2. Typing Kanji-Kana Strings

1: Converting hiragana into kanji-kana string

When the Japanese IME is set to Romaji-to-Hiragana mode, you'll see the あ symbol in your taskbar. Typing in Romaji while this mode is active will result in the following:

1.	Typing the sequence "t a n a k a d e s u ." without spaces will automatically convert it into the underlined Hiragana string たなかです。
2.	Press the to convert the sequence into its Kanji-Kana combination: 田中です。.
3.	Press the to confirm the conversion; this clears the underline and completes the input.

This is a basic example of Kana-to-Kanji conversion. If the Romaji is misspelled, the dictionary lookup will fail, resulting in an incorrect or nonsensical string of characters. Here is another example of how the process works.

1.	Your Romaji input "k u r a s u n i i t t a ." without spaces will be converted to a Hiragana string: くらすにいった。
2.	Press the to convert the input into a Kanji-Kana combination: クラスに行った。
3.	Press the to complete the input.

2: Resolving Ambiguities

Typing the sequence "k u r a s u n i h a i t t a ." without spaces generates several possible Kanji-Kana variations. The three most common results are shown below. The system selects the primary candidate based on the surrounding context and your personal typing history, as the IME prioritizes frequently used words.

In the example below, small Hiragana characters appear above the Kanji. Known as 'ruby characters' (or Hurigana), these serve as phonetic guides to assist with reading. While we have included them in this section for clarity, please note that ruby text is not typically displayed in standard digital environments.

クラスに　は　いった All three examples above are possible conversion results having the same romaji input of "k u r a s u n i h a i t t a."

If the computer gives you Choice #1 (クラスには 言った。) but you want Choice #2 (クラスには行った。), do the following.

1.	Initially, the first segment クラスには is bold-underlined. The bold-underlined segment can be changed. クラスに は いった
2.	Press the right-arrow key () and move the bold-underline to the next segment. Now 言った can be changed.
3.	Now press the . The computer will show you other choices. If there are other conversion choices, they will also be displayed. If you press the again, the second choice will be highlighted, and so on. You can keep pressing the to reach the desired choice, or directly enter the number for the choice you want.
4.	If everything looks good, press the to finalize your choice. →

3: Changing Word Segmentations

5.	While sentences #1 and #2 above are segmented as くらすには and いった, sentence #3 is segmented as くらすに and はいった. To get the third conversion choice 入った, you must shift the segmentation boundary one character to the left (after に).
6.	To move the segmentation boundary to the left, hold down the key and press the key. The blue highlight appears to show the changed segmentation.
7.	Press the and choose the second choice クラスに. (Or, type "2" to choose it. Do not hit the yet.)
8.	After choosing クラスに, the bold-underline remains below クラスに. Now press the key to move the bold-underline to the next segment は.
9.	You need to combine は and いった into a single segment はいった. Hold the key and press the three times. 1: 2: 3: When the entire segment はいった is selected, it can be converted into Kanji-Kana string as one word.
10.	Press the to choose the second choice 入った.
11.	Press the to confirm your choice.

Generally, providing longer input improves conversion accuracy as the IME has more context to work with. However, increased length also introduces more potential for segmentation errors. With practice, you will discover the 'sweet spot'—the ideal input length that balances context with ease of correction.