Hi Everyone,

This post is a super small tutorial on how to change the keyboard layout to write in japanese with a colemak keyboard:

(If you just want to know how it's done jump to *------- Tutorial Start -------*)

I am by no means a professional with computers, I just wanted to share my experience so that anyone that is struggling with Japanese and the Colemak keyboard can have yet another approach to enable them (and myself whenever I forget) to write in japanese with a colemak keyboard.

The main motivation behind this post is that, all the other approaches that I have been able to find are, either short responses to user queries that redirect you somewhere, or approaches that I found somewhat inconvenient due to the fact that I have a custom colemak layout (ES colemak with Caps as Backspace) that I wanted to keep when writing in japanese.

*------- Tutorial Start -------*

The main idea behind this tutorial is to change the keyboard file associated with japanese to the keyboard file associated with your colemak layout.

For that we have to edit the registry key on the Windows Registry Edit tool. (Disclaimer: Edit Windows Registry keys at your own risk)

1. Open the windows menu search for "Run" (or your language equivalent) and press enter (this will open a small window).
    Or press "Windows Key" + r .

2. Once open type "regedit". And press enter.
    The Windows Registry Edit tool window should open.

3. On the left you should see some folders, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts
    Take note that it is Keyboard Layouts with an s!!! (there is another folder called Keyboard Layout)

4. Now search for your current colemak keyboard layout, it is usually one of the last folders and starts with an "a" instead of a 0 (windows keyboards: 00000XXX, custom
    keyboards: aXXXXXXX)
    (You must have installed colemak in some other language for this to work).

5. When you find your colemak layout copy the .dll file name  (double click on layout file allows you to edit and copy), only the name will suffice (in my case it is cmkesb.dll).

6. After that navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\00000411
     Make sure that the folder 00000411 corresponds to japanese (on the field layout text it should say Japanese and the layout file should be KBDJPN.DLL)

7. Finally change the layout file KBDJPN.DLL for your colemak layout file name and accept the changes. (You might have to restart the computer for the changes to take
    place)

And that's it, hope you found that interesting and useful.

じゃあね :)