Switching between English and Japanese input - is there an easier way?

[douglerner]

Japanese was not one of the included input languages on my new Nexus 7. So I added Google Japanese Input from Google Play. Was that the best thing to do?

Now I can do Japanese input, but switching back and forth between English input and Japanese input is cumbersome. Comparing the Nexus 7 running Android 4.3 and iOS on my iPhone or iPad it's like this:

In iOS: touch the "globe" mark to the left of the space bar - that toggles you between the input modes. That's it.

In Android:

1. To go from English to Japanese input, long touch the space bar. This brings up a "Choose input method" dialog. From that choose Japanese.

2. To go from Japanese back to English input, long touch the key in the bottom left corner (default is hiragana あ). This brings up an "Input options" dialog. From that dialog choose Select input method. This brings up the "Choose input method" dialog. From that choose English.

So many steps to toggle back and forth between language inputs in Android!

Is there an easier way?

Also, is there Japanese voice dictation somehow?

Thanks,

doug

 

[douglerner]

I called Google to ask! I didn't realize they have a toll free support number - 1.855.836.3987.

Anyway, the answers are:

1. Yes, what I did in adding Google Japanese input from Google Play was correct.

2. The way I am toggling back and forth is the only way unfortunately.

3. No there is no Japanese voice dictation.

The rep did say there might be a 3rd party keyboard in Google Play with easier toggling back and forth though.

doug

 

[douglerner]

Update from my own testing:

Re: 2 - there is an easier way to toggle from English to Japanese. In the English keyboard settings you can set the "language globe" to appear. It's supposed to propagate through to other keyboards, but doesn't. So getting back from Japanese to English is still as I originally wrote.

Re: 3 - inside the voice settings there was a place to also set Japanese. Interestingly enough it's easier to switch between dictation languages than it is to switch between keyboard languages. Japanese dictation seems to work ok.

Google tech support seems to have trouble knowing what is available on which device.

doug

 

[Tomomi Sasaki]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for detailing your research. I was able to get the globe working by turning on Advanced Settings > Switch to other input methods, so that takes care of En to Ja. Pressing あ has that one extra overlay, which is annoying, but enables switching from Ja to En without going into Settings... which is what I was doing before!

 

[douglerner]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for detailing your research. I was able to get the globe working by turning on Advanced Settings > Switch to other input methods, so that takes care of En to Ja. Pressing あ has that one extra overlay, which is annoying, but enables switching from Ja to En without going into Settings... which is what I was doing before!

Hi, Sasaki-san. I found an even better way. The way the Japanese models do it! See my post here:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...tches-between-english-japanese-keyboards.html

This way seems perfect.

doug