Japanese on windows xp

[maxiewawa]

Phew, this is exhausting.

Just a beginner, installed Japanese fonts on windows xp. I've worked out that 'input mode' can get me from Romaji to Katakana/hiragana, but i'm having some problems. When typing hiragana, I get the odd random Kanji popping up. How's this happening? I type in hajemimashite, and I get the first two hiragana morphing into kanji. Should I not be using the space bar?

Also, there has to be something less fiddly than using my mouse to switch between scripts.

Lastly, how would i choose a kanji character?

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I type in hajemimashite, and I get the first two hiragana morphing into kanji. Should I not be using the space bar?

Try typing hajimemashite instead. Can you see the difference? 窶堋?窶堙遺?堋ｽﾂ：ﾂ 窶堙坂?堋ｶ窶堋･窶堙昶?堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙? ﾂ ﾅｽ窶楪：ﾂ 窶堙坂?堋ｶ窶堙溪?堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙

Also, there has to be something less fiddly than using my mouse to switch between scripts.

Not that I know of. Anyone else?

Lastly, how would i choose a kanji character?

If you get a list, use the arrow keys to scroll down to the kanji you want. Once it's highlighted, press enter. That's what I do anyway.

 

[maxiewawa]

Thanks! How about switches between hiragana/katakana?

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I assume that hiragana is your default "output". Then just do the same as you would do to change to kanji. The katakana will appear somewhere in the list of kanji.

 

[nice gaijin]

there are no spaces when typing in Japanese. with IME (the input method you're probably using) the spacebar becomes the switch function, so any possible kanji compounds will be listed under the characters. You should only be hitting the spacebar after you've typed something you want to turn into kanji (this will also list katakana, but it's less efficient than the keystroke i name below). Hitting enter sets the characters as they are.

If you want just hiragana, type out たべる and hit enter and move on to the next word.
if you want the kanji, you type out たべる then hit spacebar, and select the proper kanji from the list and hit enter. the word becomes 食べる.

Here are some default keystrokes to switch between inputs more easily:
alt+shift is the default to switch between input languages
alt+~ will switch between input modes (direct input/hiragana/katakana/half-width characters)
f7 will turn anything you just typed (before hitting enter) into katakana

Hope that helps!

 

[J44xm]

Man, I never knew that. Alt-tilde is great combination to know.