Universalis

Kindle (Mac): transfer via email

The facilities we describe on this page are provided by Amazon. They are outside our control, and Amazon may change the way they work at any time. If in doubt, visit Amazon's Kindle web site or contact Amazon for support.

Amazon provide a service that lets you send documents and e-books to Amazon and then installs them on your Kindle for you. For full details, see "Sending Personal Documents to Kindle" in your Kindle User Guide, or Kindle Personal Documents Service page on Amazon's web site.

Note: If your Kindle puts "Books" and "Documents" in separate sections, you will find your Universalis e-book in the "Documents" section.

EITHER: Using Amazon's "Send to Kindle" program

Amazon say that they intend to release a program for the Mac called "Send to Kindle". We have no idea when it will be released or whether it will work when it is released. The best way of finding out is to look at the Kindle Personal Documents Service page from time to time.

We can't tell you how a program works when it doesn't exist yet, but the chances are that (once you have downloaded and installed Send to Kindle for the Mac) it will work like the Windows version, as follows:

  1. Create a Kindle e-book using Universalis, and tell Universalis to save the file to your desktop.
  2. Right-click on the created file, and select "Send to Kindle". Follow the instructions that appear.
  3. You can then delete the e-book file from your desktop: it isn't needed any more.

Amazon's servers will process the e-book file and transmit it to your Kindle. This may take a few minutes, but if you are sending a big e-book and aren't using wi-fi then it may take rather longer.

OR: Using your own email program

This method works today and will continue working even after Send to Kindle is released.

Instead of having to download and install a program from Amazon, you can send an e-book to your Kindle by email:

  1. Create a Kindle e-book using Universalis, and tell Universalis to save the file to your desktop.
  2. Create an email, using your normal email program.
  3. Attach the e-book file you have saved on your desktop.
  4. Send the email to your personal Kindle email address.
  5. You can then delete the e-book file from your desktop: it isn't needed any more.

Your personal Kindle email address

When you get a Kindle, you also get a special email address from Amazon, ending in @kindle.com. Documents sent to that address are automatically converted by Amazon and sent to your Kindle. If you can't remember your Kindle's email address, here is how to find it.

Before you send your first e-book by email to your Kindle, you need to tell Amazon the email address you will be sending e-books from (this is to protect your Kindle from spam). Here is how to set this up.

Costs

At the time of writing, the general principle is that this service is free if your Kindle is connected to the Internet via wi-fi, and "a small charge" is applied if it needs to use the 3G connection. Please check Amazon's documentation, since their policies may change.