Hello there,
Though I know about japanese the same as an accountant about music, I've gotten used to write in such asian language. Then I'd like to bring you the much or little knowledge I have till now:
Before getting started, you should download a japanese voice synthesizer in order to test and read your writings. Since I'm a JAWS user I am using Vocalizer voices which are free, but if you have NVDA and the chance to use them, the most optimal thing is to get 'em.
OK, enough rambling, let's go!
As first, you'll need to add the language into your keyboard. If you know how to do this, it's time to do so. Otherwise I'll explain it.
Go to your start menu and write language, and you'll find an option named something like regional and language settings. Note that the option's name may differ depending on the active language for your system, but bassically that's what will take you into the next step.
Once you have entered the next window, now press CTRL+Tab twice, therefore moving you two tabs onwards so you must select the "change keyboard" option. Another window will show up where you can change some parameters, for both the keyboard and the language bar.
Since we are not interested in changing the language bar's appearance, there's no need to press anything else than the standard keyboard commands (tab, shift+tab, enter and the arrows). Then, let's asume that there are some lists. The first one allows you to change the default keyboard setting used when writing at any text field, and if you press tab you'll find the second one; it displays the currently active languages for your keyboard.
But what's going on? The japanese keyboard is missing! Oh, just calm down, this is what we're gonna do...
Press Tab and you'll find a very nice button named "add". This one is going to help us for such task, so I'd recommend to press spacebar on it.
Once pressed, it will be gone and another window will show up instead. well, here is where you must look for and add the japanese language. Just navigate through the tree view until you find the item "japanese (Japan)". Press the right arrow and other options will appear. Just go to the first sub level (keyboard); expand it, and press spacebar onto both japanese and IME options.
What is that IME for? Well, let's just keep in mind that this one will help us to make the japanese language to work into our system.
Once you've done it, simply close the window by pressing enter; do the same thing with all the remaining opened windows, and you're done for the time being.
So we have just added the japanese keyboard, and I bet you that the first time you'll want to do is to start writing into this anime language. For that, open any word processor or text editor. The first time I used it I opened notepad, but you could simply use any program which you feel confortable with.
OK, in short: we now have the japanese keyboard, and we've just opened notepad; for some reason, we want to experiment with it since it's the first time we are facing a keyboard layout like this. So we start writin "hello" or whatever, hoping that some funny and gibberish letters will appear. And once we've done this, taking the first example the result is "hello". Yes, like in english. But what? Maybe you're thinking: -Oh Eagala, you lied me! And I just want to throw out this stupid computer because I'm unable to write any simple kanji!
I only have to say two things. First, this problem has a solution like all the other ones. And second, trowing your computer out is not a very good idea, if you want to get ride of tis simple give it to those poor people and you'll make 'em a big favor.
However, I'm not going to focus in how to donate your computer, since you're who is interested in doing that (I hope) not me. Then let's explain how to activate the japanese language.
As a matter of fact, it's very simple. Once the japanese keyboard is selected as your imput method, in order to use the hiragana writing system you must press shift+cabs lock key, both at the same time. In fact, this is the way which japanese people use to switch between the latin letters and the japanese imput because for them that's the quickest way, and I think that they're right. You can also use the language bar to change even some other things about it, but if you're not very familiar with this language, simply leave it just like that because hiragana is the closest thing to an alfabet in japanese, at least phonetically.
However, if the cabs lock key is set to NVDA or JAWS key, you will first press the corresponding keyboard shortcut to let the application pass the next keys. In JAWS it's Insert+3, and for NVDA users the feature is under keys NVDA+F2. Afterwards, press the keystroke mentioned above and you're ready to go.
To start typing in, simply try to write some words like they were transliterated (sayonara is to say "goodbye I think) and you'll notice something whether different or practical depending in your tastes. Since japanese and chinese languages don't use spaces to separate words, the spacebar does a very cool thing. It allows you to move through the matching results depending on what you've just typed in. This can be similar to how you could write in a smartphone or something like that, so if you get stuck, practice will be your best allied for sure. Also you canchange the different suggestions using the up and down arrows, or get back to the previous one by pressing Shift+Spacebar. To confirm the sillable or words you want to write, press enter.
Well, bassically that's it. I tried to be as clear as I could, so please excuse me if this was sorta boring or rather annoying but I wanted to explain everything to avoid possible doubts or mistakes. Anyways, if you have some questions you can reply to this posts and I'll be glad to help.
Sayonara, and happy writing!
Kind regards.
