memoir

In this tutorial I demonstrate how to set up and use Japanese text input on Mac OS X:

Setup

• Open "System Settings"
• go to "International" → "Input Menu"
• check "Kotoeri" and any input methods you might want to use
• check "Show input menu in menu bar"

Usage

• click on the input menu icon
• choose "Hiragana" (note that this changes your keyboard layout; if you use a German keyboard, for instance, z and y will switch places; you can change this in the Kotoeri preferences accessible from the input menu); you can also use keyboard shortcuts to change the input language; you need to activate (and, if you want to, change) the shortcuts first: click the input menu icon, choose "Open International…", click on "Keyboard Shortcuts…" and look for the "Input Menu" section
• type the Japanese text as you would in romaji, paying attention to some special sequences (s. examples below)
• after a word, press the space bar to to go through the possible kanji and Enter to accept (you can also do this after typing the whole sentence, moving between the words with the arrow keys)
• to switch to katakana, press Shift+Ctrl+K; to switch to hiragana, press Shift+Ctrl+J
• some examples:
  • for たなか type tanaka
  • し can be typed as shi or si, つ as tsu or tu
  • for ん type nn
    • for こんにちは type konnnichiha (konnichiha would produce こんいちは)
    • for きんようび type kinnyoubi (kinyoubi would produce きにょうび)
  • ti will produce ち; for てぃ type texi or teli
    • for パーティー　type pa-texi- or pa-teli-