Japanese text input on Windows XP
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 15:54 — memo
In this tutorial I demonstrate how to set up and use Japanese text input on Windows:
Setup
- Go to "Start" → "Control Panel" → "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options" → "Add other languages"
- check "Install files for East Asian languages"
- click "OK"
- you will be asked to insert the Windows XP installation disc; do so and click "OK"
- Accept when you are asked to restart your computer
- After the reboot, go to "Start" → "Control Panel" → "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options" → "Add other languages" again
- click"Details...", then "Add..."
- in the drop-down menu choose "Japanese" and click "OK"
- Click "OK" again
- Click on the language button, which is normally near the taskbar
- choose "Japanese" (note that this changes your keyboard layout; if you use a German keyboard, for instance, z and y will switch places)
- right-click on the language button and choose "Restore the language bar"
- On the language bar, click "Preferences"
- Change "Default Input Mode" to "Hirgana"
- Click "OK"
- (you can minimise the language bar now, if you want to)
Usage
- use the language bar/button to switch to Japanese or press the Left Alt Key + Shift to cycle through your input languages
(if you use more than two languages, you might want to assign key combinations to jump to specific languages; you can do so by right-clicking the language bar, choosing "Settings" and then "Key Settings…") - 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 convert a word you just typed to katakana, press F7; to convert it back to hiragana, press F6
- 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-
Comments
About switching from one
About switching from one keyboard layout to another (Japanese to German, ...): Maybe it would be helpful to include how to use shortcuts to do that instead of using the mouse. (And I know you've decided to go for English, but that might cause problems for people with a German OS, because all these bars and buttons bear different names ...)
Kristin.
OK, problems solved
Thanks and Apologies
Thanks for the suggestions, and sorry I saw it only now — and promptly decided to install some Drupal module that will notify me of all comments in the future, so I don't have to periodically check the site for new ones.
Those are two very good points.
1. I must have thought of using shortcuts, but I don't remember why I decided against them. I'll check that again and update the tutorial(s).
2. Providing the German alternatives would indeed be useful, but I have to go through the procedure in four different OS's as it is, which would be doubled if I had to do the same in German. And it's not so much the workload that keeps me from doing so, but that I don't have access to all the OS's in both languages. You do have a point, though; so I'll see what I can do.