Cancelling \ragged commands

LaTeX provides commands \raggedright and \raggedleft, but none to cancel their effect. The \centering command is implemented in the same way as the \ragged* commands, and suffers in the same way.

The following code (to be inserted in a package of your own, or as internal LaTeX code) defines a command that restores flush justification at both margins: 

\def\flushboth{%
  \let\\\@normalcr
  \@rightskip\z@skip \rightskip\@rightskip
  \leftskip\z@skip
  \parindent 1.5em\relax}
There's a problem with the setting of \parindent in the code: it's necessary because both the \ragged commands set \parindent to zero, but the setting isn't a constant of nature: documents using a standard LaTeX class with twocolumn option will have 1.0em by default, and there's no knowing what you (or some other class) will have done.

If you are using Martin Schröder's ragged2e package, it is worth updating to the latest release (January 2003), which has a \justifying command to match its versions of the LaTeX 'ragged' commands. The package also provides a justify environment, which permits areas of justified text in a larger area which is ragged.

ragged2e.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/contrib/ms (zip, browse)

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=flushboth