hey, i am trying to save the conversations, and japanese words in the japanese script onto my computer so i can view them off the web, but the characters just come up as question marks, how can i get the hiragana, katakana and some basic kanji to be recognised by my word processor programs? thanks

well, if you're running Windows 7 OS, go to: Windows Update -> optional updates. There you should have some language packs. Select the Japanese one and install it. This is for viewing the characters. To be able to write them, go to: Control panel -> clock, language and region ->region and language -> keyboards and languages -> change keyboards -> add -> Japanese keyboard -> microsoft IME and add it to your keyboard settings. Then all you have to do is to change the used language by hitting: alt+shift combination. The IME will implicitly be on Alpha-numeric which are normal characters, you have to set it on Hiragana for it to work. On windows XP, it's almost the same with writing, but for installing the language pack, I think you have to search for it on the internet, download one and then install it. Hope this helps :) P.S. Also try saving the files as: Unicode (you should have the option there, where "Encoding" is written when you are saving the file with "save as...")

If you're using Mac OSX, go into System Preferences, click "Language and Text", click the "Input sources" tab and check the "Kotoeri" and "Hiragana" checkboxes. Then, in your menubar at the top-right of the screen, click the flag icon, and select "Hiragana". Then type in romaji and the IME will convert to kana. you can use the arrow keys to cycle through parts of a sentence you've typed and use the spacebar to select relevant kanji. It's pretty intuitive.

thanks heaps for the help guys, i am running xp :) think i have found the right pack, downloading as i type... hopefully i can follow the rest of the directions can you also get katana, and kanji? or is this more complicated?

Japanese keyboard -> microsoft IME and add it to your keyboard settings. Then all you have to do is to change the used language by hitting: alt+shift combination. The IME will implicitly be on Alpha-numeric which are normal characters, you have to set it on Hiragana for it to work. i think it did this ok, as in adding the keyboard, but I don't understand the last sentence. when i type i still get english text, how do i set it to hiragana?

ok i got it this is very exciting i have been looking for this exact thing, thanks so much! :)

yes, the IME lets you select between: Hiragana, Katakana and roman letters (alpha-numeric). But when you're in hiragana mode, if you type the words correctly and hit the "space" button, the program will automatically convert your hiragana text into Kanji or Katakana (depending on what you write). You can change its input mode by using the mouse and clicking on the IME icon in the taskbar.