This new 'thread' tells you how to set-up/configure a PC running the 'Vista' operating system so that it can display ('read') and produce kanji and kana characters - while using a standard QWERTY keyboard.
Our thanks to Edwin Matthews, of International Nuclear Services (INS), who was a delegate recently on one of our WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH ... THE JAPANESE courses. Edwin identified the fact that the April 2008 thread, 'Configuring Your PC to 'Read' Kanji & Kana', which contains a step-by-step guide for Windows users running 'XP' or 'Windows 2000', is not suitable for PCs running 'Vista'.
To set-up 'Vista' so that it will display kanji, hiragana & katakana:
1. begin by clicking on 'Vista's' 'Start' button. A dialogue box will appear - click on 'Category View'. In the 'Category View' dialogue box, click on 'Control Panel'.
2. next, in 'Control Panel', click on 'Clock, Language and Region'.
3. next, click on 'Change keyboards' ... this will open a dialogue box entitled 'Text Services and Input Languages' - now click on the 'add' button in this dialogue box.
4. this will open a dialogue box entitled, 'Add Input Language' ... now skip to section 7 - scroll down to 'Japanese (Japan') and click on the '+' button (to expand the list of available keyboards).
5. next, click the boxes 'Japanese' and 'Microsoft IME'. Then, click on the 'OK' button in the 'Add Input Language' dialogue box. Then, in the 'Text Services and Input Languages' dialogue box, click on the 'OK' button.
This completes the set-up protocol.
6. the 'Regional and Language Options' dialogue box will open ... click on the
'OK' button
Japanese is now installed in 'Vista'.
7. To test that the installation has been completed successfully - and to start using Japanese characters - you should now see a 'Language Button' in the taskbar at the bottom of your desktop/screen.
Left-click on this 'language button' and a list will be displayed showing all the languages you have installed (English is the default language, set in the factory ... the list should include English, Japanese and any other language you chose to enable during the set-up process).
By left-clicking on 'Japanese', you will be able to start writing (using your QWERTY keyboard) Japanese - in kanji, in hiragana and/or in katakana.
To write a mixed-language document, click on the language button and then click on back-and-forth onto whichever language you wish to work in (i.e. English or Japanese).
Once in 'Japanese', you have further options: hiragana or katakana.
Most of what you write will involve the 'hiragana' option, since it enables you to write both hiragana but also kanji.
At this point, 'Vista' is now set-up to display and write Japanese characters.
Actually using your QWERTY keyboard to write Japanese requires mastering a further protocol.
We suggest that, when you're ready to try writing part of a document in Japanese, contact us by telephone or e-mail and we can guide through how to use the protocol to begin writing mixed English-and-Japanese text.
がんばって！
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