Frequently Asked Questions

• I don't have the fonts needed to run . Where to find them?
• Why do I need Chinese fonts when I want to use only for Japanese?
• Why do you recommend using with Microsoft fonts?
• I have all the recommended fonts and still complains about missing fonts.
• What versions of Windows are supported?
• Will be ported to other platforms, like Linux or Mac?
• I would like to translate the user interface of to some other language. Is this possible?
• The clipboard doesn't work. does not recognize text I pasted into the clipboard.
• I am publishing some CD with shareware / freeware programs and I would like to include on it. Can I do it?
• Do you plan to add support for any other East Asian language in ? For example Korean, Thai, ...?
• Why there are no markers in the word definitions in the Chinese mode, as there are in the Japanese mode?
• I cannot locate a word by characters in the Chinese mode although I'm pretty sure it must be in the dictionary.
• How do I write some gairaigo in katakana that uses "small i" (like disuneerando)?

Q: I don't have the fonts needed to run . Where to find them?
A: They should be freely available from Microsoft. If you have Windows XP you can select Install files for East-asian languages in Language settings in the Control panel. For other versions of Windows, you can install them by selecting Support for writing in Japanese and Support for writing in traditional Chinese when installing Internet Explorer. I think that they are also available in Microsoft Office products.

Q: Why do I need Chinese fonts when I want to use only for Japanese?
A: In fact, you don't really need Chinese fonts. If you ignore all the message boxes that appear when you first run the program, it will still work OK. There are two potential drawbacks: a) you won't be able to use Chinese mode, b) some of the radicals and clipboard views may have missing characters (display only squares).

Q: Why do you recommend using with Microsoft fonts?
A: There are two reasons: they are (almost) freely available and they were tested with . There are hundreds of quality Japanese and Chinese fonts; however many of them won't display correctly in due to issues with codepages, or their positions may be slightly off. If you experience some font display problems, please stick to recommended fonts.

Q: I have all the recommended fonts and still complains about missing fonts.
A: Well, this shouldn't happen. There were many issues with this during the main development phase of the program, but they should all be fixed by now. Please report this in the forum (details appreciated).

Q: What versions of Windows are supported?
A: Currently has been tested on Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Home. I believe it may also function well under Windows 98 and Windows XP Pro. It does run under Windows 95 but I think there can be some problems due to outdated Unicode support.

Q: Will be ported to other platforms, like Linux or Mac?
A: It won't. It is unfortunately too strongly tied to the Windows user interface. Making it run under Linux would at least require rebuilding the program windows. But if there would be strong demand, I may consider porting at least some functions to some other OS. Or I may make online versions of some features.

Q: I would like to translate the user interface of to some other language. Is this possible?
A: When I receive at least one request for this, I will export all text into some editable file. So it will be possible as soon as there is demand for it.

Q: The clipboard doesn't work. does not recognize text I pasted into the clipboard.
A: There are many problems with clipboard support at this moment. I am working on it. Currently, the clipboard supports only UNICODETEXT format. On my system this works fine with all programs that use Unicode, so I personally don't need support of any other formats. Please tell me if you use with some program that uses a different clipboard data format.

Q: I am publishing some CD with shareware / freeware programs and I would like to include on it. Can I do it?
A: Yes, you can. As long as you don't charge more than a reasonable fee for production of the CD, you may include on it. What is reasonable is of course a matter of opinion; if in doubt, send me an email. Please note that you may distribute only the complete package (WAKAN_FULL.ZIP) of the program.

Q: Do you plan to add support for any other East Asian language in ? For example Korean, Thai, ...?
A: I don't. The reason is simple. To my present knowledge no other language uses Chinese characters for most of its writing (in Korea they are now used mainly in official documents and academic papers). Chinese characters are central to the structure and user interface of the program. However, if you think that the dictionary part of is so useful and so innovative :) that you would like to use it with some other language AND you have a free dictionary for that language, write your request to the forum.

Q: Why there are no markers in the word definitions in the Chinese mode, as there are in the Japanese mode?
A: That's simply because there are no markers in the CEDICT dictionary. EDICT dictionary uses markers (for identifying nouns, adjectives, manga slang, ...) but CEDICT unfortunately does not. There's nothing I can do about this.

Q: I cannot locate a word by characters in the Chinese mode although I'm pretty sure it must be in the dictionary.
A: Make sure that you use the traditional characters. In future versions, the program will automatically convert simplified characters to traditional but the current version does not.

Q: How do I write some gairaigo in katakana that uses "small i" (like disuneerando)?
A: In Hepburn romanization mode you can simply type "disuneerando". If it does not produce the output you desired (look into the boxes that display romaji converted to kana), type "xi" for the small i. You can then type "dexisuneerando". You can also use "xa", "xe", "xu", "xya", "xyu", "xyo", "xtsu"/"xtu" for other "small" kana.