Updated stroke data for Japanese Input

I have released a (very) small update to my Japanese Input application. The update consists of an update stroke data file. I discovered that the old file did not include the kanji 場 (Unicode U+5384), which is a fairly common kanji (and a jouyou kanji). The new file includes this kanji so you will be able to write it using Japanese Input.

The CAB and source files on the Japanese Input page now include the updated stroke data, so if you downloaded it after this post was made you should be fine. If you're not sure, simply try to write the kanji 場. If it recognizes it, you've got the new version (be sure not to confuse it with the kanji 揚, which the old (and new) version does recognize).

If you have the old version, you can either download the updated CAB file and reinstall (I recommend you soft-reset your device before doing this), or you can manually update the stroke data file, using the procedure described below.

  1. Soft-reset your device (this is to ensure the file is not in use).
  2. Download the updated strokedata.txt file (right-click, save as).
  3. Copy the file to your device (e.g. using ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center), and place it in the "\Program Files\Japanese Input" folder, overwriting the strokedata.txt file that is already there.

If you are using Japanese Input and notice any other common kanji (especially if they are jouyou kanji) that are missing, please let me know.

Category: Software
Posted on 2007-06-08 09:52:38 UTC.

Comments

  • I cannot for the life of me get this app to work. When I install it, it appears in the list of soft input panels to select, but when I select "Japanese Input", it *immediately* switches to the standard "Keyboard" input instead. I've tried this on both a Palm Treo 700wx (Verizon) and a Palm Treo 750 (Cingular). The 750 worked for a day, and the same issue returned. Is the cause of this known? Could you please get back to me on this, too? I'm anxious to get this working, since it looks great!

    Thank you!

    Posted by Chris Sappington on 2007-06-10 04:53:57 UTC

  • Hi Chris,
    I'm sorry, but I do not know the cause of your issue. When Windows Mobile refuses to switch to a particular SIP, it means that the DLL refused to load, either because it was not found, it could not be loaded, or it failed with an error when loading. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no way to find out exactly what happened.

    The closest I can come to approximating the Treo 750 is the PocketPC Phone Square Emulator, on which it works fine.

    So unless you can somehow get me a Palm Treo 750, I do not see what I can do.

    I'm sorry for your trouble.

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2007-06-10 06:49:13 UTC

  • I was wondering if you thought your Japanese Input method would work better or worse on Windows Mobile 6 than CE-Star 2.8? My wife needs Japanese text input output on her new Windows Mobile Pro phone.

    Thanks

    Posted by Adam on 2007-06-20 22:11:09 UTC

  • Can this software (japanese input) work in Smartphone (with Windows Mobile OS)?? Like O2 Xphone & Samsung SGH-i300x.
    Thanks

    Posted by Putra on 2007-07-08 10:01:57 UTC

  • I have the same issue as Chris. When running in English (US) mode (Settings - System - Regional Settings), the Japanese Input does not work; sends me straight to the on-screen keyboard. But when I set the regional settings to Japansee, the input works great.

    The problem is that Pocket Dictionary does not work (crashes when trying to execute) in Japanese mode. If I re-set to English, the dictionary program will work, but I can't use Japanese Input.

    Very frustrating.

    marksly ( a t ) yahoo (d o t) com

    Posted by Mark Sly on 2007-07-09 20:26:46 UTC

  • Hi Mark,

    I'm very sorry, but I cannot reproduce the problem. Both in the Device Emulator and on my device, both applications work fine regardless of the regional settings (additionally, I don't have an option for Japanese regional settings at all; what language WM5 are you using?).

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2007-07-10 04:10:32 UTC

  • Hello

    And I got the same Problem. Using a HTC P3600 from Swisscom (OS is German). I can see the japanese option, I select meiryo as font (default was bitmap font) but I can not select it. Also when I brows the web, I can not read any japanese (even the font is installed). Any thoughts?

    feixbix ( a t ) gmx ( d o t) ch

    Posted by Felix on 2007-07-18 07:49:56 UTC

  • Hello, I'm having the same troubles to those already mentioned here. (1)is that the Japanese input doesn't come up, just switches straight back to keyboard entry, (2)is that pocket dictionary crashes just after starting. I'm using an i-mate jamin running WM5. I've tried installing and running both to a storage card and to internal memory with no change. I can also confirm that I don't have an option for japanese regional settings either. Sorry for the bad news!

