Windows JP IME

[Sakunyuusha]

Is there any way to get the IME in Windows XP SP2 to start on hiragana in Japanese mode instead of starting on Latin characters? If not, is there a keyboard shortcut I can use to switch it from Latin characters to hiragana?

I often switch between typing in English and Japanese and while I have found a quick and easy keyboard shortcut for switching between the languages themselves (Ctrl + Shift), I have yet to find a mouse-independent way of getting the JP setting away from Latin characters and onto hiragana or katakana. And it drives me crazy that the default setting for Japanese is Latin characters -- why would I be switching to Japanese mode unless I was wanting to type in Japanese? -_-;

 

[sora3]

Well, this was the first hit I was able to find online...

http://www.greggman.com/japan/xp-ime/xp-ime.htm

Try that and see if that works?

 

[Sakunyuusha]

すごい！ I had to read through a lot of text to get to what I wanted, so I'll copy and paste it below to save others the trouble in case they have the same desire as me:

TIP: switching between Hiragana input mode and Direct Input mode through the language bar is tedious. Instead you can switch by pressing Alt-Tilde (the key below ESC on your keyboard). So, need to type Japanese, press Alt-Tilde, start typing. When you are done press Alt-Tilde again to switch back to English.

So basically, assuming you're running Windows and by default it loads up in EN mode, all you've got to do to start typing in hiragana is:

1. hold down the left Alt key and press Shift
2. hold down the left Alt key and press the `~ key.

Real nice, real simple, God bless keyboard shortcuts. Many thanks. And that guy does a fantastic job explaining the rest of the IME's features for beginners.

 

[sora3]

Pretty much. I do the same thing for online chatting with some of my friends that know Japanese as I wanted to further my learning in Japanese.:goodboy:

But make sure you set Japanese for the keyboard and as well as the other options in Windows before you do. Otherwise, it'll be a bit weird...

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Does anybody know of a way to type the backwards slash when you have set your non-Unicode programs to load in Japanese mode? I don't mind seeing a yen sign in my file paths as much as I once did, but I just discovered that I am not able to type a proper backwards slash in Microsoft Paint or in AIM. Is there another code that is assigned to the backwards slash (besides ASCII 092?) that I can use in Japanese mode to generate a backwards slash?

I can do it in Firefox (see? \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ) but not in Paint or other programs which look to that feature.

No, I don't want to have to change the setting, log off, log back on, do stuff, change the setting, log off, and log back on every single time I feel like typing a backslash in a non-compliant program. Would you want to? So please don't tell me to do this. >_< But please do tell me, "Sorry, buddy, but that's the only you can do it" if you know that that is the case.

 

[guy]

By default you can set Windows regional settings to Japanese (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Settings > Advanced > Non-Unicode) so that non-Unicode Japanese programs can display their interface correctly.

If you need to override the locale for specific apps, you can use AppLocale to do just that.

But it might not always work, because apps aren't always consistent in how they implement or specify non-Unicode codepages/support. Still, it's worth a shot.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

By default you can set Windows regional settings to Japanese (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Settings > Advanced > Non-Unicode) so that non-Unicode Japanese programs can display their interface correctly.

when you have set your non-Unicode programs to load in Japanese mode

:...:

As for AppLocale, this isn't the first time I've heard of it, but for some reason when I looked into it last time it didn't sound nearly as good as this. It sounded like some fan's own private software that was bonky. Now I see that it's a Microsoft not-officially-supported gadget. From 2003. And it says it can do exactly what I want it to do, namely run MSPaint in USA mode while leaving everything else in Japanese mode. Nifty. I'll look into it tomorrow morning. Thanks for reminding me about it. :bow-pray:

 

[guy]

If your want to keep your non-unicode apps in Japanese codepage, that's just a limitation you have to deal with. In all ANSI codepages, keycode 0x5C = \, but under Japanese codepage, 0x5C = ¥ (a relic of old JIS/pre-unicode standards). Unicode of course supports both, with U+005C = 0x5C (older ANSI) = \, and U+00A5 = ¥, as well as U+FFE5 = ￥ (double-width yen).

With some programs you can simply open up charmap, find the appropriate symbol, and just copy/paste (effectively overriding the keycode).

For example, if you use MS Japanese IME (MS-IME2002) in Firefox:
- Hit the backslash key and you get ￥ (double-width yen, JIS 0x818F or Unicode U+FFE5)
- Press space to convert it and you get ¥ (half-width yen, JIS 0x5C or Unicode U+00A5) in the list.
- But since Japanese IME uses Japanese codepage, when you select ¥ it sends keycode 0x5C to Firefox, which as a Unicode app converts it back to U+005C and displays \ instead of ¥.
- If you open up charmap and search "yen", it will copy the correct U+00A5 keycode, which then allows you to bypass MS-IME2002 and paste ¥ into Firefox.

But not all programs can handle multiple codepages in a predictable manner, so the copy/paste trick doesn't always work. And that is also why Microsoft doesn't provide support for AppLocale, because it's not up to AppLocale how the target app decides to handle/convert the 0x5C keycode.

There aren't any guarantees, really. The only other solution is to find unicode alternatives to the apps you use, and as far as MSPaint and AIM are concerned, there are a lot of good alternatives.

 

[sora3]

The other alternative is to set the keyboard to switch between Japanese and English. Think all Windows have the option to do this by pressing Alt (the left one) + Shift as the right Alt key changes something else.

To do this, head over to the Regional and Language options in your Windows, Keyboards and Language, Change Keyboards. Now go to Add and select Japanese (Japan). Then make sure the hot keys to switch keyboards are enabled to Left Alt+Shift. It should work technically as I've done that for Japanese convos and the like.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

^ This has nothing to do with being in EN or JA mode for the keyboard. Thanks though. ^_^; (And you're right about Left Shift + Left Alt, I use it all the time when switching between the languages really quickly.)

^^ Sounds frustrating but okay. As far as a replacement for MSPaint goes, what's a good one that is both open source and low-memory? PhotoShop is such a memory hog and takes forever to open up (as does Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader). That's one reason I've been content to do stuff in MSPaint for so long.

 

[guy]

Switching keyboards is fine, but it's still regular MS input, which will still send 0x5C to the program, and if the program is using the default Japanese codepage, will still use ¥ instead of \.

As for alternatives to MS Paint, I haven't personally tested any out (I use Photoshop, but I guess I'm lucky to have a pretty fast computer). Paint.NET might be a good place to start, and GIMP is the next best thing to Photoshop (if you want more of Photoshop's features). From there you can google and find a few other recommended apps.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

I think I have a pretty fast computer myself, guy, but PhotoShop is still too much of a resource hog for me to be forgiving.

I downloaded Gimp a couple of years ago (2005, 2006) and thought it was a joke compared with PhotoShop. Paint.NET I have never heard of so I'll look into that but it's not sounding good. Why can't they make something that loads as quickly as Paint but with most of the features of PhotoShop?

 

[guy]

Well, GIMP has made a lot of progress since then, so you might want to give it another try. Still not as good as PS (imo, it just doesn't feel quite as "professional"), but it should be a big step up from Paint, and a lot less of a resource hog than PS.

But I can't really give you solid advice since PS is pretty much the only image editing program I use. :dunno: