While trying to show someone the mysterious symbols used to create "The Matrix" source code, I realized that most people have no need to use the East Asian input services offered in Windows XP but they still may want to know how to play with the options.

Additionally, there may be many Eur-Asian people throughout the world that don't know that they can use their native language when sending emails to their families abroad;. Or even type letters in their native script. Well, in an effort to increase the public knowledge of this service, I decided to write this tutorial.

I'll explain here the addition of Japanese to your Windows XP system because that was the language used in "The Matrix".

First, you may need the use of your Windows XP installation disk. If you don't have you Windows XP installation disk, you may be able to get away without it. If you do find that you need the disk and still can not find your disk, you will be able to barrow a disk from someone else. You won't be prompted for the activation code or serial number and having a valid installtion of the Windows XP operating system on your computer entitles you to the service provided on the barrowed disk.

While some of these steps may be a little basic, I wanted to include them just to be sure that everyone is on the same page.

1. First turn your computer on and log into Windows XP.
   - If you are unable to complete this step, please turn off your computer and watch some television.
2. Click the Start button at the bottom left corner of your screen.
   - this may be in a different location but if it is then you probably can figure out how to adjust for this step.
3. Click the Control Panel link in the Start Menu.
4. Click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options
   
   
   
5. Click Regional and Language Options
   
   
   
6. Click Language Tab - If you have trouble here, see note below.
   
   
   
7. Click The Details Button
8. Click The Settings Tab
   
   
   
9. Click The Add Button
10. Select the Input Language pull down menu.
    
    
    
11. In the Input Language pulldown menu, choose Japanese
    
    
    
12. Leave the Input Keyboard/IME option alone and click OK
    
    
    
13. Here is what your window should now look like.
    
    
    
14. Click the Language Bar Button
15. Select Show the Language Bar on the Desktop and Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar.
    

You should be al ready to go. If you were unable to find Japanese in the Input Language dropdown menu, then return to step 6 and click the Install Files For East Asian Languages and click ok. Follow the directions provided by windows. You computer will need to be restarted and you can then follow these directions to make Japanese input available on your system.

You'll find using the laguage bar a little confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you should be ok.

Here is a simple explaination of the Japanese character types:
Hiragana - The origianl Japanese written laguage system
Katakana - A modified version of Hiragan used to denote the pronounciation of foreign words. - This was the character system used as the basis for "THE Matrix" source code.
Kangi - The Japanese adaptation of the Chinese writting system utilizing somewhere around 10,000 characters.
Romaji - The Roman writting system used in most western countries including all English speaking countries.

Hope this helps.

vujsa

Cool. Thanks for that vujsa Tells me to come up with some articles on how to use these installed languages programmatically. Will do so soon.

Ooh, forgot that method, need to try it, since at install Windows would freeze everytime I went to install the language pack for east asian languages. And m^e, I'd love to know how to use them programmatically, and also, how to use them lingually.

~Viz

well, for windows 9x, (win95, 98, ME) and winnt, u could try the following microsoft software to be able to write & read east asian language on ur windows system.

Install Microsoft Global IME 5.02 for 32-bit Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downlo...me/install.mspx

i post a step by step, if ur guys really need. but try on ur own first.

Katakana actually came before hiragana, and technically kanji is the original Japanese writing system, and is not modified from Chinese in any way aside from the pronunciation of the words. please don't fabricate Japanese facts; it's not fair to the ignorant.