Looking for a better input method.

[Angel Valis]

Hello!

As the title says, I'm looking for a better input method. I do a reasonable amount of text work both in English and Japanese and I'm looking for something that manages both well.

By default, the G3's English input is fine (though I would like it if there were cursor movement keys) and has path input which is a definite plus. However, the Japanese input requires using an English keypad and the word recognition / kanji conversion is poor (if I try to type more than one word, it seems unable to figure out which kanji to use, so words have to be entered one at a time...which is a pain).

The Google IME is pretty good for Japanese (from my limited use) as it has kana input rather than having to use an English keyboard. BUT with it, I lose path input for English.

Is there an IME that allows path input for English and kana input for Japanese (preferably with a word parser for converting longer Japanese phrases to kanji)? Or even a way to use the default IME for English and have it automatically switch to the Google IME when I switch to Japanese?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[BlueAlchemy17]

I would recommend SwiftKey. You can download dictionaries for any language you need. It's theme able and can learn your typing habits and vocabulary from your accounts. Google+, Facebook, Twitter, GMail.

 

[BlueAlchemy17]

I am however not sure how it would work with the 3 different writing systems in Japanese. Though I guarantee Romanji would work, but that's probably not what you want.

 

[Angel Valis]

Unfortunately, according to their website, they don't support Japanese at all. And romaji input is indeed what I'm trying to get away from. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[BlueAlchemy17]

Maybe GO Keyboard? I've never used it. But the GO team is based in Taiwan, so at least it would support Kanji.

 

[Angel Valis]

That's actually pretty good. It's not perfect, but it has path input for English and kana input for Japanese. The only problems are that, like the standard input method (and maybe Google as well), it seems unable to convert more than one word at a time to kanji.

For example, on my previous Japanese phone (LGL-22 Isai) I can type きょう、おもしろいひだともいます and it will suggest 今日、面白い日だと思います, but if I want to do that on my G3, I have to convert each word individually as I type.

Also, it seems to say that it supports kana flicking (flicking in a direction to select an alternate character), but it doesn't seem so to me...

Overall though this is pretty good and I really appreciate the assistance .

 

[BlueAlchemy17]

Absolutely. Have you tried long pressing for the flick?

 

[BlueAlchemy17]

And look at all the add ons for it. GO has tons of customization, especially if you use GO Launcher. I prefer Nova Prime however. But GO SMS alone as a texting client is absolutely awesome, but it sucks a lot of resources like RAM.

 

[Angel Valis]

I actually learned that I am an *****.

If the base Google keyboard is installed along with one of the special Google keyboards (such as Japanese), they will work together. So when you change the input language it automatically switches to the appropriate IME.

So now I have path input from the standard Google keyboard and kana + kana flicking with the Google Japanese IME. Plus the Google Japanese IME has a good text parser for kanji conversion.

So... Sorry for being an ***** haha. But definitely, I want to give you a big thanks for your time and help.

 

[Jonneh]

I see you've already found a solution to your problem, but I just want to let you know that SwiftKey has been beta testing Japanese support for a long time now (it's a super slow process). PM me if you still want to check it out.

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