This short guide aims to cover all you need to know in order to begin using Lime, the web-based, Japanese input method editor. If you want to know a little more about the technical side of Lime, try taking a look at the About Lime page instead.

To use Lime, you will require the following:

Inputting text is quite straightforward. Just click inside the Lime text box and type! Text can be entered using recognised wāpuro-rōmaji. The recogniser is reasonably flexible, so, for example, T I and C H I will both return ち.

After each word, you must indicate to Lime that the word is complete by pressing either Space or Enter. For words with a trailing particle, you can choose to enter the word and particle either as a single word or as two separate words. For example, if entering the noun 猫 followed by the possessive particle の:

...would be valid, as would...

Both would yield the string "猫の". Please be aware that you should always delimit your words in this manner — long strings of kana cannot be automatically delimited and converted by Lime. For more information on why this is the case, click here.

The keystroke you use to indicate to Lime that a word is complete dictates how that word will be converted. If hiragana input mode is selected and you use the Space key to delimit your words, the text will be automatically replaced with the most likely conversion. On the other hand, if you use the Enter key to delimit words or katakana input mode is selected, the text you entered will not be converted automatically.

Whenever you enter a word, regardless of whether you use the Space or Enter key to delimit it, Lime will consult its dictionary to compile a list of possible conversions. While Lime is doing this, it will let you know by highlighting the text it is currently analysing in red. Once this process is complete, the text will turn black again and you will be able to choose between possible converted forms for a submitted word by clicking on the word itself.

Clicking on a word will present you with an IME conversion popup menu. The conversion choices within the menu are broken down into sections, allowing you to locate the conversion you require more quickly. At the top are standard dictionary conversions. Depending on the word you enter, beneath these may be displayed additional conversions for places, people, forenames and surnames.

The "people" section is quite useful and takes advantage of the fact that in addition to forenames, surnames and names of locations, ENAMDICT also contains a list of the names of major political figures, TV celebrities, popular actors, artists, authors, musicians and so on. This can be most helpful when you need to enter a name that, while you are unsure how it should be written, you are familiar with the reading of. Some examples:

At this time, Lime does not support mouse navigation of the text box. To move the cursor around, you will need to use the left and right cursor keys. Pressing ＜ will move the cursor left and ＞ will move it right. The up and down cursor keys are ignored. Improved navigation is something being worked on for the next release of Lime.

There are three input modes in Lime: hiragana, katakana and direct. When in hiragana input mode, the text you type will be rendered in hiragana. Selecting katakana input mode will render your text in katakana. Direct input mode (the "abc" button) disables Lime's rōmaji to kana conversion. Switching between input modes is as simple as clicking the respective mode's button on the right-hand side of the screen. Alternatively, you can hit the Tab key while the text box is selected to cycle between the three input modes. Switching modes when you are in the middle of inputting a text string will terminate the current word.

Below is a quick summary of the keys covered in this user guide. Remembering these commands will allow you to use Lime more efficiently.