    Posted by Steven on 2007-07-19 09:29:06 UTC

  • hi there! i have a slight problem. i get squares when i type using the Japanese Input. is there something i'm missing? thanks!

    Posted by szeli on 2007-07-24 16:11:50 UTC

  • Hi szeli,
    The squares means the font doesn't support those characters. If possible, change the font to a Japanese font. If the app you're typing in doesn't support that, I'm afraid you're stuck.

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2007-07-25 02:42:59 UTC

  • I have a Palm Treo 750 and I'm trying to add Japanese language to it so I can read and write in Japanese through Outlook e-mail. Is this possible? I tried downloading a Japanese font and installing it on the device using ActiveSync but it does not work when reading Japanese emails in Outlook email on Windows Mobile 5. Any ideas?

    Posted by Jermaine Coakley on 2007-07-25 17:59:35 UTC

  • Hello. Thank you so much for providing all this software and information. I have one problem. When I search for a kanji using the kanji dictionary I get the following results.

    "A43F3 H7GDG HS7S5 J9S7S HS76SG 0FLEWO 9SJD78D 8JD7D 5D0J3 7DHD5 こん、いま　now, this,"

    I get results like that. Why is it not displaying the first information? Is it in Unicode? I am running the software on a HP Ipaq 1955 Windows Mobile 5.0 with English region settings. ( When I turn it on Japanese it gives me an error when I load the dictionary. Japanese input works great though in both. do you know why the kanji dictionary is displaying all those letters and numbers when I look up a kanji?

    Thanks for your help.

    Posted by Chase Beyer on 2007-08-07 14:22:40 UTC

  • Hello Chase,
    These numbers are part of the information contained in the kanjidic file, and they are displayed correctly. They are things such as index numbers. There precise meaning is given in the kanjidic documentation: http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/kanjidic_doc.html

    Currently there is no way to filter this information in Pocket Dictionary. On the Monash FTP site (http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/00INDEX.html) you can find a utility kdfilt which can be used to remove the extra information from the file. Then you can use the filtered file instead of the regular one.

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2007-08-07 14:54:57 UTC

  • Hi! I'm glad to have found your site. I like the japanese input alot. However, I have a suggestion that would make it perfect for me :)
    That is an option, that if selected, makes the program auto-print the best matching kanji after a short time-delay from the last stroke. But still keep the alternativ kanjis on the left side in case the auto-select is misstaking. Am I making any sense? ;)

    Myself I am a student of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm but have taken a year off to study japanese in Kawasaki. After I have completed my bachelours I want to go to TiTech to complete my masters. And yes, the typhoon nr 9 was not to play with...

    Keep up the good work :)

    Posted by Johannes on 2007-09-12 07:57:20 UTC

  • First and foremost - thanks for putting this together. It's definitely a good tool to add to my study materials.

    Now, I also have the problem of not being able to load the Japanese Input mode - it switches back to keyboard every time. I've rebooted and re-loaded the cab a few times, to try to ensure it's loaded properly, but no go. I'm using a T-Mobile MDA, with the 2.26.10.2 ROM.

    Posted by Brendan on 2007-09-16 19:16:23 UTC

  • nice work, really highly appreciated.

    But would it be possible to add a third intput option, namely romaji input? i.e. a simple english-keyboard where the roman letters are converted into hiragana as you type it... and perhaps than in a second step via space converted to kanji?

    Posted by irgendwer on 2007-10-28 01:02:15 UTC

  • Personally I do not really see the benefit of romaji input over using the kana input.
    Converting kana to kanji is a very difficult thing to do. Not only does it need a dictionary, I would also need to be able to deal with verb conjugations. Although it's a feature I would also love to have, I don't see it happening anytime soon. Sorry.

