12 tips to use your japanese ime better _ nihonshock

Apr

01

2010

12 Japanese IME Tips

If you’re serious about learning Japanese, I’m sure you will eventually either want to or need to be able to type

in Japanese on your computer. Typing in Japanese is done with software called an IME (Input Method Editor),

which allows you to type Japanese phonetically (romaji) and have the your typing automatically converted to

Japanese characters.

You may have already set up your IME and have some experience using it (if not, please check out

Greggman.com’s excellent guide to installing/setting up your IME). However, it’s common for foreigners to

overlook some of the finer points of its usage. This article aims to provide novice IME users with an introduction

to some of the intermediate and advanced features literally waiting at their fingertips, providing a basis for

improved typing efficiency, problem solving and expanded usage.

For this article I’ll presume that:

1. You have your IME installed, set up and ready to use

2. You have a basic understanding of how to use it (how to make hiragana appear when you type, how to

convert a word to kanji)

3. You have a basic understanding of hiragana/katakana and Japanese phonetics

4. You are a Windows user (sorry Mac and Linux folks)

Tip 1: Easy IME on/off toggle

English Keyboards: ALT + Tilde. (This is a tilde: ~. It’s usually on the top left corner of your keyboard, right

below the escape key.)

Japanese Keyboards: 半角／全角／漢字 (Top left key of the keyboard, below the escape key. ALT not

needed.)

This is a very basic tip but one of the most important. Everyone needs to start here. Clicking around on your

language bar to change the IME mode is just a waste of time; use this quick shortcut whenever you need to

toggle your IME.

Tip 2: Reconverting

Reconverting (再変換 – saihenkan). So you’re proof-reading an email or something you wrote in Japanese

and notice you accidentally entered the kanji 慎重 when you wanted 身長 (meanings are different but both are

read: shinchou). There’s two ways to fix this; you could delete the incorrect characters and type it in again (a

minimum of 12 keystrokes), or you could reconvert it.

“Reconverting” is essentially calling back the kanji selection list for a word that has already been entered.

Sounds useful, eh? To do this, simply select the word you want to change, right click and choose

“Reconversion.” Voila! You’ve got your list back.

05/Apr/2012 12 Tips to use your Japanese IME bette…

nihonshock.com/…/12-japanese-ime-ti… 1/14

On Japanese computers this option does not appear on the right click menu so you must use the 変換 key

(usually to the right of the space bar on Japanese keyboards) to initiate a reconvert.

NOTE 1: Reconverting via right-click isn’t possible in all settings. If your IME is on but you don’t get the

reconvert option, try copying the text into a different application (eg. Wordpad).

NOTE 2: On a Japanese computer, you could alternatively use the space bar instead of the 変換 key to initiate

a reconvert, but keep in mind that if you’re in English input mode this method will simply replace your text with

an empty space. (you should really be using the 変換 key anyway)

Reconverting is also useful for finding the reading to a word you don’t know: copy and paste the unknown

word into Notepad or another text editor and reconvert it (the hiragana/katakana will appear on the conversion

list box as shown in the image above).

Poweruser tip: if you notice your mistake immediately after you’ve entered it (after you hit enter and the

underline goes away), you can use CTRL + Backspace to do a quick reconvert.

Tip 3: Use special characters

This is a fun tip. Having an IME makes it much easier to use the special characters that are available on most

computers nowadays. I’m talking about things like arrows, stars, hearts, shapes and more. While these

characters don’t always display properly on every computer and in every software environment, they are

becoming more usable all the time and are particularly well supported in Japan (because Japanese has so

many characters, fonts are fewer and special character sets and more standardized).

