Information Technology
Japanese Language Typing Help
For instructions on how to switch languages in Windows, return to the general languages help page.
When the Japanese language input system is selected in Windows 2000, the following "Japanese IME Toolbar" appears (usually near the lower right-hand corner of the screen).
If the toolbar appears as above, with a capital "A" on the leftmost button, then before you can type in Japanese, you need to change to hiragana input using the toolbar. Do this by clicking on the leftmost button on the Japanese IME toolbar (the button with the capital letter "A" on it), then selecting the topmost option ("Hiragana") from the list that appears.
The toolbar will then change as shown below (the "A" has become the hiragana "a"), and you can start typing in Japanese. (If the toolbar appears as below when you first switch to the Japanese input system, you do not need to change it.)
Basic typing
By default, what you type (in standard Romanized spelling) is converted into Japanese hiragana. For example, typing
tanbo will result in 
. As you type, you will see your
Romanized Japanese being converted to Japanese hiragana as shown below.
You will notice that the typing is all underlined; the text only changes to hiragana as you type. If you are typing only in hiragana, you may hit "enter" to remove the underlining, forcing what you have typed so far to remain hiragana.
However, if you need to change the hiragana into kanji (Chinese characters) or katakana, hit the space bar. What you have typed is converted into kanji or katakana as necessary (with hiragana remaining where appropriate). However, all the converted characters are highlighted in blue.
The highlighting means that you can still change the characters if necessary; you may have to do this, as sometimes the default character that appears for a given
Romanization is not the one you need. If you don't need to change the characters, you can hit "enter" to complete the conversion and continue typing; otherwise, follow the character
selection process below.
Character selection process
To begin the character selection process, continue hitting the space bar on the keyboard. Each time you press the space bar, the characters change; additionally, hitting the space bar causes the character selection window to appear.
Hit the space bar (or use the up and down arrow keys) until you reach the proper character(s). Hit "enter" to make your selection, replacing the default characters with the new ones.
Typing in English
If you need to type English letters (or words) or Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), you can switch to the standard English keyboard without exiting the Japanese input system by clicking on the leftmost button (the hiragana "a") on the Japanese IME Toolbar and selecting "Direct Input" from the list that appears.
This process is the exact opposite of the one described at the top of this page; images and instructions are written in detail there.