Using Japanese, Chinese, Korean (CJK) languages in PowerPoint

To begin with ...

If you need to enter, edit or display Chinese, Japanese, Korean (CJK for short) text in PowerPoint or any other Windows programs, you'll need to start by installing support for the language in Windows itself.

These instructions are for Japanese, but the same steps apply to Chinese, Korean and several other languages as well. Simply choose the language you want instead of Japanese as you follow these steps.

These instructions and screenshots are for Windows XP. If you use Windows 2000 or VISTA, the screens and option names are slightly different but the steps are basically the same.

There's an abbreviated set of VISTA-specific instructions here.

Before starting, close any open programs and locate your Windows CD if you have one.

Install Japanese language support in Windows

• Click Start then click Control Panel
• In Control Panel, double-click Regional and Language Options. The "Regional and Language Options" dialog box appears. Click the Languages tab

• Put a check next to "Install files for East Asian languages"
• Click the Details button (the "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog box appears)

• Click "Add ...". The "Add Input Language" dialog box appears.

• In the "Input language" list box, choose "Japanese"
• In the "Keyboard layout/IME" list box, choose "Japanese Inpute System (MS-IME 2002)"

This option controls which Input Method Editor (IME) you use to convert your normal "roman" keyboard characters into Japanese characters. Windows XP offers this one and another called simply "Japanese". You can return to this same dialog box and switch IMEs any time you like. You can experiment to see which one suits you better.

• Click OK to dismiss the Add Input Language dialog box and return to the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.

• Click "Language Bar..." The "Language Bar Settings" dialog box appears.

• Put a check next to "Show the Language bar on the desktop". Put a check next to any of the other options you'd like to experiment with. Again, you can return to this dialog box at any time to change the settings.
• Click "OK" to return to the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.

• Optionally, click "Key Settings..." The "Advanced Key Settings" dialog box appears.

Here you can choose special keystrokes to switch from one installed language to another. Click "Switch to Japanese ..." to select it, then click "Change Key Sequence" to pick the keystrokes you'd like to use

• When you're done, click "OK" until you return to the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.

• Click the "Advanced" tab.

• Put a check next to "Extend support of advanced text services to all programs". This allows you to type Japanese in most of your Windows programs. To turn Japanese language support off later, return to this dialog box and put a check next to "Turn off advanced text services". Why would you want to do this? The additional language support uses extra memory and can make older computers slow down noticeably. This allows you to turn Japanese support off when you're not using and regain the extra memory for other purposes.
• Click the "Settings" tab again.

• Under "Installed services" click "Japanese Input System (MS-IME 2000)" then click "Properties..." to view the "Properties for Microsoft IME Standard" dialog box. Here you can set loads of options that control how Japanese text entry works. Until you've gotten used to entering Japanese text, it's best to leave these settings as-is. For now, just look around and get familiar with the available options in case you need them later.
• When you're done, click "Cancel" to return to the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box, then click the "Settings" tab again.

• Finally, click "OK" to finish up and apply your new settings. Allow your computer to restart if Windows requests it.

Installing Japanese in Windows Vista

• Go to Control Panel. Under "Clock, Language and Region" click "Change keyboards or other input methods" (don't click "Clock, Language, and Region" itself)
• The Regional and Language Options dialog box opens with the Keyboards and Languages tab selected.
• Click the "Change keyboards ..." button.
• The Text Services and Input Languages dialog box opens.
• Click the "General" tab.
• Click the "Add..." button.
• The Add Input Language dialog box opens.
• Scroll down and click the plus (+) sign next to "Japanese".
• Click the plus sign next to "Keyboard"
• Put a checkmark next to "Microsoft IME"
• Click the "OK" button.
• The dialog box closes and you're returned to the "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog box where you'll see a new item under "Installed services": "JP Japanese (Japan)"
• Click OK.
• The dialog box closes and you're returned to the "Regional and Language Options" dialog box.
• Click OK to close this dialog box and then close the Control Panel.
• You'll now see a new "EN" button on the Windows task bar at the bottom right of your screen. Click it and you'll see Japanese as one of the alternate language choices.

Entering Japanese text in your programs

A complete tutorial is beyond the scope of this page, but to get started:

• Start PowerPoint or any other program.
• Use the Language Bar to change the language to Japanese.
• Change other Language Bar options to suit the needs of the language and the program you're using.
• In PowerPoint, you may also need to choose the text box and use Tools, Language to mark the text or text box as Japanese (so that spell/grammar checkers work properly with it, etc.) Other programs may have similar text language options.

More information about Japanese language support

There's a great set of tutorial pages that cover this same information and also give more detail on actually using Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages in applications at Installing East Asian Language Support

And another tutorial here, courtesy of Declan Software
Installing and Using Microsoft's Japanese IME

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