Using Japanese in English Windows

Using Japanese in English Windows

There are plenty of English speakers in Japan. So too are there many foreigners who speak Japanese. But don't count the English Windows OS among them. Left to its own devices, it will take elegant kanji and transform them into gobbledygook. The user must educate the machine.

A multitude of solutions can transform English Windows into an internationalized, bilingualist. You probably know of a few already. Maybe more than a few. Maybe more than we do here at GOL (in which case, please let us know!). There are various levels of support for viewing Japanese.

They are: basic viewing of Japanese web pages and text; reading email; entering text; and running Japanese applications

1. If you want to be able to read Japanese web pages, try these.--Shodouka Launch Pad (http://www.shodouka.com) This is the easiest. Go to their page, and start browsing from there. The site converts Japanese double-byte characters into bitmaps (images) any system can display. The drawbacks? It's slow and not too pretty. But it works.

--Browser-based decoding (Internet Explorer and Netscape) Both Internet Explorer and Netscape with a little configuring can view Japanese web pages. The first step is to download the fonts. The easiest way to do this is downloading Microsoft's free Japanese Language kit, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/addon.htm Then in IE, select View, Font, Japanese.

For Netscape, after downloading the fonts, select Edit, Preferences, Appearance, Fonts, Japanese, and select the newly installed Japanese font. Then select View, Encoding, Japanese.
--Windows-based decoding (MView, Asian Suite, KView) These handy little programs can be called up at any time to decode double-byte characters into Japanese from most any source:
web pages, email, even word processing documents. (Most actually do have input capabilities, but can be quite awkward to use.) MView, at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/7228/, is compact, but sturdy and cheap (only $5.)

However, since IE and Netscape started including native decoding solutions, the need for these programs has fallen off.

2. Next in line is sending and receiving Japanese email
--KMail (at http://www.kureo.com/k-mail.htm) is the easiest solution. We at GOL have quite a few correspondents using this. But its email functionality is a bit limited, and perhaps simplistic after using the full-featured email clients.

--MS Global IME (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/ime.htm) is another free download from Microsoft. It is a rather amazing little program that adds full Japanese input capabilities to both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. The FEP (front end processor) is virtually identical to that of Windows-J. The drawback is the user has to be using these MS products. Also, the installation gets a bit unstable after the addition of other patches or add-ons to Windows.

3. Next is word processing documents.
There are several commercial Japanese word processing packages on the market for English Windows. These are nice, full-featured products, but you may find little need for any of them because there is a free alternative available.

--JWP (at ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/) This is the original totally free Japanese word processor for Windows. It hasn't been updated in a while, but the interface is simple and it has great built-in dictionary functions.

4. To run other Japanese software, try decoders. It depends on the software. Some Japanese Windows games can be run by using the decoders. For programs requiring more heavy duty written input and output, the only answer is a real Japanese OS.

from
GOL WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 1 Issue 32
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