JAPANESE--Hiragana won't convert anymore

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Level 1

14 points

JAPANESE--Hiragana won't convert anymore

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I've seen other questions related to Japanese input, so (not finding a better place for this query) I'm posting here even though it's not Mail or Address Book specific.

My PowerBook has typed Japanese fine for close to two years. Recently kanji input stopped working. I can switch to Japanese input, type in hiragana, but when I then hit the space bar rather than give me Kanji choices kotoeri simply lays my hiragana into whatever document I'm working on.

The PowerBook was exhibiting other problems since a few weeks ago (such as time/date preferences not working) and I solved these by reinstalling the system. However, I still can't type kanji. Is anyone able to provide any tips with this problem?

Thanks.

PowerBook 12 inch, Mac OS X (10.4.4), have had macs since 1991

Posted on Sep 15, 2006 12:24 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,252 points

Sep 15, 2006 3:38 AM in response to dddddano

The right forum for a question concerning how the OS is operating is here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=758

Have you double checked all your settings in Kotoeri preferences to make sure something has not gotten changed that relates to kanji conversion?

See this note for some general info, including a link to the Apple Japanese forums at the bottom.

http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/TypingJapanese.html

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Answer 2

dddddano Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 17, 2006 6:21 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom, thanks for your response.

I had already discovered the page at http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/TypingJapanese.html ...but the only thing that seemed like it might fix my problem was resetting the PRAM (which I did but no luck.) The File Name Encoding Repair Utility link, unfortunately, isn't working.

Though I've had Macs for many years, Kotoeri is still confusing to me, more so in OSX than it was in OS9 when I would have just re-installed the Japanese language kit.

Perhaps I don't understand what you mean by double checking my settings in Kotoeri preferences. Under the US flag, there are icons for Hiragana, Katakana, Romaji and half-width Katakana. In the International input menu, Kotoeri is checked, character palatte, Kana palatte and keyboard viewer are all checked. No other languages, apart from US are checked.

Is there a way just to re-install Japanese?

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,252 points

Sep 17, 2006 6:58 AM in response to dddddano

I had already discovered the page at
http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/TypingJapanese.html
...but the only thing that seemed like it might fix
my problem was resetting the PRAM (which I did but no
luck.)

I was thinking you might want to use the link at the bottom of the page to the Japanese forums to ask your question there, if you know Japanese well enough:

http://discussions.info.apple.co.jp/

The File Name Encoding Repair Utility link,
unfortunately, isn't working.

Sorry, they have moved that without telling anyone:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/filenameencodingrepairutility.html

But it is not relevant to your problem.

Perhaps I don't understand what you mean by double
checking my settings in Kotoeri preferences. Under
the US flag, there are icons for Hiragana, Katakana,
Romaji and half-width Katakana.

If you go down to the bottom of the flag menu,　when Hiragana is selected, you will find among other things an item called Kotoeri Preferences, no?

When you type Hiragana, do you still get the line under the characters?

If you create a new user account, do you have the same problem when using Kotoeri there?

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Answer 4

dddddano Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 9, 2006 3:37 PM in response to dddddano

I just marked another question as "answered" so this may be the time to wrap this one up too. Tom was right in that making another account with another user name gave me kanji again. The problem was that then all my files were in the old use account and I could only type Japanese in the new user account. This solution may be handy for people who need a quick fix--need to answer an urgent e-mail or draft a document in Japanese write away--but the best long term solution for me was just to reinstall the system.

Sadly, I could find no way to just fix the Japanese short of this.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,252 points

Dec 9, 2006 4:32 PM in response to dddddano

Tom was
right in that making another account with another
user name gave me kanji again. ...--but the best long
term solution for me was just to reinstall the
system....Sadly, I could find no way to just fix the >Japanese
short of this.

Thanks for the feedback! If things work right in another account, usually it means some .plists or caches in the original account have gone bad, and sometimes the problem can be solved by trashing these.

In any case, glad to hear it got fixed.

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