To type a special character, you simply need to know the keyword that will call it up in your IME. Here’s a

table showing some of the major keywords and a sample of the characters they give you access to (this table

is by no means exhaustive, there are many other keywords out there):

Keyword Romaji Meaning Symbols

記号 kigou symbol ёゝ★℃【】㍉№¶㈱♪≒♂√㎡㍻￡Ⅷ　(and many more…)

数字 suuji number ①②③⑳ⅳⅧ

星 hoshi star ★☆※＊⁂✮✰☄✱❈✪

矢印 yajirushi arrow mark ↑↓←→⇔⇒↪➱➷➤☞☈↻➔

四角 shikaku square ■□◆◇◩❖❐☑▩

三角 sankaku triangle ▼▲△▽∵∴▹▿◥◂

丸 maru circle 〇○●◎。①⑳㊤㊧゜☮☯◔❍◉

点 ten dot ∵∴　・　‥　…　¨゛゜

音楽 ongaku music ♪♭♯♬♩♮♫

雌 mesu female ♀

雄 osu male ♂

郵便 yuubin mail 〒〠〶

括弧 kakko brackets ()＜＞『』【】“”〝〟｛｝

顔 kao face ☺ ☹ ☻

手 te hand ☜☛✍✌☝☟

星座 seiza astrological sign ♉♎♐♑♋♍♏♈♌♓♒♊

チス chesu chess ♘♙♕♞♛♝



チェス chesu chess ♘♙♕♞♛♝

トランプ toranpu playing cards ♡♥♤♠♧♣♦♢

天気 tenki weather ☁☀☃☂☼

Note: Characters in blue require the symbols dictionary to be activated, see Tip #4.

Tip 4: Use more special characters

Out of the box your IME has some symbols, but if you want to use any of the ones from the table above that

I’ve colored in blue, you’ll need the symbols dictionary activated. Here’s how:

Tip 5: Mini hiragana characters

The hiragana characters あいうえおやゆよつ and corresponding katakana アイウエオヤユヨツ can all be sized

down at will to meet your needs. Simply prefix the sound as you would type it normally with an L (for

“little”). For example, L + U = ぅ. This only works with the vowel characters, ya/yu/yo and tsu ( in Japanese

these are the only characters you should ever find opportunity to make small.)

Alternatively, you can downsize these characters by converting them (eg. “u” + spacebar), but prefixing the

character is a much better option because it allows you to size as you type, which allows your IME’s parsing

activity continue interrupted.

Tip 6: Zu and Zu, Ji and Ji

In Hepburn romanization, hiragana ず and づ (and katakana ズ and ヅ) are both “zu.” However, if you want to

type 続く (tsuzuku) with your IME, typing t s u z u k u will not work. Why? Because according to your IME, zu

is always ず, but the correct character in this case is づ. The keystrokes to bring up this character is du (since

T-line sounds become D-sounds with the ゛ added). The same is true of the difference between じ and ぢ.

Tip 7: Save keystrokes with non-Hepburn typing

Your IME supports Hepburn (except as noted in tip #6). But since you need to get used to du and di instead of

zu and ji you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to ditch a couple more Hepburn habits It seems



zu and ji, you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to ditch a couple more Hepburn habits. It seems

like very petty keystroke savings but trust me, once you get used to it you will not want to go back.

TSU　⇒ TU (Hepburn ⇒ Shortcut)

CHI　⇒ TI

SHI ⇒ SI

I use the above shortcuts, but still prefer the Hepburn ji/ja/ju/jo for じ/じゃ/じゅ/じょ ( which would be

zya/zyu/zyo otherwise), since in these cases the non-Hepburn method doesn’t offer me any keystroke savings

and the Z key is less convenient than the J key.

Tip 8: Force the N character

Say you want to type the word 勧誘, which in romaji is kan’yuu. Hey, what’s that apostrophe doing in the

middle of the word? It’s there to show that the word is read かん + ゆう and not か + にゅう. It may seem like a

small difference to you but in Japanese this is actually a pretty big deal. In cases when you need to make this

distinction as you type in Japanese, you can tell your IME that you want to use the ん character by hitting N

twice consecutively. So to type 勧誘 your keystrokes would be k a n n y u u.

Tip 9: Register custom words

The IME has some built in functionality for detecting which conversions you use most and prioritizing them,

and detecting non-standard conversions you use and automating them. However, there may be cases where it

would be easier to just add a certain word to your IME’s dictionary. For example, if your boss or coworker has

a name with a rare kanji reading, or if you and your friends use a certain niche word that’s not in the dictionary.

