I've been using IME forever, but just learned how to do this. I thought I'd share:

Alt + Caps Lock is Hiragana -> Katakana (Full width)
Ctrl + Caps Lock is Katakana (Full width) -> Hiragana

It's better than manually clicking to switch, though it will probably take some time for my fingers to get used to hitting those keys quickly as I type-- it figures though, those are awkward key combinations.

Anyway, enjoy, and I hope not everyone knows this already.

That doesn't seem all that useful; F7 converts whatever you've typed to katakana.

It's useful since the default input mode is direct input. :/

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2884

A related thread. I post this because it explains how to switch between IMEs (for non qwerty users).

When I switch to Japanese, it wants to come up in Alphanumeric mode all the time. Which is stupid, since it's the mode I was in in English and don't need it at all in Japanese.

Anyone know a keyboard shortcut to get into hiragana mode? Or a way to default to it?

Left alt + backtick (`) is used to switch between hiragana mode and direct input.

daaan Wrote:Left alt + backtick (`) is used to switch between hiragana mode and direct input.

OMG. Thank you so much!

I'm using Windows 7 and Shift + Caps lock also switches it between hiragana and English.

Wow (win 7 user here) I did not know this and was getting tired of the sometimes buggy click menu to switch. Thanks!

wccrawford Wrote:

daaan Wrote:Left alt + backtick (`) is used to switch between hiragana mode and direct input.

OMG. Thank you so much!

Or, to make it even more awesome: it does work with the left Alt and the ^. Have fun

nice idea! i can say im lucky i found this thread! thanks!

You can also hold Shift while you type, for katakana, in case you missed that. In Google IME, at least.

Just a question; I use a japanese keyboard with my Japanese desktop so these don't really matter for me. But if I were to get a laptop is there a way to install a japanese keyboard on it? Or would I eventually have to break down and just learn these little tricks? (not that it would be hard or anything, just asking)

bizarrojosh Wrote:Just a question; I use a japanese keyboard with my Japanese desktop so these don't really matter for me. But if I were to get a laptop is there a way to install a japanese keyboard on it? Or would I eventually have to break down and just learn these little tricks? (not that it would be hard or anything, just asking)

You can but the problem is obtaining it. Before I bought my Thinkpad I emailed and asked if it would be possible to have it configured with one or would it be at all possible to order one from Japan through them and the answer was no. I also tried Dell, Sony, and Toshiba and even though the specific models were available in both regions they wouldn't let me special order the keyboard. Ebay was the last place I looked and only found ones for models about 3 years older than the one I wanted so I gave up on finding one.

It would probably be different if I was a business customer or was ordering through a company.