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| You've go several different input methods to choose from. If you tap the symbol in the box in the bottom right of your screen (here "A"), the input window for the last method you used will pop up. If you instead tap ▴ to the right of it, the Input Menu (shown at left) pops up, and you can choose a different input method. You choices are (with their names in the English version in parentheses): | |||
あ ひらがな/カタカナ - Hiragana/Katakana (not in English version): pops up a hiragana, katakana, or symbol keyboard
| To change keyboard, tap ・かな for hiragana |  | Tap ・←BS for backspace | ||
| Roll mouse over keyboard to see katakana; roll mouse over romaji keyboard below to see symbols | ||||
When you tap 変換 to change the just-entered kana string, the IME will choose what it thinks you want to enter. Thus, if you enter うま and tap the button, you get 馬; if you enter ふぁいる, it gets changed to ファイル. However, if that's not what you want, tap 変換 again and a list of possibilities will pop up. Find the one you want and tap it. Like the IME on your desktop, the PDA's IME will learn your preferences--the next time you enter the same hiragana, the word you chose this time will be the first, automatic, choice. If a word you want to enter isn't in the IME's dictionary, then you'll have to convert it kanji by kanji. Unless you've got a strong preference, though, I recommend you don't bother with this keyboard--even for entering Japanese it's easier to use the Romaji/Kana keyboard below.
A ローマ字/かな - Romaji/Kana (Keyboard): pops up a romaji keyboard to enter English, Japanese, numbers, or symbols.
| To change what the keyboard enters, tap ・かな for hiragana |  | Tap ・←BS for backspace | ||
| Roll mouse over keyboard to see symbols | ||||
Most Japanese actually use the romaji/kana keyboard--not the handwritten entry or the hiragana keyboard--to enter Japanese. Why? It works just like the entry system on their regular desktop and laptop computers. Tap かな to enter hiragana, and when you tap the letter "k", a "k" appears wherever the text is being entered. Now, tap "a" and the "k" turns into a "か." (Obviously, katakana works the same way.) Tap "sho" and "しょ" pops up (complete with the small ょ). Tap out "gakkou" and you get "がっこう" (the double consonant triggers the small っ). Finally, as above, tap 変換 to turn the kana you've entered into kanji (or katakana, or whatever). If you've ever used a Japanese computer, this input method will seem quite natural to you.
click here to see the full-screen view of the above
Special tip: if for some reason you want to enter just a small character, tap an "l" (for "little") in front of it. For example, tapping "yo" gives you "よ" but "lyo" gives you "ょ." Once you've entered your word in hiragana, tap 変換 and it will be converted into kanji.
手書き検索 - Handwriting Lookup (Kensaku): Great for entering kanji, although you can enter any character
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Write a character in the right window (you can rearrange the windows for left-handed use; see below), and as you do the IME makes a best guess at what you're writing--in order, with the best guess in the upper left (one more example). Usually when you enter simple characters, the correct character doesn't appear in the "best guess" spot until you're almost done writing; with more complex characters, it often comes up sooner, saving you some steps. I find this works amazingly well--the best guess is almost always right by the time I finish, and on the rare occasions when it's not, the correct character still appears in the list of choices (just not number one). As soon as you finish or the character you want is visible, tap it and it will be inserted wherever the cursor is in the document or program you're working on.. If you stop writing, after a certain interval (changeable in the options) the best guess will be automatically selected and inserted.
手書き入方 - Handwriting Entry (Tegaki): Quick way to enter romaji, kana, or kanji--an alternative to keyboards
| Handwriting entry is an interesting system. It takes a bit of getting used to, but eventually some people find it faster and more comfortable than pecking away at the keyboards. It works fastest if you limit it to what you're trying to enter. Write a character in any box; the IME's best choice will appear leftmost in the line of possibilities above the box. You can tap any of the possibilities to enter them, but if what you want is in the first choice position, simply start writing the next character in another box--this tells the IME you're done with the first character and it automatically enters its first choice. |  | ||||
| It actually learns your handwriting (and, to some extent, you probably learn how the IME expects characters to look), so the more you use it, the more accurate it gets. After a while, you can write at an almost normal speed. For complex kanji, though, or just entering a few kanji to look up a word in a dictionary, the Handwriting Lookup (hand and brush symbol) is better. I have to admit I never use this entry system. | |||||
| All Romaji Numbers Half-width | |||||
Tap オプション from the IME menu, and you'll get the screen at left.
In the 入力方法 box, choose the input method you want to change. If you tap the オプション tab along the bottom, you get a screenful of options, the same for each entry method. I tried changing each of these and couldn't find that any of them made any difference. However, the options from the オプション button under the 入力方法 box really do do something. If you choose either the kana or romaji keyboard in the box and tap the オプション button, you get an error message telling you there are no options for that method. If you choose 手書き検索 - Handwriting Lookup, you get one choice: 左手. Select that box, and the sections of the handwriting lookup IME box switch around, theoretically making it more convenient for left-handed people. If you choose 手書き入方 - Handwriting Entry, you get three choices: left-handed, as above; 三つの入力ボックス (three entry boxes), checked by default, which gives you the three entry boxes you see at left instead of two larger entry boxes; and delay time, which is how long it waits after you stop doing anything before inserting its first choice character at the cursor location.
