Input Method Editor (IME) in Japanese Windows 3.1

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The KANJI key on a Japanese keyboard (ALT+` on a U.S. keyboard) can terminate the Japanese IME if the IME is activated at the time.

Once IME is activated, the IME Status Window, normally in the form of four connected buttons, is displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen. The IME Status Window is a topmost window. You can use the mouse to drag it around the screen. By clicking each of the four IME buttons separately, you can set different IME conversion modes:

• The left-most button controls the current Hiragana-Kanji conversion mode. There are four options available:
  
  
  • One-time conversion: all text entered is displayed in Hiragana until you press the KANJI key or the SPACEBAR. Then the whole string is converted at one time.
  • Automatic conversion: the Hiragana string is converted to Kanji as soon as it is recognized by Microsoft IME as a legitimate phrase.
  • Compound-word-first conversion: the Hiragana string is first tested for compound words. This method is suitable for documents that contain a high percentage of compound-nouns.
  • No conversion: the Hiragana strings are not converted to Kanji strings.
• The second button from the left controls whether the input characters are in single-byte or double-byte mode.
• The third button from the left controls the input mode. The input character is alphanumeric, Hiragana, or Katakana. There are five input modes:
  
  
  • Double-byte Hiragana.
  • Double-byte Katakana.
  • Double-byte alphanumeric.
  • Single-byte Katakana.
  • Single-byte alphanumeric.
  Only text entered in the double-byte Hiragana mode can be converted to Kanji.
• The right-most button brings up MS IME HELP.

The IME status can also be displayed in the form of a status bar at the bottom of the screen. You can't move the status bar around the screen, but you can use it to change the punctuation marks, code system, and training function -- which can't be done using the four-button status window.

You can switch between the four-button status window and the status bar by selecting the appropriate option from the second listbox on the upper-right side of the IME setup window. To open the IME setup window, open the Windows Control Panel, double click the "Japanese Input System" icon (the icon title is in Japanese, "Japanese Input system" is the English translation). Then select MS IME from the listbox, and click the second button (T).