Japanese keyboards

[Cerberus]

Does anybody know what kind of keyboards the Japanese use to type? Are they standered U.S. "Qwerty" keyboards that are used in conjunction with IME, or do they have ones that actually have Hiragana written on the keys? It's obvious that they can't list all of the Kanji on a keyboard... unless I'm missing something.

[Harisenbon]

Japanaese keyboards are QWERTY keyboards with kana under most of the keys. You can input using the IME, or directly with the kana keys. Most people use the IME to input japanese because it's simpler than learning the kana layout.

Some keys are rearranged, and it looks more like an English Keyboard than an American one. There is an extra keys for the 無変換　and 変換 as well as the 半角・全角 and カタカナ/ひらがな/ローマ字 keys.

[Cerberus]

I guess that explains why they're so good at writing in roumaji in chat rooms.

I'm still not very good at the Kanji. What are 無変換, 変換, and 半角・全角?

[Harisenbon]

End Change
Change
Half Width Character
Whole Width Character

They're used for working with the IME.

[jonathanmorris]

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/keyb ... dJapan.htm

^^ check this out for an idea on how the keys are layed out if your interested

[Supergrunch]

So which keys do they remove for laptops?

[Daichi]

Harisenbon wrote:
Some keys are rearranged, and it looks more like an English Keyboard than an American one.

This is interesting because when I change my keyboard to kana input, the keys are reorganised from the English to the US layout. Maybe it's something to do with the Microsoft IME.

[Daichi]

Harisenbon wrote:
Some keys are rearranged, and it looks more like an English Keyboard than an American one.

This is interesting because when I change my keyboard to kana input, the keys are reorganised from the English to the US layout. Maybe it's something to do with the Microsoft IME.

[MenomaMinx]

okay, I've take it I'm the only one who saw this topic title and thought musical keyboard. Go ahead and laugh...... sometimes I forget not everyone is as obsessed with music as I am

Anyway, a program like dasher would be much easier to use than a keyboard to type Japanese in my opinion.

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/

its controled by mouse gestures or head movement if you have the equipment for it

[amethystnights]

woa.. I dont know how using that dasher program would be easier for anything just looking at the demo thingie makes me dizzy O.o

[amiyumi]

yeah, very confusing.

[torgosaves]

I'd like to see a Chinese keyboard. I've heard it has like over 200 keys. Oo boy..

[Daichi]

torgosaves wrote:
I'd like to see a Chinese keyboard. I've heard it has like over 200 keys. Oo boy..

Apparently not:

[torgosaves]

interesting, I was pretty gosh darn sure that I've seen a keyboard with like a couple hundred keys. Huh!

[Harisenbon]

From what my Chinese friend tells me, Chinese computers use an IME like Japanese, wherein you type the character in english, and then choose from an onscreen menu.

I'm sure they also have a chinese specific way of typing as well (like Japanese keyboards), but I don't know how commonly they are used.