Typing in Japanese on your Computer (1 Viewer)

[Lexicographer]

Taken from an old thread.

To Read Japanese in Internet Explorer:
1) Right-click on an area of the page that is clear (or text, just not an image).
2) Select "Encoding"
3) Select "More >"
4) Select "Japanese (Auto-Select)"

Now, IE will select the correct encoding format to read (the standard is "Shift-JIS" though not all programs use it).

To Write Japanese (in most Microsoft programs)
1) Go to Start
2) Select "Control Panel"
3) Select "Regional and Language Options"
4) Select the second tab at the top, "Languages"
5) Mark the checkbox "Install files for East-Asian languages"
6) Click the "Details" button
7) Click the "Add" button
8) In the drop-down menu, select "Japanese"
9) Click the "Ok" button on all windows.

You should now see the language bar somewhere on your screen. If you want to type in Japanese (eg in Word) click the blue "EN" button, then select "JP Japanese". If you can only see the blue button, right-click it and select "Adjust the Language Band position". This will expand the Language Bar, allowing you to select various options. Click the button with the "A" on it and you will be able to choose your script. The rest you'll figure out quickly enough.

Edit: Here's a good tutorial for all Windows Operating Systems: http://www.seanspot.com/jwrite/MS-IME/jwrite-ime.htm

 

[AsyLum]

i guess i dont really want to start a totally new thread so:

How can i get japanese to show up in winamp ?

cos having 5 gbs of jpop really sucks when i dont know what is what

 

[poloktim]

For those of you who have Linux/Unix (even MacOS X, though there is a 100x easier way for MacOS), there is a way to get Japanese text input that is similar to Japanese Global IME on Windows.

Install the Japanese fonts. There's some truetype ones, the most common being Mincho.

Install a program called Canna. It installs a server that may or may not start at boot time (if it doesn't you'll have to do it). The server is called: cannaserver

Once Canna is installed, install a program called kinput2 (and make sure it has support for Canna). Once that's installed, you can edit your ~/.xsession file to start it when you start up the X Window System.

#!/bin/bash

bunch of files &
kinput2 -canna &
windowmanager

The bolded section is what you add to your .xsession file.

Once that is done you need to create a shell script to invoke the use of Japanese. Best thing to do is to call it ja and put it in ~/bin/ja (yes /home/user/bin/ja) and if necessary either add ~/bin to your path or link ja to /usr/bin (as root).

# ln -s /home/user/bin/ja ja

This will create a command to invoke the ja shell script. Thank's to Hi Nu Gundam, I will copy the script now. Your ~/bin/ja file should look like...

kinput2 -canna &
LANGUAGE=C LANG=ja_JP.eucJP LC_ALL=ja_JP.eucJP XMODIFIERS="@im=kinput2" ${1+"$@"} &

The bolded line is the most important, if you added kinput2 -canna to your .xsession file, then you don't need to add it to ja.

That should be enough. To start programs for use with Japanese:

$ ja mozilla
$ ja amsn
$ ja ooffice

These three commands start Mozilla browser, MSN and OpenOffice respecitively. Then when you wish to type in Japanese press Shift+Space and a little box will appear with a hiragana あ in it. That means you can type phonetically. Pressing space will give you a list of possible kanji.

Special thanks to Hi Nu for the shell script.

I said MacOS was easier, but I'm not entirely sure as to how to do it. Someone who has a Mac might be able to tell us?

(I also decided to give *nix instructions because there might be computer nerds like me who want to also type Japanese).

 

[Lexicographer]

Thanks a pile for the *nix instructions, they'll come in real handy a month from now when I move over.

If anyone voted no in the poll (I see there are two of you already) please post and tell me why! Or send a PM, whatever suits you.

 

[babydoll_]

Hi, my comp got fixed or something, and now I can't read Japanese. Do i need to install the East Asian languages pack from the Windows XP cd or can I get the files from somewhere else (e.g. Microsoft website)?

 

[Lexicographer]

I can't believe I didn't see this. Yes, you need to install the East Asian Languages pack, but I don't think you need the CD physically present for it.

 

[poloktim]

I can't believe I didn't see this. Yes, you need to install the East Asian Languages pack, but I don't think you need the CD physically present for it.

Depending on how XP was set up.
If you bought it at a place like Harvey Norman or Myer, then you don't need a cd. However, if you have a copy of XP that you installed onto your computer yourself, you'll likely need it.

 

[paganinio]

this method is very effective(Windows 98 especially)!
go to Windows Update, since it only scans for 'critical updates', which doesn't include Japanese input method, you need to find it yourself.
I've installed Microsoft Global IME: Japanese and Korean input methods, I've ranked them as 'Libra Software of the Month' because of their high quality.

 

[psych_girl]

hi

wa ta xi wa "SHU" de si....

 

[snoopy05]

thnx for the infos, i just got my XP re-installed, and now i can read japanese ^^

but, is there anyway so that the hiraganas/katakanas/kanjis become less blocky? like are there some fonts to change this?
for eg, in google search result, the characters are so blocky,
could someone tell me pls thnx gg!

 

[sugar-high]

you can also download a program called "NJ Star". its pretty good cause it has a dictionary with it as well.

 

[paganinio]

i guess i dont really want to start a totally new thread so:

How can i get japanese to show up in winamp ?

cos having 5 gbs of jpop really sucks when i dont know what is what

set EVERY option in Control Panel\Region...Settings to Japanese/Japan

 

[AlysonD]

Is it different for Windows '98? I don't want to crash my computer or something.

 

[sladehk]

nj star is excellent

 

[mushroom_head]

nj star isn't that great. everytime i want to type something in jap, i have to first type it on nj star then copy n paste it on.
i tried changing the language settings in my control panel but it just doesn't seem to work.

?????

 

[torrentpersonst]

I recommend scim with the scim-anthy plugin for GNOME on Linux/BSD. I built it from source with apt-build from the Debian Sid source repositories (instructions below), but if you're not using Debian or Ubuntu, you can compile it the old-fashioned way or find an RPM or something.

1. Add 'deb-src ftp://ftp.ie.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib' to your /etc/apt/sources.list and run 'sudo apt-get update'.
2. Run 'sudo apt-build build-source scim scim-anthy'.
3. Go into /var/cache/apt-build/repository and run 'sudo dpkg -i *.deb' to install all the packages.

To repeat: this works fine with Ubuntu, too.