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12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

12 Japanese IME Tips

Apr 01 2010

If youre serious about learning Japanese, Im sure you will eventually either want to or need to be able to type in Japanese on your computer. Typing in Japanese is done with software called an IME (Input Method Editor), which allows you to type Japanese phonetically (romaji) and have the your typing automatically converted to Japanese characters. You may have already set up your IME and have some experience using it (if not, please check out Greggman.coms excellent guide to installing/setting up your IME). However, its common for foreigners to overlook some of the finer points of its usage. This article aims to provide novice IME users with an introduction to some of the intermediate and advanced features literally waiting at their fingertips, providing a basis for improved typing efficiency, problem solving and expanded usage. For this article Ill presume that: 1. You have your IME installed, set up and ready to use 2. You have a basic understanding of how to use it (how to make hiragana appear when you type, how to convert a word to kanji) 3. You have a basic understanding of hiragana/katakana and Japanese phonetics 4. You are a Windows user (sorry Mac and Linux folks)

Tip 1: Easy IME on/off toggle

English Keyboards: ALT + Tilde. (This is a tilde: ~. Its usually on the top left corner of your keyboard, right below the escape key.) Japanese Keyboards: (Top left key of the keyboard, below the escape key. ALT not needed.) This is a very basic tip but one of the most important. Everyone needs to start here. Clicking around on your language bar to change the IME mode is just a waste of time; use this quick shortcut whenever you need to toggle your IME.

Tip 2: Reconverting
Reconverting ( saihenkan). So youre proof-reading an email or something you wrote in Japanese and notice you accidentally entered the kanji when you wanted (meanings are different but both are read: shinchou). Theres two ways to fix this; you could delete the incorrect characters and type it in again (a minimum of 12 keystrokes), or you could reconvert it. Reconverting is essentially calling back the kanji selection list for a word that has already been entered. Sounds useful, eh? To do this, simply select the word you want to change, right click and choose Reconversion. Voila! Youve got your list back.

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On Japanese computers this option does not appear on the right click menu so you must use the key (usually to the right of the space bar on Japanese keyboards) to initiate a reconvert. NOTE 1: Reconverting via right-click isnt possible in all settings. If your IME is on but you dont get the reconvert option, try copying the text into a different application (eg. Wordpad). NOTE 2: On a Japanese computer, you could alternatively use the space bar instead of the key to initiate a reconvert, but keep in mind that if youre in English input mode this method will simply replace your text with an empty space. (you should really be using the key anyway) Reconverting is also useful for finding the reading to a word you dont know: copy and paste the unknown word into Notepad or another text editor and reconvert it (the hiragana/katakana will appear on the conversion list box as shown in the image above). Poweruser tip: if you notice your mistake immediately after youve entered it (after you hit enter and the underline goes away), you can use CTRL + Backspace to do a quick reconvert.

Tip 3: Use special characters

This is a fun tip. Having an IME makes it much easier to use the special characters that are available on most computers nowadays. Im talking about things like arrows, stars, hearts, shapes and more. While these characters dont always display properly on every computer and in every software environment, they are becoming more usable all the time and are particularly well supported in Japan (because Japanese has so many characters, fonts are fewer and special character sets and more standardized). To type a special character, you simply need to know the k eyword that will call it up in your IME. Heres a table showing some of the major keywords and a sample of the characters they give you access to (this table is by no means exhaustive, there are many other keywords out there): Keyword Romaji Meaning kigou suuji hoshi symbol number star Symbols (and many more) ()

yajirushi arrow mark shikaku square sankaku triangle maru ten circle dot

ongaku music mesu osu yuubin kakko kao te seiza chesu female male mail brackets face hand

astrological sign chess

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chesu

chess

12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

toranpu playing cards tenki weather

Note: Characters in blue require the symbols dictionary to be activated, see Tip #4.

Tip 4: Use more special characters

Out of the box your IME has some symbols, but if you want to use any of the ones from the table above that Ive colored in blue, youll need the symbols dictionary activated. Heres how:

Tip 5: Mini hiragana characters

The hiragana characters and corresponding katakana can all be sized down at will to meet your needs. Simply prefix the sound as you would type it normally with an L (for little). For example, L + U = . This only works with the vowel characters, ya/yu/yo and tsu ( in Japanese these are the only characters you should ever find opportunity to make small.) Alternatively, you can downsize these characters by converting them (eg. u + spacebar), but prefixing the character is a much better option because it allows you to size as you type, which allows your IMEs parsing activity continue interrupted.