Do this:

1. The reading for the word. Put the hiragana in here

2. The kanji you want to come up.

3. Part of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.)

4. User comment (optional)

Tip 10: Shift the parsing range

A common source of IME headaches is when a word you want to type is for one reason or another not parsed

(split into parts) correctly, preventing you from easily bringing up the particular kanji that you need. This can

drive you crazy trying to fix it if you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, the solution is pretty easy:



10 86Like 2

In cases such as this, you can adjust your IME’s parsing range manually by using Shift + Left/Right. This will

move the right-hand delimiter of the currently selected parse range.

By the way typing ハート (type: h a – t o) gives you the following symbols (if you have the symbols dictionary

on [Tip #4]): ❤❦❥♡♥❧

Tip 11: Force katakana input

As brought up in the previous tip, by default your IME tries to parse your input for starts and stops of words

based on its dictionary. And it’s surprisingly good at it too. But if you’re trying to type a romanized version of

someone’s personal name or a company name (anything your dictionary doesn’t know), this can lead to some

pretty ugly results. For example, if you’re trying to enlighten a Japanese person about the greatest comedy of

all time:

Sure, you could go back part by part and change those kanji into katakana manually, but why not eradicate

the problem at its root? To avoid awkward conversions like this, there is a katakana only input mode. Here’s

how to toggle it:

On English keyboards: CTRL + Caps Lock to begin Katakana mode. ALT + Caps Lock to return to

hiragana.

On Japanese keyboards: use the 無変換 key (next to the space bar)

Just don’t forget that you need to toggle it off again when you’re done.

Tip 12: Temporary English mode

If you’d like to mix an English word or sentence into your Japanese typing for whatever reason, you don’t need

to toggle your IME. Begin an inline, temporary English input mode by starting any word with a capital

letter. You’ll be able to type in English as usual except with your trusty IME underline. Use the Enter key to

close out the inline English segment and return to normal Japanese input.

Important: On non-Japanese keyboards, you should convert your Japanese input before entering temporary

English mode. This is because once in temporary English mode, you lose the ability to use your space bar to

convert Japanese. On Japanese keyboards this isn’t a problem because you can still use the designated

Convert (変換) key.

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April 3, 2010 -- iPhone tip: add Japanese words to the dictionary

Computers IME Internet Posted under Language & Study, Living & Enjoying Japan by Lloyd Vincent

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Comments

Tip 1: On my PC (US keyboard), the combo is Alt+Left Shift. Ctrl+~ does nothing. Tip 2: didn’t see this

option in Google Chrome (edit field), Word, Wordpad, or anywhere else.

by: zeptimius, Apr 1st at 9:04 am

What Windows version are you using?

Also, I noticed I wrote CTRL when I meant ALT for tip 1, will fix it next chance I get.

Sorry you can’t get the reconversion working. Works for me just about everywhere. :-/

by: Lloyd Vincent, Apr 1st at 9:24 am

A few addons for you, good sir:

Linux: it’s a pain to get one working in all programs, but if you are using SCIM or UIM the exact-same

shortcuts as Windows by default.

Mac: ^⇧J for Japanese normal input, ^⇧K for Katakana-only, and ^⇧; to return to English… If you’re using

a Windows keyboard like me that’s ctrl+shift

Windows: To change between English and Japanese keyboard modes press Left-Alt+Left-Shift (this

changes the EN icon to a JP icon), then once you are in Japanese mode press Left-Alt+”The button to the

left of the 1″ which is a tilde as Lloyd said on a US keyboard, but one of those funny wide apostrophes

used for minutes-and-seconds (the one that’s Shift-@ on a Japanese keyboard)

As a little bonus for the extra characters, too:

SUUGAKU renders numerous math-related characters

GIRISYA gives you the whole greek alphabet

ROSIA gives you the whole cyrillic alphabet

Those three I use when making ridiculous faces

…basically if you want something, just type in its category

For example: you want an arrow pointing right. You can either type MIGI to get arrows pointing to the

right, or press YAJIRUSI to get all arrows

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention the recently-released Google IME which at first I

hates but since for some reason it’s the only keyboard mode enabled where I work (despite working for a

Japanese computer repair firm) I decided to just plough on with it… It Auto-learns words for you; my wife’s



p p p ) j p g y y

name is not a default result in the main character dictionary (祐未, YUMI — try it!) but after I entered it a

few times the IME from Google started to bring it up as the first result when neither my iPhone, nor my

Mac, nor my Windows PC will do… (my Linux box does, though, by the way!)

