Installing the Japanese Keyboard (Windows XP)

  1. Click Start button
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Click Regional & Language Options (depending on your desktop settings, you may need to select Date, Time, Language and Regional Options in the Pick a category window, then select Regional & Language Options)
  4. Select Languages tab in the dialog box
  5. In the Supplemental language support area, check to see if the check box is checked for install files for East Asian languages. If it is not, follow steps 6 through 10 below
  6. Click in the check box for install files for East Asian languages
  7. A dialog box with the following text should appear "you chose to install the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language files..." Click the OK button for this dialog box.
  8. Click the Apply button in the Regional and Language Options dialog box.
  9. An Insert Disk dialog box with text like the following should appear: "Please insert the Compact Disc labeled Windows XP...." Insert the CD disk that contains the Windows XP software (part of the bundled software you received when you bought your computer). Then click the OK button in this dialog box to start the installation.
  10. When the installation is complete, click Yes to restart your computer in the dialog box that appears. You are now ready to install the Japanese keyboard, following the instructions starting with step 11.
  11. Click Start button
  12. Click Control Panel
  13. Click Regional & Language Options (depending on your desktop settings, you may need to select Date, Time, Language and Regional Options in the Pick a category window, then select Regional & Language Options)
  14. Select Languages tab in the dialog box
  15. Click the Details button
  16. Text Services and Input Languages dialog box should now be open - in the Installed Services area click the Add button
  17. Add Input Language dialog box should now be open - select Japanese in the Input language drop-down slot
  18. If there is a check box to the left of Keyboard layout/IME, click the check box to add a check mark for Keyboard layout/IME (otherwise, ignore this step)
  19. Click the OK button for the Add Input Language dialog box
  20. In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box, click the Language Bar button to open the Language Bar Settings dialog box
  21. Place a check mark in the check box next to Show Language bar on the desktop
  22. Close all dialog boxes by clicking their OK buttons. Your computer should now have the Japanese Keyboard installed in addition to the English Keyboard.

Using the Japanese keyboard (Windows XP)

The active keyboard is indicated on the Taskbar (e.g., the English keyboard is represented by the letters EN). To select the Japanese keyboard, first open the software you intend to use (e.g., Microsoft Word) and make sure that the software has the focus (click inside the window for the software). Then click the letters on the Taskbar (EN in the example illustration above) to open a keyboard menu. Select Japanese from the keyboard selection menu. The letters JP should now appear on the Taskbar as illustrated below:

Right-click on JP to open another menu. Click on Restore the Language bar on the menu. The Language bar should now appear on screen, probably docked to the title bar of the software window (Language bar is illustrated below).

Click the down arrow to the right of KANA to set the following buttons on the Taskbar: Input Style, Input Mode, Conversion Mode and Help (all other buttons may be removed to keep Language bar uncluttered). Your Language bar should now look like the one illustrated above.

The Input Style should be set to IME Standard . If the input is set to Natural , as it is in the illustration above, click on the button and select IME Standard. You need to set the Input Mode to Hiragana, which is represented by this button . However, the input may be set to Direct Input, which is represented by this button (as it is in the illustration above). If the Input Mode is not set for Hiragana, click the button to open a menu and select Hiragana. The Language bar should now look like the one illustrated below:

You are now ready to enter Japanese text. As an example, we will write the sentence "I am Chinese" in Japanese (watakushi wa chugokujin desu) in Microsoft Word

Type in watakushi and you get:

Note that there is a dotted underline below watakushi, indicating that it is provisional. If you press the space bar, you get the kanji:

Note that there is a solid line under the kanji for watakushi. Since that is what you want, press the Enter key to accept and the character will look like this:

IME is not smart enough to know that WA should be written by the kana for ha. So type ha. Again, note the dotted underline . Press the Enter key to accept the hiragana for ha .

Now type chugoku to display:

Press the space bar to display this:

 

You could press Enter to accept the provisional hiragana. But suppose that is not what you want, and you need to see what other alternative forms may be possible. Press the space bar again, and you get a drop-down list of choices for chugoku.

 

You can select the choice you want by entering its corresponding number. In this case, you actually want the second option. So enter 2 to select it and then the Enter key to finalize it:

Now type jindesu to display: And press the space bar to convert to kanji:

Press the Enter key to accept the underlined phrase , enter a period , and then press Enter again. The sentence is now complete .

Anyone who is reasonably proficient in Japanese language input will take far fewer steps than the example given here. What we are demonstrating here is not the most efficient way to achieve the result, but rather some general principles: (i) in Hiragana mode, entering the romaji and then pressing the Enter key means accepting the hiragana displayed; (ii) entering the romaji and then hitting the space bar means converting the hiragana to kanji; (iii) if the displayed option for conversion is the desired one, then pressing the Enter key means accepting that choice; (iv) if, on the other hand, the displayed option is not the desired one, pressing the space bar produces a drop-down list of choices in kanji, katakana, and/or hiragana.

You can learn more about using this keyboard by opening Help (the button with question mark on the Language bar).

When you are finished with the Language bar, you can minimize it to the Taskbar by clicking the minus button on the right side of the Language bar.