# Adding Justification option to "Aa" menu



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I discovered yesterday (thanks to mobileread.com forums) that there is a way to add a left/full justification option to the font/page-orientation menu accessed via the AA button. The short version: edit the "system/com.amazon.ebook.booklet.reader/reader.pref" file on your Kindle and add this line:


```
ALLOW_JUSTIFICATION_CHANGE=true
```
Then restart your Kindle, and when reading a book, the AA button's menu will include an option to toggle between left (ragged right) or full justification. (Note that specific justification settings in a given book will override this setting, it just controls the default when nothing is specified.)

For more detailed instructions, see my blog article, "Add Justification Option to Kindle's "Aa" Menu.


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## joangolfing (Sep 12, 2010)

NogDog,

I edited my system folder and added justification for the left margin setting it to 20 from its default setting.  Now I have both margins as close to the sides of the screen as possible.
Would this option that you are describing put that same result into my "Aa" menu?


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## Nebula7 (Apr 21, 2011)

My questions are: 

1. Was the justification a problem in the first place?
2. Why is doesn't Amazon just make this option available instead of semi-making this option available?

Thanks


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

joangolfing said:


> NogDog,
> 
> I edited my system folder and added justification for the left margin setting it to 20 from its default setting. Now I have both margins as close to the sides of the screen as possible.
> Would this option that you are describing put that same result into my "Aa" menu?


That's a separate issue/enhancement that allows you to control how much of the screen is used (i.e. the margins). The enhancement described here lets you toggle between full justification (first image, below) and left (ragged right) justification (the second image).

















In both screen shots the margin setting is the same, but in the full justification (left image) the words/letters are spaced out to attempt to fill up each line all the way to the right margin, whereas in the left-justified page (right image) no spacing is added, so the right margin is "ragged". Some people prefer justified, some prefer ragged; this just gives you the option to choose (assuming the author/publisher has not hard-coded a justification type into the text).


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Nebula7 said:


> My questions are:
> 
> 1. Was the justification a problem in the first place?


Not that I know of, although at one point in the software update history I think they changed the maximum amount of padding they would add to a line to try to make it fully justified.



> 2. Why is doesn't Amazon just make this option available instead of semi-making this option available?
> 
> Thanks


As I said on my blog, I have no idea (but would like to know). Maybe they thought it would confuse too many users? Maybe they thought it would generate too many calls to customer service when users toggled the justification but nothing happened because the justification was hard-coded by the publisher?


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## joangolfing (Sep 12, 2010)

NogDog,

Thanks, I seem to have a much better option with my edited folder.  I will leave it alone.  20 seems to be a great setting for the left margin.
Your change doesn't improve on that, but is a great option for anyone that wants the controls on the Kindle menu.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

I performed both mods some time ago.  I dislike full justification so I like being able to specify a preference.

It's frustrating how often the type of justification is coded into the file however.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Since it's come up here in a couple posts, I figured I'd add a link to info about changing the page margins: Changing Margins on the Kindle.


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