How to Read Kindle Books on Your Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
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You don't need to buy a separate e-book tablet such as the Amazon Kindle to read your favorite e-books. The Amazon Kindle app comes pre-installed on your Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 so you can read e-books and periodicals just as easily on your Tab 2.
Open the Amazon Kindle app by tapping the Apps icon on the home screen and then tapping the Amazon Kindle icon in the Apps screen as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 Tap the Amazon Kindle icon to open the Kindle app.
The Kindle home screen appears. The Library area on the left side of the screen (see Figure 2) shows the Downloaded Items category selected. This category displays a list of all items you've downloaded from the Kindle Store on the right side of the screen. Tap on a category name in the Library area to view items contained within the category on the right side of the screen. The number of items in each category appears to the right of the category name.
When you start the Kindle app for the first time, you'll see that all the categories have no items in them. Start shopping for e-books in the Kindle Store by tapping the Kindle Store icon in the menu bar shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2 The Kindle Store icon has a shopping cart on the right side of the menu bar.
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The Kindle Store
The Browser app opens, and the screen displays a tab with the Kindle Store website so you can begin to shop in the store. As you can see in Figure 3, the web page is divided into four sections:
- The Search box and other links appear in the gray bar at the top of the page. You can also tap the Your Account link to sign in to your Amazon account.
- A list of category links on the left side of the page. You can tap on one of these links to narrow your search on the screen. For example, you can tap the Computers & Technology link to view Kindle e-books in that category.
- Featured titles appear in the middle column.
- Links to other Kindle and Amazon features in the right column. For example, when you scroll down the screen, you'll see a list of the top 10 bestselling books in both paid and free categories.
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Figure 3 Type a search term such as an author name or title in the Search box, and then initiate the search by tapping the Search button.
For this article, I’ll purchase an e-book. When you find an e-book and tap on the book title, the e-book information appears on the screen, as shown in Figure 4. You'll see the average rating for the e-book based on its customer reviews (five stars is best, one star is worst) and the price of the e-book. Some e-books may allow you to preview a few pages when you tap the book cover that has the "Click to LOOK INSIDE!" text above it.
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Figure 4 Scroll down the e-book information page to read a description of the book, read customer reviews, and receive related book suggestions from Amazon.
If you want to purchase the e-book, then tap the Buy Now with 1-Click button in the green box on the right side of the window, as shown in Figure 4. You’ll then need to sign into Amazon account (or create one) in the Amazon Sign In page.
After you go through the process of placing your order, you can switch to the Kindle app and check to see if the items you ordered have been downloaded to the app. If they haven’t, tap the Menu button at the right side of the Kindle menu bar and then tap Sync & Check For Items in the menu. The e-book(s) and/or periodical(s) should appear in the All Items list. You’ll learn how to view the e-book in this list, download the e-book, and open the e-book later in this article.
Some Important Notes
If the e-book downloads to a different device instead of to your Galaxy Tab 2, you can change this by tapping Your Account in the menu bar (to the right of the search box) and then tapping Manage Your Kindle in the drop-down menu. In the Your Kindle Library page shown in Figure 5, the list of e-books you ordered appears on the page.
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Figure 5 The most recent book you ordered appears at the top of the list of e-books you've purchased.
Tap the Actions button at the right side of the e-book entry in the list. In the drop-down menu, tap Deliver To My in the pop-up menu. Within the Deliver Title box that appears as shown in Figure 6, you’ll see the default delivery destination in the Deliver To box; in this example, it’s my iPad. Tap the down arrow to the right of the box to open the selection menu at the bottom of the screen.
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Figure 6 If you decide not to deliver the title to a new location, tap the Close (X) button at the right side of the Deliver Title window's title bar.
Tap the destination device to which you want to download the e-book and then tap the Done button. The device appears in the Deliver To box within the Deliver Title window. Tap the Deliver button to deliver the book to your Galaxy Tab 2. You can then switch to the Kindle app and tapping Sync & Check for Items in the menu, if necessary.
You may note that Amazon Prime members can “borrow” e-books for free on their Kindle. The Amazon Prime program requires members to pay an annual fee for the ability to get free two-day shipping on orders, get video programs on demand, and also “borrow” Kindle e-books. You can download and keep the borrowed e-book for as long as you want, but you can only download one e-book per month. You must return the borrowed e-book before you can borrow another one.
Unfortunately, you can’t take advantage of this program on your Galaxy Tab 2. This offer is only good for people who purchased a Kindle tablet from Amazon. If you have a Kindle tablet, then the Amazon Kindle Store will recognize this and will allow you to borrow the e-book. On a Tab 2, you have no choice but to buy the e-book.
View the E-Book in the Kindle App
In the Kindle App, tap All Items in the Library list on the left side of the screen. The book cover appears on the right side of the screen and a download icon appears in the lower-right corner of the book cover, as shown in Figure 7.
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Figure 7 The download icon has a down arrow surrounded by the outline of a cloud.
Tap the cover to download the e-book and open the first page. You’ll see a Reading Tips box that tells you how to access information in the book. Tap the Dismiss button to close the window.
You can view the table of contents as well as introductory text about the book by swiping from left to right on the screen. Move to the next page in the book by swiping from right to left on the screen. When you see a chapter or section of the book that you want to view, tap the name of the chapter or section in the table of contents.
Tap on the center of the page to open the Kindle menu as well as the Location slider bar, as shown in Figure 8.
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Figure 8 The bookmark icon looks like a pennant and appears below the menu bar on the right side of the screen.
In the gray Kindle menu bar at the top of the page, tap on one of the three icons that appear from left to right at the right side of the menu bar:
- Tap the Settings icon to change how the text appears on the screen. You can change the font size, number of columns, margin size, line spacing, and the screen color. The default screen color is white, but you can also choose from sepia and black.
- Tap the Search icon to open the Search area and type your search terms (such as two words) so you can search for that term within the book. After you type the search terms, tap the Go key on the keyboard. The results page will show a list of text snippets that contain your search term so you can tap on that snippet to go to the text on the appropriate page. You can speak your search terms by tapping the microphone icon at the right side of the Search area.
- Tap the Menu icon to open the menu to perform tasks, which include shopping in the Kindle Store, going to a certain page, and adding a bookmark on the page so you can find the page easily.
Underneath the menu bar at the right side of the screen, you’ll see the gray bookmark icon (as shown in Figure 8) that you can tap to bookmark the page. After you tap the icon, the bookmark icon turns blue that signifies that the page is bookmarked. Remove the bookmark from the page by tapping the bookmark icon again.
You can view all bookmarked pages by tapping the Menu icon in the menu bar and then tapping View My Notes & Marks. A list of pages with bookmarks and any notes appears on the screen. You can return to reading the page you were on by tapping the Back icon in the Notification bar.
In the location slider bar, the current location is indicated by a blue dot on the bar. Above the bar, you’ll see the current page you’re on, the total number of pages in the book, and where you are in the book in terms of a percentage. (The last page in the book is the 100 percent point.) Hold your finger on the button and then slide from left to right to move between pages in the book. As you slide the button, you’ll see the page number and percentage values change. When you release your finger, the page that corresponds to your location in the document appears on the screen.
Just below the Kindle icon at the left side of the menu bar, tap Back to return to the page you were viewing before you moved to the current page. You can return to the home page by tapping the Kindle icon on the left side of the menu bar. From here you can view other e-books by tapping on the cover of the e-book or periodical. Happy reading!