Activating IME on WFU's 2004-2005 IBM ThinkPad R51

All the necessary Chinese and Japanese language files for Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003 should have been installed on the R51 already. Settings like system and dictionaries are pre-set for you already, e.g. your Japanese custom dictionary goes to c:\userdata\IME\IMJP9_0\imjp9u.dic so you can back it up easily.

You only need to activate the input method editor(s) [IME] you want to use.

1. Go to "Control Panel" and select "Regional and Language Options" applet

Control Panel's Regional and Language Options

 

2. select the "languages" tab and click on the "Details" button

languages tab and details button

3.click the "add" button in the "settings" tab

settings tab's add button

4. choose the desire "input language" in the "add input language" dialog box

e.g. for Japanese, it would be "Microsoft IME Standard 2003" for ThinkPad R51 and R52.

* the illustration below shows "IME Standard 2002". that's the old version for ThinkPad R40.

(optional: add "handwriting recognization" and "speech" input")

add input language dialog box's add japanese input language

5. choose "Language Bar" button in "Text Services and Input Languages"

text services and input language dialog box's language bar button

6. make sure "show the language bar on the desktop" in "language bar settings" is checked

It is the first option. It is helpful to know what language you are typing in, especially if you use all 4 preset - English, Chinese (simplied), Chinese (traditional), and Japanese.

language bar setting dialog box's show the language bar on the desktop options

7. "key settings" dialog box

check the "switch between input language" action's key sequence is "Left Alt+Shift" in the "Advanced Key Settings" dialog box.

advanced key settings dialog box

8. Language bar

close out the control panel dialog box, you should have a language bar either floating on your desktop or in the taskbar that let you switch between languages.

language bar floating on desktop

9. Caution.

Remember the left alt and shift key combination now switches between languages. Even you don't have the language bar turn off, this feature is still active! If you see funny characters in your applications (e.g. Mozilla, Office; we even enable notepad to be multilanguage, just remember to save in unicode instead of ASCII format), that's probably the reason, turn on the language bar from control panel is the only way to tell what language you are typing in. (except in chinese input, a floating input panel appears in some chinese input mode).

This key combination also sometimes interfers with applications that use left alt+shift. e.g. Word vertical selection - instead of left alt+shift + click at the lower right corner, you have to alt+shift + drag to the lower right corner. (either way works without IME)

mozilla mail composer in multiple languages

Handwriting Recognition - IME Pad or Boxed Input

Last Update : September 2, 2005 18:28