Gaijin-in-Japan

Typing Japanese with IME (Input Method Editor)

If you are using Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000, you do not need to download the IME - the IME and the East Asian fonts are standard on these operating systems. They are however not installed by default. Here are instructions for installing the IME under Windows 2000/XP.

For users of non-East Asian version of Windows 95/98/ME who would like to be able to read/display and/or type these scripts will need to download a copy of the IME.

Mac OS users should go here to see how to use the Kotoeri input method with the Japanese language pack.

Below are three sources for learning how to type Japanese using Microsoft’s IME.

What is an IME (Input Method Editor)? Nice explanation and screenshots to help you understand better.

See Declan Software for more information.

Or below is from Jason Yamaguchi with a couple of nice examples and hiragana and katakana tables.

How to type:

1. Switch the mode into Japanese (SHIFT + ALT) If you are using a Japanese keyboard in English you will need to press the henkan key located to the left of the space bar (変換). I’m sure there is another way, I just haven’t found it.

2. You use “romaji”, or English letters, to type Japanese. There are some tricky ones you need to know:

・ Type ‘nn’ for ‘ん’. For example type ‘sennsei’ for ‘せんせい’ and ‘mikann’ for ‘みかん’.
・ Type ‘wo’ for the particle ‘を’.
・ Type the following consonant twice for small ‘っ’. For example type ‘itta’ for ‘いった’ and ‘gakkou’ for ‘がっこう’.
・ Type ‘ha’ and ‘he’ for the particle ‘は’ and the particle ‘へ’ respectively.
・ For the long vowel sign ‘ー’ type – (hyphen). If “ー” doesn’t appear, press the “Space” key to choose the right one.

3. If you want hiragana for the word, type the word and press the “Enter” key. For example, type ‘neko’ and press the “Enter” key for ‘ねこ’.

4. If you want katakana for the word, type the word in hiragana and press “F7” key. The hiragana word will change into highlighted katakana word. If it’s correct, press the “Enter” key to confirm.

5. If you need to write everything in katakana, click on ‘あ’ in the Japanese mode box and click on ‘Full-width Katakana’. This will change everything you type into katakana. Make sure to set it back to Hiragana mode after you type the katakana word you need.

6. If you want kanji for the word, type the word and press the “Space” key. If the kanji that appears first is the right one, press the “Enter” key. If the first one is not the right one, press the “Space” key again. Your computer will come up with a list of kanji with the reading you typed in. Choose the right one by pressing the “Space” key until the right one is highlighted and then press the “Enter” key. For example, for ‘朝’ type ‘asa’ and press the “Space” key. If the first one that appears is ‘朝’, press the “Enter” key. If the first one is not ‘朝’, press the “Space” key. There will be a list with ‘朝’‘阿佐’‘麻’‘安佐’‘アサ’‘あさ’ and more. Use the “Space” key to choose the right one and then press the “Enter” key.

7. Number related words come in a variation such as ‘一月’‘１月’ and ‘三人’‘３人’. Press the “Space” key, choose the one you need and press the “Enter” key.

8. If you need Roman capital letters such as ‘CD’ and ‘NSW’, press the “Shift” key while you type the desired letters.

So far we have learnt how to type a single word. You can do the same to write a sentence but that would be too bothersome and you usually don’t do that.

When you write sentences/passages, you usually keep typing until you finish either a clause or a sentence and then check each word. Let’s try to write ‘私は明日シドニーへ行きます。’.

Make sure the mode is in the Japanese mode.

Type ‘watasihaasitasidoni-heikimasu.’.

If you typed it right, you should have ‘わたしはあしたしどにーへいきます。’.

Press the “Space” key and see what happens. The sentence should be converted to either ‘私は明日シドニーへ行きます。’ (or ‘私は明日シドニーへ行きます。’). If the whole sentence looks fine, then press the “Enter” key. You have ‘私は明日シドニーへ行きます。’ without the underline, which means the sentence is confirmed.

