Not a huge deal but, something went wrong with my Japanese Google Input...?
For some reason, it reverted from Colemak to Qwerty layout at an unknown point in time.
Switched it back. But now when using Google Japanese I can't seem to change between Direct Input and Hiragana using Alt Tilde shortcut. Ctrl Caps doesn't work either.
Or maybe my memory isn't right and those shortcuts never worked at all in Google Japanese, but I don't think so.Shortcuts work fine on Microsoft IME, also work fine with Google using the original qwerty kbdjpn.dll.
it only took me a year to figure this out. well not really, but doing a fresh OS install recently i confirmed that setting google japanese to colemak2.dll indeed breaks the Alt ` shortcut to toggle hiragana mode. HOwever, I realized u can create a custom hiragana toggle shortcut by going to the google japanese properties and making a Custom Keymap Style based off MS-IME. Just add entries like Direct Input - Ctrl ` - Set mode to Hiragana input and Precomp - Ctrl ` - Deactivate IME.
Now ive got anew porblem tho. MS OneNote doesnt respond to any language shortcuts at all.
...maybe ill figure it out next year. :P
]]>But now when using Google Japanese I can't seem to change between Direct Input and Hiragana using Alt Tilde shortcut. Ctrl Caps doesn't work either.a
I had the same issue when I started using Colemak with Farkas Maté's PKL, so I would have Colemak layout for Japanese input too.
I got around by using both Japanese and Spanish (or other alphabet-based language) layouts in Windows. I always leave Japanese with hiragana and toggle layouts with Shift+Alt.
For some reason, it reverted from Colemak to Qwerty layout at an unknown point in time.
Switched it back. But now when using Google Japanese I can't seem to change between Direct Input and Hiragana using Alt Tilde shortcut. Ctrl Caps doesn't work either.
Or maybe my memory isn't right and those shortcuts never worked at all in Google Japanese, but I don't think so.
Shortcuts work fine on Microsoft IME, also work fine with Google using the original qwerty kbdjpn.dll.
]]>Wanted to correct a couple of things that flew by here:
-I also purchased Japanese keyboards for both my desktop and my laptop, ostensibly to learn the kana layout and for the benefit of having single-key toggle. Turns out the former is obsolete and the latter was unnecessary because:
-It's not necessary to use both Ctrl-Shift and Alt-` to switch between qwerty and romaji input in Windows. You can forgo the Ctrl-Shift and simply use Alt-` as a toggle, because there's essentially no difference between being in the 'US English' keyboard and being in 'Direct Input' mode in the Japanese IME. I switch between English and Japanese dozens of times a day, and this is how I do it. In fact, I completely removed US English and its keyboard, to avoid accidentally switching to it.
-The kana layout is old and arbitrary and so has similar problems as QWERTY. I have never met a single Japanese person who types using it; everyone uses romaji. The moraic syllabry is ~46 characters and mapping each one to a key leads to an absurd amount of row jumping. On top of that, you have to switch modes to type numbers. So sadly the 'just use the kana layout' suggestion does a lot more harm than good.
]]>AutoHotKey also works without adjustments in Word, Excel etc.
Note that the MS Office suite apps actually hook up to the IME via a different (unknown?) mechanism to the IME. In fact, there is a special version of the Microsoft IME that is needed to use office, and Third Party IMEs like ATOK require the use of special plugins to work in Office applications!
One other reason to use AutoHotKey on windows is that it tends to preserve the position of non-alphanumeric keys on non-US keyboards. The JIS Keyboard (the one with kana on the keys) actually has punctuation character placed in significantly different positions to the US Keyboard. Using Colemak.dll moves these keys to the US keyboard positions, and can render some common characters untypable (the backslash/yen and the tilde come to mind), while at the same time will render some keys functionless.
There are similar issues with the Mac JIS keyboard, so I've created my own remapping to cover that case.
]]>Hey, using kana input has its advantages. Since I don't use QWERTY anymore, I would have to hit and peck to type Japanese, but why would I want to do that when there's another keyboard that allows me to type Japanese as well? Kana input may or may not be the best way for typing in Japanese, but it's definitely working for me so far.
]]>As far as two keyboards, I can't see how that could be good ergonomically. I have enough trouble with my mouse being too far away, I couldn't fathom reaching for another keyboard.
]]>I think it would be a bit unnecessary to have more then one keyboard.
]]>One use I saw for that trick was if you were a Russian or Greek keyboard user. One keyboard could be set up to map all the AltGr signs without actually holding down an AltGr key. With a keyboard setup that has the Greek chars on AltGr mappings one could then type away in Greek on one keyboard and in latin letters on the other. IME input is more complex though and I don't know exactly how it's done so I may be barking up the entirely wrong tree here. :)
]]>At any rate, it's not all that common to find someone who uses kana input to type in Japanese. I guess I simply like to be an odd man out. ^_^
]]>I'm considering changing E0210411 (ATOK16W.IME) from kbdjpn.dll to Colemak.dll, but I'm not sure this is the correct one, as the Sorting It All Out said that the kbdjpn.dll pointed to different layouts depending on other settings (not documented). Oh, it would be so much easier if I were trying to use the Chinese IME (which uses the us layout directly). Grrr.
I remember having some problem when I tried to switch to Dvorak years ago...
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