How to configure a Mac?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Ok, I am skipping the rant about the Mac being the most difficult and complicated system ever invented!

My friend has just obtained an iMac with Japanese OS X and a Japanese keyboard. After we finally managed to establish an Internet connection, he wanted to send me something by email. He started by typing my email address pbw|=*:?... - there seemed to be nothing on the keyboard to produce an @ mark.

I told him to try Shift+2 - that indeed produced the @ mark. Meaning the iMac thinks it's a US keyboard. So I told him that if that were Windows, I'd go to Control Panel | Keyboards, and change the keyboard layout to Japanese.

Naturally I couldn't tell him how to do such a thing on a Mac; I told him to read Help. Which he did for about an hour, with no result.

Question: how to change the keyboard layout on a Mac OS X ?

P.S. he also told me that the upper-right key that opens the CD drive does nothing. Related?

P.P.S. he also thinks that he may need to buy a new keyboard made by Apple, as the current keyboard is made by Sanwa. Stupid?

[andsome]

Shame really. You are always so helpful on here I just wish I could help. At least my post has bumped the topic back to the top. All the best. :D

[Boris]

I'm no expert either :),

but according to a friend of mine who has a Mac,

in "System Preferences International"

- you should be able to select Japanese.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks, Andsome, for the bump!

Thanks, Boris, I will try it tonight.

[ithonicfury]

The international setting should do it, if not then you can try System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Keyboard, and click Change Keyboard Type and it will try and autodetect the keyboard layout.

As for the eject thing, you dont say what version of OS X he has, but as of 10.4.9 the behavior of the eject key was changed to make it so that you need to hold it a second or two in order for it to eject the CD (presumably to prevent accidental ejections.)

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks for the additional information.

We were unable to do anything last evening; we'll try again tonight.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Problem resolved. I asked if there were any manual with that keyboard; there was. And in the manual was a CD-ROM, which I guessed contained some software (driver?). I asked him to install that software, and voilà - the keyboard worked. Including the CD eject key.

One additional problem. There was no sound when playing anything on a web browser (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer). Someone told him to install Flash Player, and the sound did indeed appear.

But not for Internet Explorer. It went to this page http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewConten...rnalId=d9c2fe33 . Downloading the file install_flash_player_7.hqx extracted a .PPT (or .PPG, or .PGG, or ...) file. How to install that we didn't know.

Anybody knows how to install Flash Player for Internet Explorer on a Power Mac with OS X 10.2 ?