Format Problems

[Riverrun]

I'm quite new to the Kindle, but all has been going very well. I was, however, surprised a couple of days ago when a free book I'd started reading suddenly presented centered text (yes, ragged left margin and ragged right) following an inset quotation near the beginning of the second chapter. It was like reading a murder story in free verse. And it was disconcerting. Following chapters were also 'centered' in this way. Clicking in or out of the book did no good, nor did shutting the Kindle down and starting again. Oh well, I figured I wanted to know what happened in the book so I'd close my head to the odd format and go with the flow. THEN yesterday it righted itself when I accidentally pressed the Back button instead of the Previous Page button (well, I said I was new to Kindle!). Can anyone tell me why the format changed in the first place and/or whether my pushing the Back button was really what corrected the problem or if it was simply coincidence? Silly question I know, but perhaps someone has had similar experience.

[SusanCassidy]

Probably something odd in the formatting triggered a bug in the rendering of the text.  I've seen something similar before.  It usually rights itself if I go back a couple of pages, or exit the book and get back in.

[BTackitt]

report the book to Amazon for poor formatting, they can refund you and tell the publisher to get it fixed.

[Hoosiermama]

I had a K2 and never had that happen. Then I got a Touch, and had the same issue. I called Amazon CS, and they shipped a new Touch to me. Like you, it would happen on and off, and seemed to be triggered by a page change.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[HappyGuy]

Isn't Kindle formatted in HTML? Probably someone dropped an HTML tag and didn't notice.

[Hoosiermama]

Isn't Kindle formatted in HTML? Probably someone dropped an HTML tag and didn't notice.

I don't think it's that. I think it's the Kindle itself. I could read a page, and it would be formatted fine. Then I'd turn the page, and the text on that page would center. If I went back to the page I just read (which had been ok), it was then centered. It was really strange. It sounds like that's the problem the OP is having, too.

[Ann in Arlington]

The usual suggestion for these kind of glitches is to try a restart via the menu (menu/settings/menu/restrat) and if that doesn't work, try a restart via the switch (slide -- or press -- and hold 30-40 seconds until the thing restarts.)

It is possible, however, that it is an issue with the book -- some weird formatting code that the Kindle's not always interpreting properly.  This is most likely if it doesn't do it with any other book.

[Geemont]

Isn't Kindle formatted in HTML? Probably someone dropped an HTML tag and didn't notice.

I do think it is this problem.  I've come across it my self.  They to test, if some else hasn't said it already: go back to before the problem, then use the GO TO to jump the text to a spot ahead of the logical end to the formatting issue.  You can usually tell. 

For example, there was a book that started with an epigraph of centered text poem, but the centering bleed into the text of chapter one.  When I jumped ahead of the poem, the text was justified again.

And DO report the bad formatting to Amazon.

[Riverrun]

Thanks, everyone. If it happens again, then I shall try what has been suggested here AND report to Amazon. The book was a freebie btw and 'works' okay now. I too thought it might be an html tag dropped - except that it mysteriously righted itself. Again, thanks for all responses.
Cheers,
River