How to Display and Type Japanese on Your Computer by Jason Yamaguchi 1.

Displaying Japanese Characters: If you have Japanese systems installed on your computer, it will be easy to display Japanese characters. Even if you don't have Japanese systems installed on your computer, most browsers nowadays can display Japanese characters very easily if you just follow the procedures below For Internet Explorer: 1. Go to "View", and then "Encoding", 2. Select "Japanese (Auto Select)" For Netscape or Firefox: 1. Go to "View", and then "Character Encoding", 2. Select "Auto-Detect", and then "Japanese" 2. Typing Japanese Words in Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji Microsoft Global IME (downloadable at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/recommended/ime/default .mspx) let you input Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text into Microsoft Word documents, Web forms, and e-mail messages on any language version of Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, and other operating systems. This program is our endorsement, and is the most convenient to use. If you would like to try for other software or programs, please see our resources section.. Please follow the steps: 1. Switch the mode into Japanese 2. You use romaji, or English letters, to type Japanese. There are some tricky ones you need to know: Type nn for . For example type sennsei for and mikann

for . Type wo for the particle . Type the following consonant twice for small . For example type itta for and gakkou for . Type ha and he for the particle and the particle respectively. For the long vowel sign type (hyphen). If doesnt 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 . 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 its correct, press the Enter key to confirm. If you need to write everything in katakana, click on 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. 5. 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 type asa and press the Space key. If the first one that appears is , press the Enter key. If the first one is not , press the Space key. There will be a list with and more. Use the Space key to choose the right one and then press the Enter key. 6. Number related words come in a variation such as and . Press the Space key, choose the one you need and press the Enter key. 7. 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 dont do that.

8. When you write sentences/passages, you usually keep typing until you finish either a clause or a sentence and then check each word. Lets try to write . Make sure the mode is in the Japanese mode. Type watasihaasitasidoni-heikimasu.. If you typed it right, you should have . Press the Space key and see what happens. The sentence should be converted to either (or ). If the whole sentence looks fine, then press the Enter key. You have without the underline, which means the sentence is confirmed. If you want to modify a part or some parts of the sentence such as to and to , 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 (or when is high-lighted), a box listing words such as 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 (or when is high-lighted) to get a box listing words such as 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 and you want to confirm the sentence as it appears. Press the Enter key to confirm and you will have 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 ( ) 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 its 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. 4. 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 dont need it, you can delete it. Table 1 Hiragana

Obsolete kana are shown in red

a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa i ki shi chi ni hi mi ri wi u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru e ke se te ne he me re we o ko so to no ho mo yo ro o/wo n go zo do bo po (ya) kya sha cha nya hya mya rya (yu) kyu shu chu nyu hyu myu ryu (yo) kyo sho cho nyo hyo myo ryo

ga za da ba pa

gi ji ji bi pi

gu zu zu bu pu

ge ze de be pe

gya ja bya pya

gyu ju byu pyu

gyo jo byo pyo

Table 2 Katakana Kana in red are obsolete

a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa ga za da i ki shi chi ni hi mi ri wi gi ji ji u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru e ke se te ne he me re we ge ze de o ko so to no ho mo yo ro wo n go zo do kya kyu kyo sha shu sho cha chu cho nya nyu nyo hya hyu hyo mya myu myo rya ryu ryo

gu zu zu

gya ja

gyu ju

gyo jo

 ba bi bu be bo bya byu byo pa pi pu pe po pya pyu pyo Modern additions to the katakana. These are used mainly to represent the sounds in words in other languages. ye wi we wo va vi vu ve vo she je che ti tu tyu di du dyu tsa tsi tse tso fa fi fe fo fyu

Notes: For small type x or l before each vowel. For example type xa or la for small and xo or lo for small . These small are used for writing foreign words such as - farm , - web and - Ford. You can use x or l for small as well. For example type xya or lya for small and xyo or lyo for small . But you dont usually need to use this because these small are used in contracted sounds such as and . See Table 2 for how to type these. Some people use for the v sound such as Victoria and - viola. Type vu for .