Well there we go

Sorry it’s late and I can’t sleep so I wanted something to do. Hope you can make use of this, Lloyd!

Fantastic blog as always, by the way o(^▽ )̂o

by: DAZ-Y3, Apr 1st at 10:22 am

Sorry for the double post but I wish to apologise for the terrible grammar and spelling in a couple of places

in that last comment. I was using my iPhone so I got done by the auto-complete in at least one place up

there, and totally missed the atrocious grammar in the second sentence…

Also if I remember rightly I think the reconvert options are only available in Japanese versions of Windows

before Vista but were added to Windows Vista and 7 for all versions (since apparently it’s ok to have an

8gb OS nowadays…)

by: DAZ-Y3, Apr 1st at 10:28 am

THANK YOU!!!!!!

been wanting a well written IME tutorial like this for so long.

by: Jamaipanese, Apr 1st at 1:23 pm

Thanks! I learned some new tips from this. Here are some others I found:

If you type a word, for example もんてぃー　for monty python, you can use the F6, F7, F8 etc keys to

convert it to katakana and different types of romaji. Saves you the trouble of switching modes.

Also you can precede hiragana and katakana with “x” to make them small, just like “l”.

by: rod　, Apr 1st at 9:17 pm

These are great tips. I’ve also noticed a new addition to IME in Windows 7 that allows handwriting called

IME Pad, great if you have a touch pad and stylus.

There really is a lot a of useful stuff here. I love keyboard shortcuts, anything that makes typing easier

without having to reach for the mouse is great.

by: Brett, Apr 1st at 11:29 pm



Great write-up! There’s some stuff I didn’t know in there, but then I don’t use an English keyboard so a lot

of that was new to me.

A few additions:

To make something all katakana, just enter as normal and then hit F7 without 変換ing it. Done.

Also, for the mini characters I’ve always used ‘x’, as in xtu = っ. Check that out next time.

by: Doug, Apr 2nd at 7:48 pm

Good post! I’ve been using the IME for a while already, but I didn’t know about some of these tips and was

happy to see that there actually IS a shortcut for something I was wanting

Though, for the sake of completion:

Alt + Shift changes input mode (I often use English, Japanese, and Chinese IME. It could be useful for

those who have multiple IMEs.)

Alt + ~ changes the current IME’s input mode.

I had been wanting the shortcut Alt + Tilde since the day I started using it!

Do you know if there’s a way to default it to hiragana input though when changing the IME from English to

Japanese?

by: Ikari7789, Apr 3rd at 12:43 am

Hi! I really like this post and will be sharing this with my facebook friends/study group.

I was also going to say that F7 converts all text to katakana, but someone beat me to it! Darn it all

Keep up the awesome posts ^_^

by: Jacki, Apr 3rd at 8:32 am

Wow! Thanks for the excellent feedback, everyone. Even I get to learn something new!

I’ll update the post sometime this week or next with all this info, so if there are any more tips, keep ‘em

coming!

@DAZ-Y3: Reconvert works for me on my home PC, which is running Windows XP (US version).

However, I do have it set up to run in Japanese mode (that’s why all the screenshots are in Japanese),

maybe that is relevant. :-/

@Ikari7789: Not sure what to say. When I toggle my IME on it goes into Hiragana automatically, and I

never set it up to do that. Are you toggling your language with ALT+SHIFT instead of the IME mode with

ALT + ~, perhaps?

by: Lloyd Vincent, Apr 3rd at 10:56 pm



Some real excellent tips here – I’m pretty comfortable with my IME setup but I’ve been lost with things

like how to make corrections after I realise I’ve screwed up the kanji.

by: Katie, Apr 11th at 1:36 am

These are great tips. I’ve also noticed a new addition to IME in Windows 7 that allows handwriting called

IME Pad, great if you have a touch pad and stylus.