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2007-10-28 02:58:23 UTC

  • Hi,

    When I am trying to install the Cab file on my device, I get the setup window:

    Installing JapaneseInputWM5.CAB

    The window never disappears. Running programs doesn't show any programs running. Tried a few times after a soft reboot. Does it conflict with any other inputs?

    anatoli_titarev AT yahoo DOT com

    Please advise,

    Anatoli

    Posted by Anatoli on 2007-11-07 12:23:25 UTC

  • >Personally I do not really see the benefit of
    >romaji input over using the kana input.

    Sorry to reply so late, but I think the main benefit would be for those owning a PDA with a full qwerty-keyboard. So one could use the keyboard to type in romaji (which is converted to hiragana) rather fast in contrast to using a soft-touch-keyboard and pointing with the stick.

    This could be quite helpful if one has to look up words in the dictionary.

    Posted by irgendwer on 2007-12-17 22:22:36 UTC

  • Japanese Input works fine for me on WM6 on an xda orbit (German windows). However, there are some kanji I simply don't manage to input. Right now, I only remember 丼. 井 is found without problems, and I checked in another dictionary which agreed with my understanding that those are the first four strokes to write.

    Posted by Christopher Creutzig on 2008-01-03 21:43:26 UTC

  • The problem many of you might be experiencing is what I think was unsigned DLLs (if my terminology is correct). I've heard that there is some sort of security built into Windows Mobile so that unsigned DLLs don't load on start up. I had, and continue to have the same problem on my HTC Advantage with a lot of SIPs.

    Posted by Shawn Kiyoshi Apodaca on 2008-02-25 09:11:22 UTC

  • Nice soft input panel. I found this site when looking for something similar to HanziLookup for Windows Mobile 2003SE. Is there any chance you will make a chinese input version?

    Posted by David on 2008-03-19 14:26:50 UTC

  • G'day, I take it you guys can enter SA and KI using just one and two horizontal strokes respectively? I need two for SA and three for KI. So far the others seem ok. This is on WM 6.

    Posted by Steven on 2008-03-23 13:54:42 UTC

  • Steven, the stroke data used considers "sa" a three stroke character, and "ki" four strokes. When writing either character it is usual to lift the pen while writing the "loop", causing it to be split into two strokes. This can be seen here: http://www.umich.edu/~umichjlp/Hiraganapro/sa.html

    If you write the characters like that, the SIP will find them.

    Posted by Sven Groot on 2008-03-23 15:16:32 UTC

  • ah. Thanks for the quick reply! I have seen them written like that before of course but don't my self and of course it didn't occur to me! :-)

    Also, thanks very much for your contributions!

    Posted by Steven on 2008-03-24 00:47:14 UTC

  • First, Thanks for this great Japanese Input. It really helps me out. I have a problem with kanji"聡". I can't make this letter with J.Input on my ppc. Is there anyway to write it? Thanks in advance, and I'm sorry for my poor English.

    Posted by yanstar on 2008-03-26 02:58:30 UTC

  • Can you have J.Input display more than 12 Kanji candidates by adding a scroll bar? I have seen some WM5/6 Chinese handwriting SIPs that do so. Displaying more than 12 candidates could be useful when you're trying to write a complicated Kanji like 鋼 (so far I can't get to write this character on my WM5, even following correct stroke order)

    Posted by Leroy Vargas on 2008-04-06 02:16:22 UTC

  • I've unzipped the CAB files on my PC and then dragged and dropped both the CAB file folder and the source code folder PLUS a Japanese font onto my Moto Q Global (which runs WM6) with Active Sync.

    When I open the File Manager, I can see all the files, but my Q says there aren't any programs to run any of those files. What should I do?

    Thanks in advance,
    Need Help

    Posted by Need Help on 2008-07-23 17:30:10 UTC

  • What license and format is the stroke data in?

    Posted by ignacio on 2008-07-26 17:23:09 UTC

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