How to Type Japanese

1.	Start your word processing software or Email software.
	Here will take WordPad as an example.

2.	Click "ENG" of the Language Bar Select "Japanese Microsoft IME".

3.	Language mode "ENG" will be on Japanese mode [A].

4.	Click [A]
	The mode will be on Japanese mode [あ].
	This is Hiragana in put mode by using Romaji typing mothod.
	This is a standard input mode of Japanese language. You can, of course, type not only Hiragana, but also Katakana and Kanji.

You can switch between English mode and Japanese mode by a shortcut, "ALT" + "SHIFT".

Now, you are ready to type in Japanese.
Let try to type a Japanese word, "Hajimemashite".

5.	Activate WordPad. Select Japanese font.
	Two font faces (4 fonts) are provided as as standard fonts of Windows. Gothic is a Sans-serif font like Arial in English font. Mincho is a Serif font like Time New Roman. P in MS PMincho / MS PGothic means "Proportional font".
	Here will take MS PMincho.

If you have installed Microsoft Office 2007 (or later), the font names are in Japanese.
Or, if you set "Japanese" at "Language for non-Unicode Programs" of "Region" from the Control panel, the font names are also in Japanese.

6.	Type "hajimemashite (ha_ji_me_ma_shi_te)".
	will appear on the screen in Hiragana.
	At this point it is underlined.

You can convert Romaji into Kana or Kanji by "Space" bar.
It is the convert key while the word typed is underlined.

MS-IME on Windows 8 provides "Auto-Conversion" and shows some options automatically.
If the word (phrase) you want to type is in the option, select it by "Up/Down" key.
Or, you can use "Space" bar to go down.

If MS-IME doesn't give any option automatically, please press the "Space" bar.
You can convert Romaji into Kana or Kanji manually.

7.	Press Enter key
	The underline disappears and Japanese characters are typed in the document.

We provided some Lessons to practice typing Japanese in this section.
Please try it.

Go to the next step, How to Finish Japanese mode or Remove MS-IME.