Tutorial: Installing and Using Input Method Editors

This tutorial details the steps necessary to install Input Method Editors (IMEs) for Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean on a WindowsXP system and using them to type in a common application, Notepad.

Installing Input Method Editors
Using Input Method Editors in Traditional Chinese
Using Input Method Editors in Simplified Chinese
Using Input Method Editors in Japanese
Using Input Method Editors in Korean

Installing Input Method Editors
Input Method Editors are not installed on WindowsXP systems by default. To install, a user must follow these steps:

Open Control Panel. Open the Regional and Language Options applet.
After the Regional and Language Options dialog shows up, click on the Languages tab, and check the box that says "Install files for East Asian languages."
Click OK. Windows will install the necessary files and prompt the user to reboot. Click Yes to reboot.
After rebooting, open the Regional and Language Options applet once again.
Click on the Languages tab, then click the Details... button. The Text Services and Input Languages dialog shows up.
Click the Add... button. The Add Input Language dialog shows up.
Select "Chinese (Taiwan)" for input language and "Microsoft New Phonetic IME 2002a" for keyboard layout/IME. Click OK.
Click the Add... button again, then select "Chinese (PRC)" for input language and "Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0" for keyboard layout/IME. Click OK.
Click the Add... button again, then select "Japanese" for input language and "Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1" for keyboard layout/IME. Click OK.
Click the Add... button again, then select "Korean" for input language and "Korean Input System (IME 2002)" for keyboard layout/IME. Click OK.
In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog, the "Installed services" list box should contain the 4 newly-added IMEs.
Click OK to close the "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog. Click OK to close the "Regional and Language Options" dialog. The taskbar should now contain a language indicator. The existence of the indicator signifies that more than one input language have been installed on the system.

Using Input Method Editors in Traditional Chinese
This section is a walkthrough of using the Traditional Chinese IME (New Phonetic) with Notepad to enter a few Chinese characters.

Launch Notepad. Type some characters in Notepad. These characters will help visualize the IME window better later.
With the Notepad being the active application, click on the language indicator, and select the "Chinese (Taiwan)" input language. The indicator text changes to CH to reflect the new input language.
In Notepad, press Home so that the caret is at the beginning of the line. Press "S", "U". The screen looks similar to the figure below. The small vertical rectangle is the reading window, which displays the current reading string. Currently, the reading string has two characters, as a result from typing "S" and "U".
Press "3". Now the screen looks like the following figure. Because S+U+3 is a complete pronunciation in Traditional Chinese, the IME has enough knowledge to anticipate the character that the user may have intended to enter. The reading window disappears because the user has entered a complete pronunciation. A character shows up where the Notepad caret is. This character is not part of Notepad, instead it is displayed in another window on top of Notepad. This is apparent because the existing characters in Notepad are hidden beneath the character. The window is called the composition window, and the string in it is called the composition string. The composition string is underlined as an indication to the user.
Now press "C", "L", "3" to enter another character similar to how the first is entered. Note that the reading window shows up when "C" is pressed and disappears when "3" is pressed. The screen looks like the figure below. The composition string now contains two characters.
Press the down arrow once. A window appears on top of Notepad similar to the figure below. This window is called the candidate window. It displays a list of characters or phrases with the very pronunciation that the user has typed. The user can select the intended word from the entries on the candidate list. In this example, there are three candidate characters with the same pronunciation.
Press 2 to select the second entry. Note that the candidate window closes, and the composition string is updated with the character selected.
Press Enter. This tells the IME that the composition is complete and the string should be sent to the application, Notepad in this example. The screen now looks like the following figure. The composition window closes, and the two characters are sent to Notepad via WM_CHAR. The underline is gone because the two characters shown are part of Notepad's text. The existing text "ABCDEFG" in Notepad is moved to the right because two more characters have been inserted. You have now successfully entered two Traditional Chinese characters using an IME.

