MS Global IME and Word 2000

For those of us who need to use various computer software in Japanese, butat the same time cannot give up the English function overseas, the frustration is almost over. No more buying computers when visiting Japan. Windows-based computer users have long struggled, while Mac OS users have enjoyed smoother Japanese with Japanese Language Kit. In the next couple of months, before we welcome the year 2000, this situation will drastically change. Window's next system, Windows 2000, will be multilingual from the start.

There won't be Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 J; there will be only one Windows 2000, to be used in the whole world. Mac OS will release OS9, and it is said that it no longer requires JLK to operate in Japanese.

While Windows 2000 will be the solution for Windows users, it is still in the beta stage at the time of this writing. Unless you have a lot of time and patience, and maybe a computer that you can waste, it is advisable to put off your purchase until the actual release version is available, and maybe until after the first bug-fix is released. Windows 2000 is predicted to be released in time for Comdex (THE computer exposition) in November 1999. Even if that is the case, end users, especially under-appreciated educators, may not be lucky enough to see it in their computers soon. What is more realistic and possible for Windows 95, 98, and NT users will be upgrading to Word 2000 and download Microsoft Global IME (Input Methods Editor) for free. This will allow your Word, Internet Explorer (Web browser), and Outlook or Outlook Express (e-mail software that comes with Internet Explorer) to be Japanese capable. (I am sorry to say this to good old Windows 3.x users, but this is not a solution for you. Your hardware is said to be really Y2K problem-prone, and it is looking as though this is the time to buy a new computer.)

I was fortunate enough to visit a computer lab in the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library in the University of Toronto during the CASTEL/J conference, August 22-25, 1999. There they set up six computers with Global IME and Word 2000 combo to manage Japanese in Windows computers. Mr. Glen Giffen, a graduate student of The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, set them up and took the eager participants to the show. If you want this same set-up, you are going to need the recently released Word 2000 (E), which is in Office 2000 suite. Mr. Giffen predicts most of computer labs will update to Office 2000 anyway, without us asking them. Then all you need is the other component: Global IME, which is available for no charge, downloadable from the Microsoft Web site. (http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/ie/Features/ime.asp) After you install Global IME for Japanese, Windows displays the Global IME icon on the task bar whenever Word 2000, or Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater, is active, or whenever the user clicks in the body of a message in Outlook 98 or Outlook Express 4.0 or greater. To write in Japanese, the user just has to click the Global IME icon, select Japanese, and start typing. Mr. Giffen also instructed us to make sure to check off Japanese under Office Language Settings in Start menu, and then View - Toolbars - Customize - Extended formatting.

For a long time, the introduction of the use of computers in our Japanese classes has often been impeded by technical difficulties in displaying and typing in Japanese. Typical Information Technology specialists are not aware of our problems with Japanese, so that, most of the time, it is the teachers who have to educate themselves, and sometimes even to do the troubleshooting. With this Word 2000 and Global IME combo, we can try composition assignments in Japanese, e-mail, listserv projects, and WWW projects. It may be easier to make a whole bunch of computers Japanese-capable.

By Keiko Schneider (kschnei@iwaves.net)