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| The Internet provides a rich source of material for Japanese teachers and learners. In this issue we present a useful guide on computer use in Japanese, to enable you to access Japanese websites. | ||||||||||
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| In order to use
Japanese on your computer, you first need to set up the computer.
You may think that you have to buy expensive software, or that you
cannot use Japanese on your old computer. But this is not so! Today,
you can use Japanese on almost ANY computer (unless you are using
a super-old or extremely unique system). There should be no problems
with and no charge for setting up your, or your school’s computer
to use Japanese, so you can go ahead without hesitation. The method for installing Japanese depends on which OS (Operating System) you have. |
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| Windows 2000/XP | ||||||||||
| If
your PC is running on a relatively new OS, i.e. Windows 2000 or Windows
XP, there will be no problem because these OS are designed for world
wide use and have built-in features which provide multiple language
support, including Japanese. However, in order to use Japanese, you
first need to install Japanese fonts and input method from the Windows
CD-ROM, and set Japanese as a “default language” (If you are using
your computer in a network, you may need to log-in as the “Administrator”,
so please ask your technical support person). After setting up Japanese, you can read and input Japanese in almost all software. You can even install Japanese native software, as if you had Japanese Windows, but with English menus (however, some of this software is not officially supported.) |
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| Windows 95/98/Me/NT | ||||||||||
| If
you are using these older OS, you can still use Japanese by downloading
Global IME from Microsoft’s website. The download is free of
charge and will not cause any conflict with your system. There are two versions of Global IME. “Global IME for Office XP” is for computers with Microsoft Office XP. If you don’t have Office XP, you will need “Global IME 5.02”. After installing Global IME, you can use Japanese in SOME Microsoft software, i.e. Internet Explorer, Outlook (Express), Word 2000 or Office XP. You cannot use Japanese in other software, including Office 2000, apart from Word. Though Global IME allows a Japanese environment for web browsing, e-mail and word processing, it doesn’t mean that your computer has become fully multilingual (like Win 2000 or XP). Global IME is provisional add-on software for temporary multilingual purposes, and its use is restricted. So, if you are planning on buying a new computer, you should buy one with Windows XP or Windows 2000. Manuals of detailed procedure with illustrations are available from the following websites: |
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| You should be able to set up your computer to use Japanese yourself by following these manuals. But if only a technical support person without any knowledge of Japanese is allowed to set up the system in your school, you can just print out one of these manuals from the website and give it to him! | ||||||||||
| Macintosh | ||||||||||
|
Mac OS X fully supports a multilingual environment as default, so
you just have to add a keyboard menu for Japanese input from “System
Preferences” - “International” - “Keyboard Menu” and tick ことえり. If you have an old Mac OS (before OS 9) you have to install the “Japanese Language Kit”. In OS 9 it is included in the system so you can install it from the system CD-ROM, but for older versions you have to purchase it, and it is now hard to find in the commercial market. |
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