Using Input Method Editors in Simplified Chinese
This section is a walkthrough of using the Simplified Chinese IME (PinYin) with Notepad to enter a few Chinese characters.
1. Launch Notepad. Type some characters in Notepad. These characters will help visualize the IME window better later.
2. With the Notepad being the active application, click on the language indicator, and select the "Chinese PRC)" input language. The indicator text changes to CH to reflect the new input language.
3. In Notepad, press Home so that the caret is at the beginning of the line. Press "N", "I". The screen looks similar to the figure below. The small horizontal rectangle is the reading window, which displays the current reading string. Currently, the reading string is "ni" as a result from typing "N" and "I".
4. Press "3". Now the screen looks like the following figure. Because N+I+3 is a complete pronunciation in Simplified Chinese Pinyin, the IME has enough knowledge to anticipate the character that the user may have intended to enter. The reading window disappears because the user has entered a complete pronunciation. A character shows up where the Notepad caret is. This character is not part of Notepad, instead it is displayed in another window on top of Notepad. This is apparent because the existing characters in Notepad are hidden beneath the character. The window is called the composition window, and the string in it is called the composition string. The composition string is underlined as an indication to the user.
5. Now press "H", "A", "O", "3" to enter another character similar to how the first is entered. Note that the reading window shows up when "H" is pressed and disappears when "3" is pressed. The screen looks like the figure below. The composition string now contains two characters.
6. Press the left arrow once. The composition caret moves one character to the left, at the second character typed in. A window appears on top of Notepad similar to the figure below. This window is called the candidate window. It displays a list of characters or phrases with the very pronunciation that the user has typed. The user can select the intended word from the entries on the candidate list. In this example, there are two candidate characters with the same pronunciation.
7. Press 2 to select the second entry. Note that the candidate window closes, and the composition string is updated with the character selected.
8. Press Enter. This tells the IME that the composition is complete and the string should be sent to the application, Notepad in this example. The screen now looks like the following figure. The composition window closes, and the two characters are sent to Notepad via WM_CHAR. The underline is gone because the two characters shown are part of Notepad's text. The existing text "ABCDEFG" in Notepad is moved to the right because two more characters have been inserted. You have now successfully entered two Simplified Chinese characters using an IME.
Using Input Method Editors in Japanese
This section is a walkthrough of using the Japanese IME with Notepad to enter a few Japanese characters.
1. Launch Notepad. Type some characters in Notepad. These characters will help visualize the IME window better later.
2. With the Notepad being the active application, click on the language indicator, and select the "Japanese" input language. The indicator text changes to JP to reflect the new input language.
3. In Notepad, press Home so that the caret is at the beginning of the line. Press "N", "I". The screen looks like the following figure. Because N+I is a complete pronunciation in Japanese, the IME has enough knowledge to anticipate the character that the user may have intended to enter. A character shows up where the Notepad caret is. This character is not part of Notepad, instead it is displayed in another window on top of Notepad. This is apparent because the existing characters in Notepad are hidden beneath the character. The window is called the composition window, and the string in it is called the composition string. The composition string is underlined as an indication to the user.
4. Now press "H", "O", "N", "G", "O" to enter two more characters similar to how the first is entered. The screen looks like the figure below. The composition string now contains three characters.
5. Press the Space Bar. This tells the IME that the user would like to convert the entered text into clauses. In the figure below, the IME converts the pronunciation "Nihongo" to a clause written in Kanji with the meaning of "Japanese Language."
6. Press the down arrow once. A window appears on top of Notepad similar to the figure below. This window is called the candidate window. It displays a list of clauses with the very pronunciation that the user has typed. The user can select the intended word from the entries on the candidate list. In this example, there are three candidate characters with the same pronunciation. Note that the second entry is highlighted, and the composition string changes. This is caused by pressing the down arrow, which tells the IME to select the entry after one that was previously displaying.
7. Press 2 to select the second entry. Note that the candidate window closes.
8. Press Enter. This tells the IME that the composition is complete and the string should be sent to the application, Notepad in this example. The screen now looks like the following figure. The composition window closes, and the two characters are sent to Notepad via WM_CHAR. The underline is gone because the two characters shown are part of Notepad's text. The existing text "ABCDEFG" in Notepad is moved to the right because two more characters have been inserted. You have now successfully entered a few Japanese characters using an IME.
  
  Using Input Method Editors in Korean
  This section is a walkthrough of using the Korean IME with Notepad to enter a few Korean characters.
  1. Launch Notepad. Type some characters in Notepad. These characters will help visualize the IME window better later.
  2. With the Notepad being the active application, click on the language indicator, and select the "Korean" input language. The indicator text changes to KO to reflect the new input language.
  3. In Notepad, press Home so that the caret is at the beginning of the line, then press "G". The screen looks similar to the figure below. The phonetic element corresponding to "G" appears on Notepad, and is highlighted with a block caret. This hightlighted character is called the composition string. Note that unlike the IME for other languages, the composition string is sent to Notepad and inserted to the text as soon as the user enters a single phonetic element. This is evident as the existing text in Notepad moves to the right.
  4. At this time, the composition string consists of an interim character. It is so-called because any additional phonetic elements entered by the user change the composition string in-place. Now press "K", "S". Note that the interim character changes with each keystroke.
  5. Now press the right Control key. A candidate window shows up listing the Hanja characters the user can select for the pronunciation entered, GKS.
  6. Press 1 to select the first entry. Note that the candidate window closes, and the composition string is updated with the character selected.
  7. Press "R", "N", "R", right Control to enter another character similar to how the first is entered.
  8. Press 1 to select the first entry. You have now successfully entered two Korean characters using an IME. The Korean characters are part of the Notepad's text, not any other windows.
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