There really is a lot a of useful stuff here. I love keyboard shortcuts, anything that makes typing easier

without having to reach for the mouse is great.

by: Michelle, Apr 19th at 4:37 pm

You are indeed the true master of the IME pad, thank you! I thought I was pretty good with the shortcuts,

but this helps so much more.

by: Chiaki, Apr 22nd at 4:38 pm

great tips, thank you! just wanted to add that it doesn’t work (at least for me) with google ime yet, I had to

go back to the microsoft ime, which sucks because usually the google ime shows results closer to what I

want to write .

and oddly enough, the right ctrl key doesn’t work for the shortcuts, it has to be the left one.

by: Raoul, May 10th at 2:01 am

Ah, the wonders of Japanese IME! Nice tips, I learned a few new things. Others have already beat me to

explaining the F7-F10 shortcuts (I always use this, sometimes combined with “parse shifting”) and x

instead of l for small characters, so there is one thing left to say.

L+ and X+ are not limited to vowels, ya/yu/yo and tsu. I found three other combinations too.

LKE/XKE → ヶ (as in 一ヶ月)

LKA/XKA → ヵ (uncommon substitute for ヶ)

XN → ん (note: doesn’t work with LN!)

Note, small け and か don’t exist, so you will get small katakana even if you are using hiragana entry.

by: Spencer, May 15th at 12:06 pm

@Raoul: Yeah sorry, I’ve never tried the Google IME so I wrote this article just with the regular Microsoft



IME in mind.

@Spencer: Thanks for pointing out that katakana Ka and Ke can also be small-ified. I forgot about them.

But most of the times when you need to use those guys, they will convert to small characters anyway.

(IKKAGETSU = 一ヶ月; no l or x required)

I’m not getting a small ん on my PC with X or L…

by: Lloyd Vincent, May 16th at 1:22 pm

I didn’t mean a small ん. I can type a regular ん with “xn”. (I should have mentioned that I guess)

The combinations I mentioned are not needed at all, but it’s still fun to know they’re there. ^̂

by: SpencervdM, May 27th at 2:50 am

omg thx. I love the symbols with Japanese IME. It worked on my other computer while this one had less

symbols so i was like… sad but now i see you just have to enable it. thx much.

by: Lalala, Jun 7th at 9:10 am

Thank you very much for those useful tips, which will from now on make it everyday easier, to type in

Japanese!

by: S. R., Jul 25th at 2:11 pm

You left out some other things:

thi, tha, the, thu, tho -> てぃ　てゃてぇ　てゅ　てょ

dhi, dha, dhe, dhu, dho -> でぃ　でゃ　でぇ　でゅ　でょ

by: asdlf;ajsdl;fkj, Sep 28th at 4:09 am

Nice article– thanks!

by: Eli, Jan 5th at 12:31 pm

Oh God thank you so much I’ve been trying to find out how to write づ like forever Now I can づ all day



Oh God, thank you so much. I ve been trying to find out how to write づ like forever. Now I can づ all day

everyday!

Just two more things, sorry if those have been mentioned above: Is there a way to put handakuten on

characters that usually don’t have those, like ん or vowels? I’ve seen it being used like that to make it

kinda seem like a “strained” sound, something like that I think.

Also, is there a keyboard shortcut for toggling kana and romaji input? And I don’t mean switching between

katakana and hiragana, I mean standard romaji keyboard layout and kana keyboard layout.

by: i0, Jan 11th at 2:25 am

Thanks! This was easily one of the best articles for sharing tips on using the Japanese IME!

by: Ryan Teo, Jan 22nd at 11:02 am

Great Tutorial, I was forced to look for　it while having trouble writing 続く(つづく), however I just installed

google IME while I was writing this and apparently it works fine with just ず. Anyways, thanks for all these

useful tips :F

by: 最高, Feb 23rd at 7:53 am

Re: Tip #12

I just found out that if you’re typing a sentence and midway enter “Temporary English Mode”, you can still

convert the previous Japanese by hitting SHIFT + Spacebar. (with WinXP)

by: Noli, Apr 12th at 2:15 am

For the Mac users – here is a site that can walk you through the setup on OS X:

http://www.yesjapan.com/install_japanese/mac_osx/

by: Nick, Aug 17th at 10:54 am

there’s a much much easier way for Tip 11: Katakana.

