Saving Kindle Notes Online, and Cleaning an LCD Screen - New York Times

Saving Kindle Notes and Highlights

Q. I know how to make notes and highlights in the text of a Kindle e-book, but how do you get all the annotations out of the book file for use elsewhere?

A. Amazon’s website stores copies of all the notes and highlights you make in the e-books on your Kindle. To see a list of marked passages and virtual margin notes for each book, log in at kindle.amazon.com with your Amazon username and password, then click on “Your Highlights” at the top of the page .

On the Your Highlights page, you can see a list of all your Kindle books – with all the highlighted passages and personal notes in each one displayed. From here, you can cut and paste the material into a word-processing document, Evernote file or other program you use to stash text.

As explained on the Kindle’s Frequently Asked Questions page, Amazon also offers the option to share your online notes publicly with other Kindle users. The company also anonymously lists the passages frequently highlighted by other readers – and the most highlighted passages of all time.

If you are using a black-and-white Kindle, you may be able to copy the “My Clippings.txt” file (which stores your e-book annotations) to your computer, where you can copy it into another program. To do so, connect the Kindle to the computer with its USB cable, browse to the Documents folder and drag a copy of the “My Clippings.txt” file to your hard drive.

Safely Cleaning the TV Screen

Q. What’s the best way to clean a flat-panel HDTV LCD screen?

A. Check the manual or online support site for your television to get specific instructions, but definitely do not use Windex or other household cleaning solutions. Many cleaning products contain ammonia, alcohol or other chemicals that could damage the coating on the flat-panel screen.

Even paper towels may cause scratches, so many manufacturers recommend using a soft, lint-free microfiber cleaning cloth to gently wipe down the screen. Some new televisions even include a cleaning cloth in the box, but if you have misplaced it, you can find microfiber wipes at electronics and camera stores.

Depending on the manufacturer, some advise slightly dampening the cleaning cloth with water – or a highly diluted solution of water and mild dish soap for really dirty screens. Commercial kits that include the microfiber cloth and a cleaning solution meant for LCD screens are another option. In many cases, however, these can cost $ 10 to $ 20 to do the same job as a $ 2 microfiber cloth and a dash of water.

TIP OF THE WEEK Thanks to the notifications feature built into iOS, iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches can keep you up to date with alerts from your favorite apps and news sites. If you would like a little peace and quiet from audible notifications during the overnight hours or even during meetings (or naps), you can temporarily silence them all with the Do Not Disturb feature built into iOS 6 and later.

To set up Do Not Disturb in iOS 7, tap the Settings icon on the Home screen and then tap Do Not Disturb. In iOS 6, tap the Settings icon, then Notifications and then Do Not Disturb. Here, you can schedule regular hours without alerts (like 11 pm to 7 am for a good night’s sleep) while allowing FaceTime calls and messages from specific contacts. In iOS 7, Do Not Disturb can also be turned on and off manually by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to call up the Control Center and tapping the moon icon. Apple has more on using Do Not Disturb at support.apple.com/kb/HT5463 .