> I've been wondering about this for a while. How in the world do the Japanese type?
I can tell you how it works in Kotoeri on my Mac, and that's how Japanese users on a Macintosh would be typing in characters.
Say I wanted to type a message like,
Boku wa to o akemashita. (I opened the door.)
I start typing in each word in Japanese, spelling it phonetically.
(I type 'bo')ぼ(I type 'ku')く(I press SPACE to find a kanji matching 'boku')僕(I press RETURN to accept the kanji)(I type 'ha' -- remember the particle 'wa' is spelled 'ha')は(I press RETURN to accept it just as hiragana)(I type 'to')と(I press SPACE)と(it leaves it as hiragana since it's most commonly used as okurigana)(I press SPACE again saying it guessed wrong and it gives me a drop down list; I choose)戸(I press RETURN to accept)(I type 'wo' -- remember the particle 'o' is spelled 'wo')を(I press RETURN)(I type 'akemashita' -- I won't spell this out)あけました(I press SPACE and it selects)開けました ... which is in fact the kanji I want, even though there are several 'akeru' and it lets me pick others from the list.
So, finally,
僕は戸を開けました。
終わった
(Owatta ... "finished")