[Demonic_Rush]

Well Here's the situation: I'm minoring in Japanese studies in college and, as you can imagine, I have to write papers in Japanese.
The problem is that Japanese uses two distinct alphabets (One for Japanese words and another for foreign words) in addition to the American English Alphabet on occasion. When Writing in Japanese All three are frequently used and must be switched to fairly often.
I use the International tool in the menu bar but I need a faster switch than stopping my work flow to move my mouse over to the Little Flag Icon for every Alphabet switch.
I'm looking for a shortcut much like the one that Google desktop employs (Rapidly Double-type the apple key). I would like to double-type "ctrl" for Hiragana, Double-type "option" for Katakana, and double-type "Shift" for American English to quickly shuffle between the three alphabets.
if absolutely ANYONE has any idea about this Please tell me, it will be appreciated like only a college student desperately looking for a shortcut can haha.
Thanks!
Domo Arigato (DOE-MOE AH-RI-GA-TOE)
(I tried Writing it in Hiragana also, but the BBS it just shot back Character codes so no actual Japanese char.s for you to see, Sorry)
:3

[Dan Frakes]

In the International pane of System Preferences -- under the Input Menu tab -- you can define keyboard shortcuts for switching between input sources. Does that help?

[azhie]

If you have all the keyboards in listed in the drop down menu, you can toggle between the last keyboard you used by cmd-space or you can go through the series by repeatedly hitting cmd-opt-space. You can also customize by clicking on the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard & Mouse.

[Demonic_Rush]

Wow that tip is glorious, especially since I don't use Spotlight even close to as often as I use Google Desktop. I think you should print this tip (perhaps even with my scenario haha) in the Magazine for the help desk section.
Thanks Guys ^_^

[azhie]

(You're) Welcome to the Wonderful World of Macs.

[Demonic_Rush]

haha, Actually I've been using macs since OS 7 so I'm more than acquainted to the awesomeness of The Giant Glowing white Apple. I'm actually doing IT workstudy at Arcadia University and often advocate on the behalf of Apple. I love learning these small little productivity boosters.
Again, Arigato!
^w^