Hacks Restore the text justification menu toggle without a hack

[Gearhead]

There is a hidden menu item in the font menu [aA] of all Kindles that toggles between left and full text justification. This menu item can be enabled and set from the default "full" to "left" so that most properly formatted Kindle ebooks can be read with a ragged right margin.

There is an old thread in the developers section that details how to do this on the Kindle DX using the usbnetworking hack. The instructions that follow detail editing a simple text file in the user mounted section of the Kindle and restarting. No hack installation required. Much simpler.

These instructions have been tested on a Kindle 3 but should work with all versions of the Kindle.

Turn on your Kindle and press the Home button (these instructions won't work if you mount your Kindle while in a book)

Plug in your USB cable so that the Kindle mounts the user section

Edit the file system/com.amazon.ebook.booklet.reader/reader.pref in a UNIX end-of-line aware editor. The system folder is at the same folder level as the documents folder. There is a good discussion on how Windows users can edit this file in the thread "Changing the reader font without a hack" by NiLuJe. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99355

Add the following line to the end of the reader.pref file:

ALLOW_JUSTIFICATION_CHANGE=true

Eject your Kindle

From the home screen, restart your Kindle by using the following sequence of menu items:

Home, Menu, Settings, Menu, Restart

Done! You can now press the font button [aA] and you will see a menu item called "Justification" with options of "left" or "full". This change is persistent. You can modify any other font menu item and the justification should remain set.

[cvkemp]

Thank you I just set this one and it works.

[NiLuJe]

FYI, full default reader settings switches from fw 3.x:

ALLOW_JUSTIFICATION_CHANGE = false
ALLOW_TWO_COLUMN_VIEW = false
ALLOW_ARTICLE_THUMBNAIL = false
ALLOW_READING_INDICATOR = true
ALLOW_USER_FONT = false
ALLOW_USER_LINE_SPACING = false

Haven't actually tried anything except font.

[Dwayne_Matheson]

What text editor would you Unix aware types recommend for a Windows user? I found one called vi on the net, does that sound serviceable?

Thanks.

[cvkemp]

editpad lite.
http://www.editpadlite.com/

[ChaoZ]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

FYI, full default reader settings switches from fw 3.x:

ALLOW_JUSTIFICATION_CHANGE = false
ALLOW_TWO_COLUMN_VIEW = false
ALLOW_ARTICLE_THUMBNAIL = false
ALLOW_READING_INDICATOR = true
ALLOW_USER_FONT = false
ALLOW_USER_LINE_SPACING = false

Haven't actually tried anything except font.

Wow, that's quite a few things disabled. Does User_Font do what I think it does?

[NiLuJe]

@Dwayne_Matheson You might want to avoid vim/emacs (... and, dear trolls, ready, set, GO! ) on Windows unless you really know what you're getting into .

Notepad++ should be okay, as is UltraEdit (if that thing still exists), and pretty much every 'programming oriented' text editor .

@ChaoZ: Yes, it does .

[Dwayne_Matheson]

@cvkemp Thanks, I'll try that one.

@NiLuJe I wasn't aware that I could start a flamewar with an editor question I am a fairly literate user, I read before I jump, so I did note that the UI was very different with vi. But I'll grab cvkemp's recommended or Notepad++ once I read over the instructions.

Thanks to you both.

[NiLuJe]

Yeah, the vi/emacs feud just might be one of the oldest thing in history...

EDIT: Sigh.

But now that we're there, I'll leave you with this...

grep EDITOR ~/.zshrc                                                                                                                                                                              
export EDITOR=vim

:P

[Kitard]

Works on DX Graphite (International).

[Gearhead]

Originally Posted by Dwayne_Matheson

What text editor would you Unix aware types recommend for a Windows user? I found one called vi on the net, does that sound serviceable?

Thanks.

I'll chime in a give a vote for vim. As NiLuJe noted, there is a steep learning curve. Anyone interested in testing the vim waters slowly, could start out with cream. Cream is an extension to vim that makes vim more accessible but the real power of vim comes when you learn how to drive it with the keyboard.

[a_str8]

ALLOW_USER_LINE_SPACING adds an option to the Aa menu to change line spacing. You can chose between small, medium, and large. The default is medium

I can't figure out what ALLOW_TWO_COLUMN_VIEW does

I'm currently restarting so I can try ALLOW_ARTICLE_THUMBNAIL

*Edit - ignore the Kindle rookie - the line spacing menu was there before

[flandroid]

Originally Posted by a_str8

ALLOW_USER_LINE_SPACING adds an option to the Aa menu to change line spacing. You can chose between small, medium, and large. The default is medium

Isn't that one on by default? My K3 has allowed this since I unboxed it.

[a_str8]

Originally Posted by flandroid

Isn't that one on by default? My K3 has allowed this since I unboxed it.

Oops, looks like you're right. I guess I just didn't notice the setting before. I just got my Kindle yesterday

[EldRick]

Outstanding! Works like a charm. I'll sure be interested to find out what those others do.

BTW, ALLOW_USER_FONT does exactly what you are thinking. NiLuJe, bless his dedicated soul, posted a thread yesterday on how to use it: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99355

Also, if I had to guess, I'd bet that the two-column view would only be an option if the display were rotated to landscape mode.