You enter characters into the IME by typing in roman letters.  If you're entering text in one of the kana modes, the characters are converted into the corresponding hiragana or katakana characters as you type.  For example, here's what it looks like when you type "nihongo" while you're in "hiragana" mode:

after typing "n":   
after typing "i":   
after typing "h":   
after typing "o":   
after typing "n":   
after typing "g":   
after typing "o":   

You can hit the "backspace" key as usual if you type the wrong key and want to correct it.

Note that there's a squiggly line underneath the entered text.  This line marks the text as "provisional" - it isn't really entered into the document yet.  You can "commit" the text (actually enter it into the document) by pressing the "enter" key after you've typed it.

If you want to enter kanji characters then you need to convert the entered kana characters before pressing "enter" - that's described on the next page.

Romaji Input Tips

Here are some things you'll need to know when entering text using romaji characters:

Remember to type "ha" when entering the "wa" topic-marker particle, because in Japanese it's written using the "ha" hiragana character.

Remember to type "he" when entering the "e" direction-marker particle, because in Japanese it's written using the "he" hiragana character.

Type "wo" to enter the object-marker particle.

Type "n" twice to enter the "n" syllable.  The IME can often decipher the "n" syllable properly, but if the following syllable starts with "n" then you won't get the correct result.  For example, if you type "konnichiha" then you'll end up with the wrong thing (try it and see!) To get the correct word you'll have to type "konnnichiha" - the first two "n"s are for the "n" syllable, and the third is the start of the "ni" syllable.  It's a good idea of being in the habit of always hitting "n" twice when you're typing the "n" syllable.

Use "du" to enter the voiced "tsu" character ("zu" gives you a voiced "su"), and "di" to enter the voiced "chi" character ("ji" gives you a voice "shi").

 

Updated On: 04.02.10