Tip 6: Zu and Zu, Ji and Ji

In Hepburn romanization, hiragana and (and katakana and ) are both zu. However, if you want to type (tsuzuk u) with your IME, typing t s u z u k u will not work. Why? Because according to your IME, zu is always , but the correct character in this case is . The keystrokes to bring up this character is du (since T-line sounds become D-sounds with the added). The same is true of the difference between and .

Tip 7: Save keystrokes with non-Hepburn typing

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Your IME supports Hepburn (except as noted in tip #6). But since you need to get used to du and di instead of zu and ji you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to ditch a couple more Hepburn habits It seems

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zu and ji, you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to ditch a couple more Hepburn habits. It seems like very petty keystroke savings but trust me, once you get used to it you will not want to go back. TSU TU (Hepburn Shortcut) CHI TI SHI SI

12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

I use the above shortcuts, but still prefer the Hepburn ji/ja/ju/jo for / / / ( which would be zya/zyu/zyo otherwise), since in these cases the non-Hepburn method doesnt offer me any keystroke savings and the Z key is less convenient than the J key.

Tip 8: Force the N character

Say you want to type the word , which in romaji is k anyuu. Hey, whats that apostrophe doing in the middle of the word? Its there to show that the word is read + and not + . It may seem like a small difference to you but in Japanese this is actually a pretty big deal. In cases when you need to make this distinction as you type in Japanese, you can tell your IME that you want to use the character by hitting N twice consecutively. So to type your keystrokes would be k a n n y u u.

Tip 9: Register custom words

The IME has some built in functionality for detecting which conversions you use most and prioritizing them, and detecting non-standard conversions you use and automating them. However, there may be cases where it would be easier to just add a certain word to your IMEs dictionary. For example, if your boss or coworker has a name with a rare kanji reading, or if you and your friends use a certain niche word thats not in the dictionary. Do this:

1. 2. 3. 4.

The reading for the word. Put the hiragana in here The kanji you want to come up. Part of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.) User comment (optional)

Tip 10: Shift the parsing range

A common source of IME headaches is when a word you want to type is for one reason or another not parsed (split into parts) correctly, preventing you from easily bringing up the particular kanji that you need. This can drive you crazy trying to fix it if you dont know what to do. Fortunately, the solution is pretty easy:

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In cases such as this, you can adjust your IMEs parsing range manually by using Shift + Left/Right. This will move the right-hand delimiter of the currently selected parse range. By the way typing (type: h a t o) gives you the following symbols (if you have the symbols dictionary on [Tip #4]):

Tip 11: Force katakana input

As brought up in the previous tip, by default your IME tries to parse your input for starts and stops of words based on its dictionary. And its surprisingly good at it too. But if youre trying to type a romanized version of someones personal name or a company name (anything your dictionary doesnt know), this can lead to some pretty ugly results. For example, if youre trying to enlighten a Japanese person about the greatest comedy of all time:

Sure, you could go back part by part and change those kanji into katakana manually, but why not eradicate the problem at its root? To avoid awkward conversions like this, there is a katakana only input mode. Heres how to toggle it: On English keyboards: CTRL + Caps Lock to begin Katakana mode. ALT + Caps Lock to return to hiragana. On Japanese keyboards: use the key (next to the space bar) Just dont forget that you need to toggle it off again when youre done.

Tip 12: Temporary English mode

If youd like to mix an English word or sentence into your Japanese typing for whatever reason, you dont need to toggle your IME. Begin an inline, temporary English input mode by starting any word with a capital letter. Youll be able to type in English as usual except with your trusty IME underline. Use the Enter key to close out the inline English segment and return to normal Japanese input. Important: On non-Japanese keyboards, you should convert your Japanese input before entering temporary English mode. This is because once in temporary English mode, you lose the ability to use your space bar to convert Japanese. On Japanese keyboards this isnt a problem because you can still use the designated Convert () key.
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12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

April 3, 2010 -- iPhone tip: add Japanese words to the dictionary Computers IME Internet Posted under Language & Study, Living & Enjoying Japan by Lloyd Vincent

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1. Headline Japan Blog Archive Tips for Using IME to Write Japanese on your Computer says: April 1, 2010 at 8:44 pm [...] Nihon Shock has an excellent article with tips for beginners on how to get the most out of your IME to type Japanese words most efficiently. Tags: IME, Japanese Category: Japanese | Comment (RSS) | Trackback [...]

