Japanese for the Macintosh

 
 
Enabling the Japanese keyboard in OS X.

Installing the Japanese fonts in OS X is a much easier than in the previous operating systems. Follow the steps below:
   
  1. Open the System Preferences panel and click on International.
   
 
 
  2. Select the languages you would like to enable by checking the appropriate box. Close the System Preferences panel.
   
 
 
  3. An American flag will now appear in the top menu of your computer. Simply click on the flag and select the Japanese option to begin typing in Japanese.
   
 
 
  4. Once you have enabled the Japanese language on your computer, you will be able to type in Japanese in most applications, including email. You will not need to set up your Web browsers to view Japanese Web pages. In OSX, they can detect and view Japanese text automatically.
 
 
Installing the Japanese Language Kit for OS 9.

To install the Japanese fonts, you will need to have the system CD's that came with your computer. Insert the CD into the computer and it should open automatically. Double click on the Software Installers icon and follow these steps:

   
  1. Within the Software Installers folder, double click on the Language Kits folder.
   
 
 
  2. Double click on the Install Language Kits icon.
   
 
 
  3. Select the languages you would like to install, by clicking in the box next to each one. You can select more than one language. When finished, click on the the Install button.
   
 
 
  4. The language kits will be installed and your computer will restart. Once it has restarted, you will notice an American flag in the upper right corner. Click on the flag and you will be see a menu of languages that you have installed.
   
 
 
 
Setting up Your Web Browser to View Sites in Japanese

To view Web Sites in Japanese, you must first install the Japanese language kit on your computer (see above). Once installed, you can configure your Web browser to use these fonts when necessary. The instructions below are for Netscape, but you can follow the same steps to set up Internet Explorer on the Macintosh.

 
  1. While in Netscape, go to the Preferences option under the Edit menu.
   
  2. Under Appearance, select Fonts.
   
   

   
 

3. Click on the "For the Encoding" button and select Japanese.
   
   
   
  4. Make sure that Japanese fonts such as Osaka are selected for both Variable and Fixed width fonts and click OK. If they are not selected, simply select them from the font menus. Next click on the button stating "Use my fonts, overriding page-specified fonts" and click OK.
   
   
   
  5. You can test these fonts by visiting a Japanese Web site such as http://www.asahi.com. You should be able to view this page in Japanese.
   
  6. If you visit a site that you know is in Japanese yet your browser is displaying nonsense characters, select the Character Set option under the View menu and select Japanese. Sometimes the browser does not recognize that it should display a Japanese font, and choosing the Character Set will help it to do so.
 
   
 
 
 
Reading and Sending E-mail in Japanese using Bates Web Mail
To use Japanese in your e-mail, you must first install the Japanese language kit on your computer (see above). When using Webmail for Japanese, you may find that the results vary. Try the suggestions below, however, due to different encoding methods, you may have difficulty reading some Japanese messages. If you have messages that you cannot read, contact Bill Maiert in the Language Resource Center.
 
  1. You must use Internet Explorer to read and send Japanese e-mail.
   
  2. Log in to Webmail at webmail.bates.edu.
   
  3. To read messages that were sent to you in Japanese, you must change the Character Set to Japanese after you've logged into Webmail. To do this, select the Character Set option under the View menu in Internet Explorer and select Japanese. After doing this, your browser will refresh and any Japanese messages will appear in Japanese.
   
 

 

 

   
  4. To compose and send a message, click on the compose button in Webmail. Type in the e-mail address of the recipient and then change the Character Set to Japanese again. Once you've selected the Character Set, choose Japanese from the language menu bar in the upper right hand corner (the flag) and type your message. Click send when finished.
   
   
 

5. You can set Japanese as the default Character Set in the Preferences section under the Edit Menu on your own computer, but, when using a public lab you will always have to change the Character Set to Japanese if you'd like to read and send e-mail.