Hi, does anyone know if there is a hotkey for the japanese IME input language bar thing that would allow me to switch from hiragana input - katakana - direct input, etc. without having to click with my mouse everytime?

I know that you can click the button and then press the corresponding letter but im wondering if there's a hotkey that would let me switch without using the mouse. Its really annoying having to switch between hiragana and direct input all the time when im using the computer!!!

You can switch between direct input and non-direct input (whatever you had it set on last) by using the key combination Alt+`. The ` key is located above the Tab key.

What I've found out that control + caps lock switches to hiragana mode, alt + capslock is katakana mode, and shift + capslock is romaji (english text) mode. I don't use the latter much when I'm typing longer passages, since the IME underlines your english text for conversion too, making it a bit of a hassle to edit. And it sometimes eats bits of text.

What is direct input? Mapping hiragana onto the keyboard directly? Wouldn't that require a) a japanese keyboard and / or b) learning to type blind a new set of characters?

thank you

After you type a word in hiragana, before you hit enter, you can just hit F7 to convert to katakana.