How to Change a Document Name on Kindle
By Jason Spidle
It is not possible to change the document name of an e-book directly from the Kindle device, but if you download the e-book to your computer, you can perform a number of file maintenance tasks using e-book management software. Calibre and Scida are comprehensive e-book management suites that can be used to change the file name and metadata of an e-book including title, author, publisher, book series and publication date. Both programs are capable of batch editing multiple files, so if you have a lot of content to organize, these applications go a long way toward helping you structure your e-book library according to your preferences.
Download Amazon e-Book
Navigate to the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon (see Resources for full link) and sign in to your Kindle account.
Click the "Actions" button beside the e-book you want to edit and select "Download & Transfer Via USB."
Select the destination Kindle device and click "Download" to save the e-book file to your computer.
Edit Document Name with Calibre (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Navigate to the Calibre homepage (see Resources for full link) to download and install Calibre. Launch Calibre after installation is complete.
Select the location on your computer where you want to store your e-book library and then click "Next."
Select your e-book device from the list of available options and then click "Next."
Enter your Kindle email address and then click "Next." If you do not know your email or if you want to skip this step, you can leave all fields blank and just click "Next," then "Finish" to complete the setup wizard.
Click the "Add Books" button and select the e-book file you downloaded to your computer. If you are editing a non-Amazon document, you can select that file from wherever it is stored on your computer. Calibre supports virtually every document format.
Right-click the e-book and select "Edit Metadata," then "Edit Metadata Individually."
Update the e-book title, author, cover image and other fields to suit your preferences, then click "OK."
Connect your Kindle to your computer using the Kindle USB cable to mount the device as a disk drive.
Click "Send to Device" and select "Send to main memory" to transfer your updated e-book to your Kindle.
Edit Document Name with Scida (Mac)
Navigate to the Scida homepage (see Resources for full link) to download and install Scida. The application costs $10 as of June 2013.
Launch Scida after installation is finished and select the location on your computer where your e-book library is presently stored. If you are editing e-books that are on your Kindle, simply specify a location where those files can be saved during the editing process.
Connect your Kindle to your computer using the Kindle USB cable to mount the device as a disk drive.
Enter a name for your Kindle device and click the checkbox beside "Import MOBI books from Kindle now," then click "Continue." Your e-book collection will be saved to your computer.
Click "All Books" to view your entire library. You can also use the search box to narrow your library down to just the document you want to edit.
Select a document to edit the author, title and book cover image for that document and then click "Save Changes" when you have finished updating this information.
Click "Send to Kindle" to transfer the updated document back to your Kindle.
Tips
Changing the document name for non-Amazon e-books, PDFs and other documents can also be done with Calibre. Simply update the metadata by right-clicking the file in Calibre and selecting "Edit Metadata." After you have adjusted the metadata, click "Send to Device" with your Kindle connected via USB to transfer the updated files. On the other hand, Scida only supports MOBI, AZW and PRC documents.
Calibre supports sending documents over-the-air if you would rather not use a USB cable. Click the "Preferences" button and then click "Sharing Books by Email" and add your Kindle email address. You can find your Kindle email address by clicking "Personal Document Settings" in the sidebar of the Manage Your Kindle page (see Resources for full link). The personal document service for Kindle also includes built-in document conversion, so this is a good option if you are working with documents that are in non-Kindle formats.
Amazon offers Kindle desktop applications for both Windows and Mac. Once installed, you can quickly download your e-book collection to your computer. On a Windows computer, the library is saved to C:\User[USER NAME]\Documents\My Kindle Content in the user folder and on a Mac, the library is saved to [USER NAME\Library\Application Support\Kindle\My Kindle Content. From here, you can edit the actual filename of a document by right-clicking the file and selecting "Rename."
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Jason Spidle is a technology enthusiast and writer. His writing on computers, smartphones, Web design, Internet applications, sports and music has been published at a variety of websites including Salon, JunkMedia, Killed in Cars and The Columbia Free Times. Spidle maintains a number of blogs featuring poetry, short stories and other fiction.