Comments

Tip 1: On my PC (US keyboard), the combo is Alt+Left Shift. Ctrl+~ does nothing. Tip 2: didnt see this option in Google Chrome (edit field), Word, Wordpad, or anywhere else. by: zeptimius, Apr 1st at 9:04 am

What Windows version are you using? Also, I noticed I wrote CTRL when I meant ALT for tip 1, will fix it next chance I get. Sorry you cant get the reconversion working. Works for me just about everywhere. :-/ by: Lloyd Vincent, Apr 1st at 9:24 am

A few addons for you, good sir: Linux: its a pain to get one working in all programs, but if you are using SCIM or UIM the exact-same shortcuts as Windows by default. Mac: ^J for Japanese normal input, ^K for Katakana-only, and ^; to return to English If youre using a Windows keyboard like me thats ctrl+shift Windows: To change between English and Japanese keyboard modes press Left-Alt+Left-Shift (this changes the EN icon to a JP icon), then once you are in Japanese mode press Left-Alt+The button to the left of the 1 which is a tilde as Lloyd said on a US keyboard, but one of those funny wide apostrophes used for minutes-and-seconds (the one thats Shift-@ on a Japanese keyboard) As a little bonus for the extra characters, too: SUUGAKU renders numerous math-related characters GIRISYA gives you the whole greek alphabet ROSIA gives you the whole cyrillic alphabet Those three I use when making ridiculous faces basically if you want something, just type in its category For example: you want an arrow pointing right. You can either type MIGI to get arrows pointing to the right, or press YAJIRUSI to get all arrows I would also like to take this opportunity to mention the recently-released Google IME which at first I hates but since for some reason its the only keyboard mode enabled where I work (despite working for a Japanese computer repair firm) I decided to just plough on with it It Auto-learns words for you; my wifes

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Tips to use your Japanese IMEybette p p ) j p12 g y name is not a default result in the main character dictionary (, YUMI try it!) but after I entered it a few times the IME from Google started to bring it up as the first result when neither my iPhone, nor my Mac, nor my Windows PC will do (my Linux box does, though, by the way!)
Well there we go Sorry its late and I cant sleep so I wanted something to do. Hope you can make use of this, Lloyd! Fantastic blog as always, by the way o(^^)o by: DAZ-Y3, Apr 1st at 10:22 am

Sorry for the double post but I wish to apologise for the terrible grammar and spelling in a couple of places in that last comment. I was using my iPhone so I got done by the auto-complete in at least one place up there, and totally missed the atrocious grammar in the second sentence Also if I remember rightly I think the reconvert options are only available in Japanese versions of Windows before Vista but were added to Windows Vista and 7 for all versions (since apparently its ok to have an 8gb OS nowadays) by: DAZ-Y3, Apr 1st at 10:28 am

THANK YOU!!!!!! been wanting a well written IME tutorial like this for so long. by: Jamaipanese, Apr 1st at 1:23 pm

Thanks! I learned some new tips from this. Here are some others I found: If you type a word, for example for monty python, you can use the F6, F7, F8 etc keys to convert it to katakana and different types of romaji. Saves you the trouble of switching modes. Also you can precede hiragana and katakana with x to make them small, just like l. by: rod, Apr 1st at 9:17 pm

These are great tips. Ive also noticed a new addition to IME in Windows 7 that allows handwriting called IME Pad, great if you have a touch pad and stylus. There really is a lot a of useful stuff here. I love keyboard shortcuts, anything that makes typing easier without having to reach for the mouse is great. by: Brett, Apr 1st at 11:29 pm

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Great write-up! Theres some stuff I didnt know in there, but then I dont use an English keyboard so a lot of that was new to me. A few additions: To make something all katakana, just enter as normal and then hit F7 without ing it. Done. Also, for the mini characters Ive always used x, as in xtu = . Check that out next time. by: Doug, Apr 2nd at 7:48 pm

Good post! Ive been using the IME for a while already, but I didnt know about some of these tips and was happy to see that there actually IS a shortcut for something I was wanting Though, for the sake of completion: Alt + Shift changes input mode (I often use English, Japanese, and Chinese IME. It could be useful for those who have multiple IMEs.) Alt + ~ changes the current IMEs input mode. I had been wanting the shortcut Alt + Tilde since the day I started using it! Do you know if theres a way to default it to hiragana input though when changing the IME from English to Japanese? by: Ikari7789, Apr 3rd at 12:43 am

