A Japanese Input Solution for English Internet Explorerby the Editors Q: I know that it's possible (with a kanji font installed) to read Japanese webpages under English Windows with both Navigator 4 and Internet Explorer 4. But I also want to be able to type kanji and kana into webpage forms so that I can search for documents on the Japanese Web. Is there an easy solution? A: Yes, and it comes from Microsoft. As you mention, Microsoft's Japanese Language Pack, which has been available for free downloading for some time now, enables the display of Japanese characters (kanji) with English Internet Explorer. Finally, Microsoft has added to its multi-lingual Internet solutions package the Internet Explorer Japanese IME (Input Method Editor), an add-on that allows users to input kanji with Internet Explorer 4.0 while running English Windows 95/NT. The ActiveX-based Japanese IME displays an icon -- indicating either "En" (English) or "JA" (Japanese) -- on the task bar. Whenever your cursor is in an HTML-supported area of Internet Explorer 4.0, or when you click in the body of an Outlook Express message, if you select "JA" a red pen icon and IME pop-up menu bar (both of which will look familiar to anyone who has used Japanese Windows) appear. Just select your input method -- zenkaku hiragana, hankaku katakana, etc. -- and you can start typing kanji. (Unfortunately, this IME does not work with any applications other than Outlook Express and Internet Explorer.) If you don't already have the Internet Explorer Japanese Language Pack, you can download that with the Japanese IME. The file you want is jamondo.exe (5.95MB, with language pack) or msjaime.exe (3.64MB, without language pack). The IME has both Japanese and (brief) English help files. While Netscape enables kanji to be displayed in Navigator 4.0 running under English Windows, Microsoft is the first to add kanji input capability to its English (or any language) browser. If this is a precursor of the multilanguage display and input capabilities of Windows 98, well -- it's about time! You can download Internet Explorer IME 4.0 (Japanese and Korean IMEs are currently available; a Chinese IME is coming soon) from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/ime.htm.
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