Asian Scripts, Word Processors and the Web
This page contains information about:
Reading and Writing Asian Scripts on your computer
The method of activating the language support on your machine depends on which operating system you are using.
- The following URL gives detailed
info on how to add language support to Windows 2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/2kintlsupp.mspx
- The following URL gives detailed info on how
to add language support toWindows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/xpintlsupp.mspx
- This link will explain how to add language support to Windows Vista:
- http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-AU/Help/29cf1db9-1d19-4808-9a7b-084fdac2ca291033.mspx
In general, these are the steps. We will use Japanese as an example:
- Add additional languages using Regional and Language Options in Control Panel.
For most Asian languages, it is best to keep the standard US keyboard layout, and then use romanised characters to input the language. We would use Roomaji for Japanese. (eg to input the Japanese word for Tokyo, we would type "t o u k y o u"
- Switch to Japanese (or whatever language that you want to input), using the Language Bar. You should have the program into which you want to type selected before doing this (e.g. select Word if you want to type into Word, then select the language)
- Select the input you want.. in the case of Japanese, select hiragana.
- Start typing! We use Roomaji for Japanese. To input the Japanese word for Tokyo, we would type "t o u k y o u".
In the case of Japanese, hiragana will appear as you type. So, typing "tou" will produce " とう "
- Hit the space bar once and the computer will choose the most likely kanji.
- If the kanji you want is not there, hit the space bar again and a list of options will appear.
- Once you have selected the kanji you want, hit enter and your script will be inserted into the page.
The input methods for other asian languages is similar.
Experiment, and read the language bar help for more details.
Other Options
There are several third-party software applications that will enable you to type Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. into windows applications. We have found that the biggest drawback of these is that they are not compatible with each other or with Microsoft's IMEs, so that transferring files from one format to another is either extremely complex and tedious, or often, impossible. The second major drawback of most of these applications is that they are not free, and some are very expensive.
Since Windows 2000 and XP have extensive language support based on unicode (UTF-8), third-part software has become largely redundant.