Hi! I really like this post and will be sharing this with my facebook friends/study group. I was also going to say that F7 converts all text to katakana, but someone beat me to it! Darn it all Keep up the awesome posts ^_^ by: Jacki, Apr 3rd at 8:32 am

Wow! Thanks for the excellent feedback, everyone. Even I get to learn something new! Ill update the post sometime this week or next with all this info, so if there are any more tips, keep em coming! @DAZ-Y3: Reconvert works for me on my home PC, which is running Windows XP (US version). However, I do have it set up to run in Japanese mode (thats why all the screenshots are in Japanese), maybe that is relevant. :-/ @Ikari7789: Not sure what to say. When I toggle my IME on it goes into Hiragana automatically, and I never set it up to do that. Are you toggling your language with ALT+SHIFT instead of the IME mode with ALT + ~, perhaps? by: Lloyd Vincent, Apr 3rd at 10:56 pm

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Some real excellent tips here Im pretty comfortable with my IME setup but Ive been lost with things like how to make corrections after I realise Ive screwed up the kanji. by: Katie, Apr 11th at 1:36 am

These are great tips. Ive also noticed a new addition to IME in Windows 7 that allows handwriting called IME Pad, great if you have a touch pad and stylus. There really is a lot a of useful stuff here. I love keyboard shortcuts, anything that makes typing easier without having to reach for the mouse is great. by: Michelle, Apr 19th at 4:37 pm

You are indeed the true master of the IME pad, thank you! I thought I was pretty good with the shortcuts, but this helps so much more. by: Chiaki, Apr 22nd at 4:38 pm

great tips, thank you! just wanted to add that it doesnt work (at least for me) with google ime yet, I had to go back to the microsoft ime, which sucks because usually the google ime shows results closer to what I want to write .

and oddly enough, the right ctrl key doesnt work for the shortcuts, it has to be the left one. by: Raoul, May 10th at 2:01 am

Ah, the wonders of Japanese IME! Nice tips, I learned a few new things. Others have already beat me to explaining the F7-F10 shortcuts (I always use this, sometimes combined with parse shifting) and x instead of l for small characters, so there is one thing left to say. L+ and X+ are not limited to vowels, ya/yu/yo and tsu. I found three other combinations too. LKE/XKE (as in ) LKA/XKA (uncommon substitute for ) XN (note: doesnt work with LN!) Note, small and dont exist, so you will get small katakana even if you are using hiragana entry. by: Spencer, May 15th at 12:06 pm

@Raoul: Yeah sorry, Ive never tried the Google IME so I wrote this article just with the regular Microsoft

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IME in mind.

12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

@Spencer: Thanks for pointing out that katakana Ka and Ke can also be small-ified. I forgot about them. But most of the times when you need to use those guys, they will convert to small characters anyway. (IKKAGETSU = ; no l or x required) Im not getting a small on my PC with X or L by: Lloyd Vincent, May 16th at 1:22 pm

I didnt mean a small . I can type a regular with xn. (I should have mentioned that I guess) The combinations I mentioned are not needed at all, but its still fun to know theyre there. ^^ by: SpencervdM, May 27th at 2:50 am

omg thx. I love the symbols with Japanese IME. It worked on my other computer while this one had less symbols so i was like sad but now i see you just have to enable it. thx much. by: Lalala, Jun 7th at 9:10 am

Thank you very much for those useful tips, which will from now on make it everyday easier, to type in Japanese! by: S. R., Jul 25th at 2:11 pm

You left out some other things: thi, tha, the, thu, tho -> dhi, dha, dhe, dhu, dho -> by: asdlf;ajsdl;fkj, Sep 28th at 4:09 am

Nice article thanks! by: Eli, Jan 5th at 12:31 pm

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Oh God thank you so much Ive been trying to find out how to write like forever Now I can all day

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Oh God, thank you so much. I ve been trying to find out how to write like forever. Now I can all day everyday! Just two more things, sorry if those have been mentioned above: Is there a way to put handakuten on characters that usually dont have those, like or vowels? Ive seen it being used like that to make it kinda seem like a strained sound, something like that I think. Also, is there a keyboard shortcut for toggling kana and romaji input? And I dont mean switching between katakana and hiragana, I mean standard romaji keyboard layout and kana keyboard layout. by: i0, Jan 11th at 2:25 am

12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

Thanks! This was easily one of the best articles for sharing tips on using the Japanese IME! by: Ryan Teo, Jan 22nd at 11:02 am

