My neighbor is interested in purchasing a computer, and one of the function’s his wife is looking forward to is the ability to e-mail her family in Japan. In Japanese.
Knowing nothing about computers, they asked me what they needed. Knowing nothing about using Japanese-language email programs on American English PCs, I thought I’d ask the millions.
-lv
At njstar.com you can download a free trial version of NJStar Communicator, which allows for Chinese, Japanese and Korean input. I use it for Chinese, so I can’t vouch for the Japanese input, but it’s free to try. And actually, although it’s a trial version and will begin hitting you up for cash after a month, you don’t actuall have to cough up as long as you keep hitting “agree.”
If I am not mistaken, you can natively do this in Mac OS X, with the include email application, as long as you install the proper language when you set up the computer. Can’t test because I didn’t install any asian languages.
You can download Microsoft’s Global Input Method Editor (free of charge) which allows you to enter Japanese text into a number of MS apps like Outlook Express and Office, etc.
More info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/recommended/ime/default.asp
My dad uses it to write E-mails to Japan from a UK PC, so I should imagine this could be a suitable option for your friends.
windows 2000 or windows XP can easily be set up for Japanese (and other languages as well). Just type in Japanese in help and follow the directions.
Linux natively supports Unicode, which includes all Asian characters in all Asian languages.
I can’t seem to actually get any method for input out of XP. Any help?
SV , NJStar is looking like the simplest solution. I like the fact that it doesn’t tie you to MS software.
Derleth, so do OS X and every revision of Windows. The problem comes with finding a friendly method of INPUTTING those characters into an email with an english keyboard, then sending that email in such a way as to avoid the problem that the “sending email” standard only supports 7 bit ASCII. There are plenty of areas where Linux is superior to Windows, you don’t have to go inventing more, unless you want to supply a specific Linux program that was designed to accomplish this task, and describe how it’s better than the other suggestions.
NiNjAmAn , I didn’t see any mention of Windows XP in there…I also don’t want to tie my neighbors into buying Office XP to get full functionality…
-lv
I’d go with the Microsoft IME first, since it’s free, and if that fails try NJStar or some other software.
I’ve got IME version 5.01 on a Windows 95 machine (English windows, English keyboard) and it works like a charm. Very simple to install and use. Netscape mail, for one, will allow you to use the IME to type and send messages in Japanese; the English version of Eudora, though, won’t accept Japanese. I dunno about Outlook.
I suspect that the IME for XP will behave similarly. That is, I doubt that it’s intended to be used exclusively with Office XP. In any event, there’s nothing to lose by downloading it and giving it a tr
… giving it a try.