Editing Titles of Books not from Amazon

[Mnemosyne]

I'm having fun putting all kinds of new content on my Kindle. I'd like to learn if I can edit the titles of files on the Kindle Home page. For instance, I downloaded a PDF of Pride and Prejudice from gutenberg.org and emailed it to my Kindle. On my Kindle Home screen, it shows up as 1362.pdf.pdf. I'd like to re-name it so I'll know what it is, but I'm not finding a way to do that. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Nemo

[Avalon]

Nemo, the only way I know of to do that is to rename the file before you send it to Amazon.  That works great for me.  When you download the file to your computer, it will go to a "save" prompt screen, just highlight the 1362.pdf and replace it by typing the title you want.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to edit the author, it shows the author as me (jane.doe@kindle.com).  So I've been naming my files with the author first, Austen Jane Pride & Prejudice, for instance.

Not a great workaround, but until they give us folders to sort our reading, it kind of works.

[Leslie]

Lettie,

The books from Amazon tend to have very long and bizarre titles with lots characters, codes, and other seemingly mysterious information. Are you saying that you have renamed it from

long_complicated_title_with_numbers99847645_codesEBOOK_and_more.azw

to

My_Favorite_Book.azw

and it still shows up on the home page, etc? I haven't dared to change anything because I was totally afraid of doing something awful to the book and I'd never see it again. Thanks for clarifying!

Leslie

[Cuechick]

Let me ask you Leslie, lets say you did mess up that file. Can't you just re-download it by going to your manage Kindle page online?

[Leslie]

Let me ask you Leslie, lets say you did mess up that file. Can't you just re-download it by going to your manage Kindle page online?

Well, yes, this is true....but I sort of have the "if something ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude to this file naming stuff! I guess I haven't seen the need. On the other hand, this is all useful research for the FAQ.

L

[ClockworkDragonfly]

The title and author information are stored as meta-data within the file itself. When you convert through your Kindle email, Amazon inserts it's own meta-data. I convert all my own local files using Mobipocket Creator, this allows me to insert all my own meta-data (title, author, publisher, etc) exactly as I choose. It also allows me to specify an image to use as a cover.

It's not too difficult to use, though not as easy as simply shooting out an email. The conversion quality is about on par with Amazon's most of the time (I've seen some PDFs horribly mauled by both).

[Leslie]

Mobipocket Creator is like anything else: once you've used it a few times it's simple.

Big hint to everyone: make sure to click the Save button after you do build.

L

[HappyGuy]

One of the great things about the ability to rename books is that you can number a series so you read them in the correct order. For example, I have a series that has 13 books in it. put a "HH01", 'HH02", "HH03" etc. on the front of the book name so I know what's what. Did the same with another series. Put P01, P02, etc. in front of the book name. Now I can keep them all together and in order.

[cush]

Mobipocket Creator is like anything else: once you've used it a few times it's simple.

Big hint to everyone: make sure to click the Save button after you do build.

L

I'll insert my usual caveat here re altering metadata- The Mobi (whatever) tools only work on a computer running Windows.  Mac users are outta luck!

Ehe file renaming tip works just fine on a Mac, though.

[Mnemosyne]

Thanks for all the tips and tricks, folks! I have been doing the re-name -it-before-you-send-it method, and that's working for me!

Nemo