Great Tutorial, I was forced to look forit while having trouble writing (), however I just installed google IME while I was writing this and apparently it works fine with just . Anyways, thanks for all these useful tips :F by: , Feb 23rd at 7:53 am

Re: Tip #12 I just found out that if youre typing a sentence and midway enter Temporary English Mode, you can still convert the previous Japanese by hitting SHIFT + Spacebar. (with WinXP) by: Noli, Apr 12th at 2:15 am

For the Mac users here is a site that can walk you through the setup on OS X: http://www.yesjapan.com/install_japanese/mac_osx/ by: Nick, Aug 17th at 10:54 am

theres a much much easier way for Tip 11: Katakana. Just push F7 then you wont need to toggle back and forth. by: , Aug 20th at 6:17 pm

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by: Chris, Aug 29th at 12:47 am

12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette

Omigosh, thanks so much! Im definitely bookmarking this. Found it by accident.

Do you know what the shortcut is on Taiwanese keyboards (for switching on and off) ? by: Sbastien, Sep 28th at 2:21 pm

Great tutorial, thanks! Btw, you can also change between styles with F-keys. F6: Hiragana F7: Katakana F8: Katakana half-width () F9: Romaji F10: Romaji half-width by: DoM, Oct 7th at 6:58 pm

Oh, the bit on thi & dhi for & will save me some time from now on! I used to type those as texi & dexi instead. by: Psi-Lord, Oct 11th at 4:25 am

Hi these are all great tips and ive been using ime for a bit now but coulod someone please tell me how to type the grammatical o using windows7 jap ime ive been using the symbols/character list must be an easier way thanks! by: si, Nov 1st at 8:36 am

That reconversions got to be the most overlooked and useful thing Ive come across its great. And Im hoping tip 4 (symbol dictionary) might fix display problems Ive been having on some sites. Ive been using these alternate shortcuts for awhile: Ctrl + U -or- F6 for hiragana input, Ctrl + I -or- F7 for fullwidth katakana, Ctrl + O -or- F8 for halfwidth katakana, and Ctrl + P -or- F9 for fullwidth romaji input. (Is there a combination for F10s halfwidth?) Additionally while playing around, these also worked (I mostly never used/knew about): Ctrl + Y -or- F5 for IME Pad,

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Ctrl + J -or- arrow left for moving the caret left, Ctrl + K -or- arrow right for moving the caret right, and Ctrl + H -or- backspace for Personally Ive never used the 2nd halfs shortcuts. Ctrl + I and O are pretty much indispensible. (I think you can use these conversion shortcut keys to bring a temporary english input from tip 12 back into IME recognition mode too, for if you ever wanted to make sure you entered something in fullwidth or halfwidth for whatever reason) by: raccoondogvel, Nov 1st at 9:29 pm

for microsoft ime, typing n (N followed by apostrophe, no space) converts automatically to I prefer this input method for , so I hope others do as well. by: Anonymous, Jan 7th at 7:23 am

The particle is rendered by typing the syllable wo. by: Anonymous, Jan 7th at 7:29 am

Does anyone know if there is a way to get romaji to appear above or below hiragana? by: kris, Jan 18th at 7:54 pm

In MS Word the phonetic guide function could be used for indicating furigana. In MS Word 2003 is as follows: first, a piece of text is highlighted; Format -> Asian Layout -> Phonetic Guide. In the English version its called Ruby text and is not limited Japanese script. Meaning you can type any word in any language and it will display as furigana of the japanese text. To Lloyd Vincent: Thank you for the useful site. by: Anonymous, Feb 28th at 4:33 am

About reconversion (tip 2), I had a hard time finding a way to use it : Im using a French keyboard on a Japanese computer, so I dont have the key, but I dont have the right click menu option either. I missed this function soooo much until I found a trick, which might be handy on an English system also : you can set the reconversion function to any key combination ! Heres how to do it : 1- Search for the key allocation table in the IME properties (or whatever it is called in English, I cannot tell since my IME is all in Japanese ^^). You should find it in the 2nd section of properties first tab.

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2- Find the line for the reconversion function, choose a key combination and enjoy ^^ Of course you can also use this table to find about (and customize) all possible hotkeys in your IME ^^ by: Armand, Mar 14th at 4:31 pm

Had a look at an English system this morning, the path to find this option is Properties/Editing/Key template/Advanced. Enjoy ^^ by: Armand, Mar 15th at 8:31 am

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