Just push F7 then you won’t need to toggle back and forth.

by: けんちゃん, Aug 20th at 6:17 pm



Omigosh, thanks so much! I’m definitely bookmarking this. Found it by accident.

by: Chris, Aug 29th at 12:47 am

Do you know what the shortcut is on Taiwanese keyboards (for switching on and off) ?

by: Sébastien, Sep 28th at 2:21 pm

Great tutorial, thanks!

Btw, you can also change between styles with F-keys.

F6: Hiragana

F7: Katakana

F8: Katakana half-width (半角)

F9: Romaji

F10: Romaji half-width

by: DoM, Oct 7th at 6:58 pm

Oh, the bit on thi & dhi for ティ & ディ will save me some time from now on! I used to type those as texi &

dexi instead.

by: Psi-Lord, Oct 11th at 4:25 am

Hi these are all great tips and ive been using ime for a bit now but coulod someone please tell me how to

type the grammatical o using windows7 jap ime i’ve been using the symbols/character list must be an

easier way thanks!

by: si, Nov 1st at 8:36 am

That reconversion’s got to be the most overlooked and useful thing I’ve come across… it’s great. And I’m

hoping tip 4 (symbol dictionary) might fix display problems I’ve been having on some sites.

I’ve been using these alternate shortcuts for awhile:

Ctrl + U -or- F6 for hiragana input,

Ctrl + I -or- F7 for fullwidth katakana,

Ctrl + O -or- F8 for halfwidth katakana, and

Ctrl + P -or- F9 for fullwidth romaji input.

(Is there a combination for F10′s halfwidth?)

Additionally while playing around, these also worked (I mostly never used/knew about):

Ctrl + Y -or- F5 for IME Pad,



Ctrl + J -or- arrow left for moving the caret left,

Ctrl + K -or- arrow right for moving the caret right, and

Ctrl + H -or- backspace for…

Personally I’ve never used the 2nd half’s shortcuts. Ctrl + I and O are pretty much indispensible. (I think

you can use these conversion shortcut keys to bring a ‘temporary english input’ from tip 12 back into IME

recognition mode too, for if you ever wanted to make sure you entered something in fullwidth or halfwidth

for whatever reason)

by: raccoondogvel, Nov 1st at 9:29 pm

for microsoft ime, typing n’ (N followed by apostrophe, no space) converts automatically to んI prefer this input method for ん, so I hope others do as well.

by: Anonymous, Jan 7th at 7:23 am

The particle を　is rendered by typing the syllable wo.

by: Anonymous, Jan 7th at 7:29 am

Does anyone know if there is a way to get romaji to appear above or below hiragana?

by: kris, Jan 18th at 7:54 pm

In MS Word the phonetic guide function could be used for indicating furigana. In MS Word 2003 is as

follows: first, a piece of text is highlighted; Format -> Asian Layout -> Phonetic Guide. In the English

version it’s called “Ruby text” and is not limited Japanese script. Meaning you can type any word in any

language and it will display as furigana of the japanese text.

To Lloyd Vincent: Thank you for the useful site.

by: Anonymous, Feb 28th at 4:33 am

About reconversion (tip 2), I had a hard time finding a way to use it : I’m using a French keyboard on a

Japanese computer, so I don’t have the 変換 key, but I don’t have the right click menu option either.

I missed this function soooo much until I found a trick, which might be handy on an English system also :

you can set the reconversion function to any key combination ! Here’s how to do it :

1- Search for the key allocation table in the IME properties (or whatever it is called in English, I cannot tell

since my IME is all in Japanese ^̂ ).

You should find it in the 2nd section of properties’ first tab.



2- Find the line for the reconversion function, choose a key combination and enjoy ^̂

Of course you can also use this table to find about (and customize) all possible hotkeys in your IME ^̂

by: Armand, Mar 14th at 4:31 pm

Had a look at an English system this morning, the path to find this option is Properties/Editing/Key

template/Advanced.

Enjoy ^̂

by: Armand, Mar 15th at 8:31 am



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