typing Japanese using the IME

[randombs]

is there a quick way to switch between hiragana, katakana and direct input?

i've seen a few katakana bits pop up when i hold things like shift or something but i can't remember now.

basically it's a bloody hassle typing something in hiragana, switching to katakana for another bit via the language bar, and maybe doing some regular english words as well.

is there a way, or do i need a japanese keyboard to pull it off?

do japanese keyboards actually work like that or are they used just like we do with the english ones (typing stuff like ohayou and having it convert it on the fly)?

btw i'm not interested in acquiring a proper japanese keyboard

[Fei Fong Wong]

Well I tend to only type in Japanese using MS Office products but with those you can switch hiragana and katakana using F6 & F7 if you wish to. Not sure about other apps though. Why do you need to constantly switch though? Nothing in Japanese is really written all in hiragana or all in katakana, its a mixture of all three syllabaries.

In answer to your other question, Japanese use a kana input system. You can set this too if you want in the settings. Yours I'm assuming is set to romaji input. They work in the same manner though with conversion to kanji on the fly based on the kana input.

[randombs]

Why do you need to constantly switch though? Nothing in Japanese is really written all in hiragana or all in katakana, its a mixture of all three syllabaries.

that's exactly what i meant (probably not clear in the post though).

basically when i'm chatting in japanese on msn i'll usally be flicking between hiragana, katakana and regular english all in the same paragraph.

up till now i've had to click on the language bar and choose between the three which really slows things down.

tried F6/F7 and they didn't work in msn.

i'll try googling then...

:EDIT:

ok googling delivered (some of) the goods - at least it led me in the right direction, but the shortcuts i found wouldn't work so i set about trying random combinations:

Ctrl + Caps Lock = switch to Hiragana

Alt + Caps Lock = switch to Katakana

Shift + Caps Lock = switch between full-width and half-width input (it's the only easy way i can find so far that gets me into english mode, and the english doesn't look half-width. bear in mind that if you do this and then switch to katakana, it'll be half-width katakana so you'll have to do this again or switch to hiragana)

Ctrl + Shift + Caps Lock = switches between romaji input and kana input (you don't really wanna do this with an english keyboard )