There are days when I feel like I’m the only person who realizes the massive amount of information available in the blog archives. Of course it’s because I’m the one who creative the majority of the content.

A month ago I announced the release of Setting Up a Windows Computer From Scratch in PDF format. In the post, I mentioned that a Kindle version would be available in the near future. It took a little longer than expected, but the Kindle version is now available from Amazon. I’ve also added links to both versions of the ebook on the Windows Unleashed page.

At right is a screenshot of the cover page of the page as it will appear on a Kindle Fire HD. Remember that you do not need a Kindle device to read Kindle content. There are free viewers available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices.

Now let’s look back at the recent archives as there have been a number of posts that will assist you in creating and formatting content for the Kindle. Even if you are not a writer, you may be asked to do this as a service for others so it is an important skill for a designer to learn.

About two months ago I told you about a really good book on developing for the Kindle and listed the tools you would need to properly create a book. It was titled Software Toolkit for Designing EPUB and Kindle Files. Some of the tools listed are probably already in your toolbox. Some of the others are available for free. But one thing I can’t stress enough is that you absolutely, positively must have a reasonable knowledge of HTML and CSS. No “automated” tool is going to work for this! Just last week I wrote about Free Tutorials For Learning HTML and CSS Basics. Designers can continue to refuse to learn this important skill, but it simply means you are refusing to learn something extremely important in many types of projects

See More File Formats With MysticThumbs

Over the years I’ve written several times about a great Windows add-on called MysticThumbs. What designer hasn’t complained that there aren’t thumbnails displayed for a number of file formats? This isn’t a problem if you don’t really need to see those formats, but becomes very important as you work with file formats that don’t have thumbnails.

Lately I’ve been working with more file formats that don’t have thumbnails such as AI, PSD, PDF and SVG. Therefore it became something that I felt I needed to add to my arsenal of tools. I also can’t stress enough that the thumbnails will also display in any software that uses the technology of Windows Explorer. For many of you, Corel CONNECT would be at the head of that list as well as any open/import dialog boxes that use Windows Common Dialogs. It has only been a couple of days since I installed MysticThumbs on my computer and I honestly can’t believe I didn’t get a copy for myself years ago.