If you want to modify a part or some parts of the sentence such as ‘私は’ to ‘わたしは’ and ‘明日’ to ‘あした’, you can do so by pressing the “Space” key. The part with the thick underline (or the high-lighted part) is the part that you can change.

If you press the “Space” key when the thick underline is at ‘私は’ (or when ‘私は’ is high-lighted), a box listing words such as ‘わたしは’‘私は’‘渡しは’‘ワタシハ’ will appear. Press the “Space” key to choose the right one and then press the arrow key “→” to move the thick underline to the next part.

Do the same to the next part. i.e. Press the “Space” key when the thick underline is at ‘明日’ (or when ‘明日’ is high-lighted) to get a box listing words such as ‘あした’‘明日’‘朝’‘アシタ’ to appear. Press the “Space” to choose the right one and then press the arrow key “→” to move the thick underline to the next part.)

Now you have ‘わたしはあしたシドニーへ行きます。’and you want to confirm the sentence as it appears. Press the “Enter” key to confirm and you will have ‘わたしはあしたシドニーへ行きます。’ without an underline.

Here is the summary:

・The “Space” key is used to get a word list box for the thick-underlined part (or the high-lighted part) and to scroll to and highlight the right word.
・The arrow key “→” is used to move back and forth to the next part.　
・The “Enter” key is used to confirm the whole sentence.

Inputting “Ruby (Hiragana reading)” to Kanji

“Ruby” is the small font hiragana reading that you put above kanji (にほんご日本語) and this comes in handy when you are preparing materials for middle to later years students.

1. Open a new document on MS Word and creat a shortcut for “Phonetic guide” on the task bar. Go to “Tools” and click on “Customize”. A dialogue box appears. If you click on the “Commands” tab, two menu boxes will appear as follows. High-light “Format” in the left hand box first and then scroll down the right hand box and high-light “Phoenetic Guide”. Drag it to where you want it in the task bar area (Keep pressing down the left click button while you move the arrow, point it to where you want it and release it).

2. High-light the kanji you want to put ruby on and click on the “Phonetic Guide” icon in the task bar.

3. A dialogue box will appear. “Base text” is the original kanji and “Ruby text” is the reading for the kanji. If the reading is fine, then click on “OK” to confirm.

Most of the time the reading that the machine comes up with is fine but sometimes it’s not. If the reading is not what you want, then delete the “Ruby text” text and type in what you want, and then click on OK. You can change the size and font type of the Ruby text as well. You can do the same to a whole sentence, or even a short paragraph. The procedure is basically the same as for individual kanji words but you have a series of “Base text” boxes and “Ruby text” boxes. Scroll down and check all the “Ruby text”. Make alterations where needed. Be careful with katakana words because this ruby function gives hiragana readings to all katakana words as you can see below. If you don’t need it, you can delete it.

Table 1 Hiragana
Obsolete kana are shown in red

Table 2 Katakana
Kana in red are obsolete

Notes:

・ For small ‘ァ・ィ・ゥ・ェ・ォ’ type ‘x’ or ‘l’ before each vowel. For example type ‘xa’ or ‘la’ for small ‘ァ’ and ‘xo’ or ‘lo’ for small ‘ォ’. These small ‘ァ・ィ・ゥ・ェ・ォ’ are used for writing foreign words such as ‘ファーム - farm’ , ‘ウェブ - web’ and ‘フォード - Ford’.
・You can use ‘x’ or ‘l’ for small ‘ゃ・ゅ・ょ’as well. For example type ‘xya’ or ‘lya’ for small ‘ゃ’ and ‘xyo’ or ‘lyo’ for small ‘ょ’. But you don’t usually need to use this because these small ‘ゃ・ゅ・ょ’ are used in contracted sounds such as ‘きゃ’ and ‘にゃ’. See “Table 2” for how to type these.
・Some people use ‘ヴ’ for the ‘v’ sound such as ‘ヴィクトリア – Victoria’ and ‘ヴィオラ - viola’. Type ‘vu’ for ‘ヴ’.