into both your Kindle Touch and the computer.
The Kindle Touch should shift into USB Drive Mode.
Your computer should open a prompt asking you which action you would like to take. Select ‘Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer’. Click OK.
Your computer should open Windows Explorer to the root of the drive assigned to your Kindle Touch (this may be different depending upon your computer setup).
Navigate to the desired files on your computer that you want to transfer to your Kindle Touch.
Select the desired Text (.txt) files you want to transfer. You may select more than one note by holding down the CTRL key and selecting the note titles or select a contiguous group of notes by holding down the Shift key and selecting the first and last notes in the desired group.
Right click and select Copy (or Cut – if you want to permanently move them off your Kindle Touch).
Navigate to the drive assigned to your Kindle Touch.
Double click on the ‘.active-content-data’ folder.
Look for the subfolder named ‘8a5982e82ae68fb201 2bc688405e0026’ and open this folder. (It is easiest to just look for the folder name ending in e0026).
Choose the ‘work’ subfolder.
Your notes are stored in the ‘user’ subfolder.
If your Kindle Touch is the D: drive on your computer, the path/folder will be – D:\.active-content-data\8a5982e82ae68fb2012bc688405e0026\work\user.
Right click and select Paste.
When done transferring files, eject the Kindle Touch from your computer and disconnect the USB cable.
Notepad Kindle Touch App Questions & Answers
Q: Can I move notes from my Kindle Touch to my computer or the other way around?
A: Yes. All you need (in addition to the Kindle and your computer) is the USB cable you use to charge your Kindle Touch. For further directions, please refer to the section on Transferring Notes.
Q: I accidentally deleted a note that I really Back up Notes feature since you created that note, you can restore a previous set of notes (after backing up your current list to make sure you don’t lose more notes). For further directions, please refer to the section on Backup and Restore Notes.
Q: Why is Notepad only $1?
A: To make it available to as many Kindle owners as possible.
Q: Why is Notepad not free?
A: Because it wasn’t free to make it.
Q: I created a note the other day and can’t remember what it is called. How can I find my notes from two days ago?
A: Use the ‘Sort by Date’ in the Menu to switch your notes from being alphabetically sorted by title to being sorted by date and then review your notes from the date you saved the note.
Q: Can I load Microsoft Word or PDF documents in Notepad and work on them there?
A: No. Notepad is only able to work with Text files (files saved with a .txt extension).
Q: Some of my notes have a date and some have a time on them. What is the difference?
A: Notes that have been saved today will show a timestamp (based on your Kindle time) of when they were last saved. Notes saved prior to today will be displayed with the month and date saved.
Q: How do I delete a note?
A: From the All Notes, Recent Notes, or Search Notes screen, press on the note title for the note you want to delete and select Delete.
Q: How long can my note title be?
A: To make sure they fit on the screen, note titles are limited to 20 characters.
Q: I’ve been making changes to many of my notes today. How come they are not all showing up on the Recent Notes pages?
A: Recent Notes only displays the 20 most recently accessed notes.
Q: Is there a limit to how long my note can be?
A: Yes. In order to make the notes a reasonable size for the Kindle Touch, we have limited notes to being under 3100 characters (including spaces and line returns).
Q: I am working on a big document for work and want to be able to edit it in Notepad. How can I do this and stay under the character size limit?
A: Using Microsoft Word, wordpad, notepad or another word processing program on your computer, break your document up into smaller files and label them in order like projectx1, projectx2, projectx3, etc. You can then work on the smaller files and compile them back together when you transfer the notes from your Kindle Touch to your computer.
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