- Q: I have Internet Explorer, but the blog is not displaying properly. What can I do?
A: This blog works with most modern browsers. It does not work with Internet Explorer 6, which is almost ten years old. Consider upgrading to a modern browser (including later versions of Internet Explorer such as IE9).
If you're using a corporate browser and rules or limitations prevent you from upgrading your Internet Explorer or using an alternative, you may be able to download/install/use Chrome Frame, with Explorer, which works with this blog.
- Q: I have a Yahoo! Japan account. How do I leave comments?
A: You can leave comments using their OpenID system. Select "OpenID" as the profile for "Comment As", then input "yahoo.co.jp" as the OpenID URL. If you need to authenticate, you will be taken temporarily away from the blog to Y! Japan, but you will be returned after completing Y! Japan's steps.
- Q: I have a non-Japanese Yahoo! account. How do I leave comments?
A: You can leave comments using their OpenID system. Select "OpenID" as the profile for "Comment As", then input "yahoo.com" as the OpenID URL. If you need to authenticate, you will be taken temporarily away from the blog to Yahoo!, but you will be returned after completing Yahoo!'s steps.
- Q: I have a Japanese mixi account. How do I leave comments?
A: You can leave comments using their OpenID system. You can find out (and customize) your Mixi OpenID here: http://mixi.jp/openid_edit.pl [login required]. Select "OpenID" as the profile for "Comment As", then input the entire OpenID URL you saw on the Mixi page that began with "https://id.mixi.jp/". If you need to authenticate, you will be taken temporarily away from the blog to mixi, but you will be returned after completing mixi's steps.
- Q: How do I make those horizontal lines on top of the vowels in the Japanese written with alphabet?
A: It depends on the computer or mobile phone. Above the text area where you type your comment there will be a selection of Japanese symbols and letters with macrons over them. You can copy & paste them into your comment if you're unable to input them any other way.
If your computer allows you to install/switch, the New Zealand Māori keyboard allows for the input of vowels with macrons. Simple prefix the vowel with a grave accent ("backtick").
- Q: Why are some characters not displaying or displayed as dots or empty boxes?
A: Most computers and software from the 21st century can handle our encoding (Unicode's UTF-8) and render Japanese glyphs without needing any installation/configuration of additional fonts or software.
However, there are still many mobile devices, due to memory limitations, that can't display some of the glyphs we use due to font or encoding limitations.
- Q: How do I make the ruby (the small letters above the Japanese) larger or easier to read?
A: Ruby display is still a fairly new XHTML 1.1 / HTML 5 technology, so not all browsers render it appropriately yet. If you increase the overall text size on the page (for example, with Ctrl + or ⌘ + on Chrome or Firefox), the ruby should increase in size as well.
- Q: This site took me to a site that's all in Japanese. Also, there are some words on this site that are not translated. What can I do?
A: There are many free machine-based language translation systems out there. While these translations will be far from perfect (or even adequate for presentation), they will help you get the gist of the content. They can be classified into these categories:
- Don't want to install anything;
Copy either the Japanese text or the web address of the Japanese page into Google Translate: translate.google.com
- Just want to save a bookmarklet onto my bookmark bar at the top of my browser;
Follow the instructions at: translate.google.com/translate_tools
- Want a solution that's integrated into the browser:
Install Google Toolbar to use the Translate Button and the mouse-over translate feature; toolbar.google.com
- Q: How do I open those "ODF" word processing file (.odt files) links in the blog posts and the Documents / Form page? How are they different from MS Word ".doc" files and why do you use them?
A: We use the OpenDocument Format because it's supported by many different word processors. Unlike ".doc" files, both people with Microsoft Word and those that don't have Microsoft Word can use the documents.
All modern and updated versions of Microsoft Office — those with at least 2007 Microsoft Office system Service Pack 2 (SP2) applied — can open and use these files.
If you need a free solution that reads and writes ODF files, consider the following:
- Don't want to install anything;
Use Google Docs with your web browser: docs.google.com
- Want or need to keep using an old and/or non-updated version of Office;
Download and install a free Office Add-in: odf-converter.sourceforge.net
- Want to install and use an entire Office-like productivity suite for free;
Download OpenOffice: openoffice.org
or
Download LibreOffice: libreoffice.org
- Don't want to install anything;
Help
This page is for questions about the mechanics of this blog, including the comment system.
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