Four separate areas of an application subwindow are used
in entering characters. These areas are typically displayed, named, and used
as follows:
The preedit area is a reverse video highlighted area that
displays characters as they are entered or converted. It holds formations
of characters before they are committed to the application, that is, before
they are put in the text block being assembled for the application.
The status area shows what the current input conversion mode is and what
is the active keyboard layout is. Several modes are available, as discussed
in following sections.
The lookup choice area is a popup that displays multiple Hanja or special
character choices available for conversion of character(s) in the preedit
area.
2.4. Auxiliary Window Area
The Auxiliary Window Area is a windows that helps input Korean characters
in a way a user want.
3. Basic
Functions for Korean Input Method
3.1. Starting to input
Hangul
3.1.1. ASCII/English Input
Mode
The initial default setting is basic ASCII/English mode.
Typing on the keyboard simply enters ASCII characters.
The status region in the lower left corner shows ASCII/English input mode:
3.1.2 Switching to
Hangul Input Mode
The first step in entering any Korean character(s) is to
turn on Hangul input conversion.
Type Control-Space, or if you have a Hangul keyboard
type the key labeled Hangul/English. (These keys toggle on/off Hangul input
conversion.)
The status region then shows that the current input status is for Hangul
input and auxiliary window show up.
This status regions informs the currently active keyboard
layout as well.
3.1.3 Entering Hangul Characters
With Hangul input conversion on, typing appropriate sequences of keys composes
Hangul characters in the preedit area on the screen.

3.1.4 backspacing and Deleting Characters
Backspace and Delete keys delete characters. But using one in the preedit
area deletes only the last character (JaMo) in the current syllable. This
and following examples demonstrate Backspace/Delete operation.
- Let's suppose there's this text being composed, which is typo.

- Enter one backspace. The input appears like this:

- Type another backspace. The input appears like this:

- Type another backspace. The input appears like this:

3.1.5 Committing Hangul Input
The folowing preedit region contains five Hangul syllables that have not
yet been committed.
That is, they have not yet been added to the text block
being assembled for the application.

These syllables could be committed to the application by
typing Control-K. This nonprinting character is not
committed in the input along with the syllables, for example:

Otherwise these syllables could be committed by typing
the Space bar or a number, punctuation mark, or other printable character
that is not part of a valid Hangul character.
Unlike Control-K, a printable character (like a question
mark) is committed in the input along with the Hangul syllables, for example:

a.6 Returning to ASCII/English
Input Mode
Pressing control+space changes the input mode
to ASCII/English Input mode, finishing Hangul Input mode.
3.2. Switching Keyboard
Layouts
3.2.1 Switching to different the Keyboard layout
Currently following 3 most commonly used keyboard layout
is supported.
- 2 beol sik
- 3 beol sik 390
- 3 beol sik final
User can switch between keyboard these 3 layouts by pressing
Shift + F2 key combination, and currently active keyboard layout name will
be shown at status region.
3.3. Using Hangul/Hanja
conversion to enter Hanja
Entering Hanja can be done in several ways.
One of the most common way is to convert Hangul input to Hanja, on a character
by character basis or word by word basis.
There are 2 major ways to convert the Hangul in preedit
area to Hanja
- By selecting one of the candidate(s) from the lookup choice window
- By switching the Hanja candidate through all the available list one
by one.
The following examples shows how to convert a Hangul character to a Hanja
character. Same method is used to convert Hangul characters(word) to Hanja
characters(word).
3.3.1 Hanja Lookup Mode
- With Hangul input conversion on, type an appropriate sequence of keys(pronunciation
of the Hanja that you want to input) to compose a Hangul character in the
preedit area on the screen:

- Type Control+W, then the lookup window pops up.
(Depending on the user's setting, this may automatically commit the Hanj
a candidate if there's only one candidate entry in dictionary)

- You can navigate page to page by pressing the keys show below
Key Sequence |
Operation |
Ctrl + N |
Next Page |
Page Up |
Next Page |
Ctrl + P |
Previous Page |
Page Down |
Previous Page |
- If the current page contains the character that you are looking for,
you can either press the label of the character or you can press the space
key to move the highlighted area to the Hanja you want and then press enter
or you can use your mouse to click the Hanja you want.
- You can do exactly same by pressing Control + Q, Control + E, Control
+ R instead pressing Control + W, with the difference of format of committed
string as shown below
Key Sequence |
Committed Format |
Ctrl + Q |
Hanja |
Ctrl + W |
By the format set by the OptionAux window |
Ctrl + E |
Hangul(Hanja) |
Ctrl + R |
Hanja(Hangul) |
- In case you want to abort this lookup mode, you can press Control +
A to exit from this lookup mode.
3.3.2 Hanja Character Step Mode
- With Hangul input conversion on, type an appropriate sequence of keys(pronunciation
of the Hanja that you want to input) to compose a Hangul character in the
preedit area on the screen:

- Type Control-N to convert it to a possible Hanja choice.
Status region shows that you are now in hanja conversion mode.
Typing Control-N again and again converts the Hangul character through
the series of possible Hanja choices, one at a time (until the original
Hangul reappears after all Hanjas have been displayed). Control-P converts
back to the previous choice.

Key Sequence |
Operation |
Ctrl + N |
Next Character |
Ctrl + P |
Previous Character |
- Type Control+K when you have the Hanja character you want in the preedit
area.

This commits the Hanja in the preedit area to the application.
You can also press any other nonprinting character except
Control-N or Control-P. Then a new preedit area next to the just-committed
Hanja is ready for the next Hangul input.
To commit the Hanja plus a space, number, punctuation
mark, or other printable character, type the character's key. It and the
highlighted Hanja are then both committed and a new preedit area next
to the just-committed space, number, etc. is ready for the next Hangul input.
3.3.3 Hanja Word Conversion Modes
Hangul to Hanja conversion can be done also word by word
just as it is done character by character (described in the preceding section).
The steps for Hangul to Hanja word conversion are the same
except conversion is not turned on until the preedit area contains a Hangul
word.
Control-N(step mode) or Control-W (lookup choice mode) turns on
Hanja conversion choices.
The Hanja choices are a list of possible Hanja words plus a list
of Hanja characters for only the last syllable of the Hangul word.
A display like the following appears after typing a Hangul
word followed by Control-W:
The above list contains three Hanja word choices for converting
the Hangul word in the preedit area.
3.4. Entering
Special Symbol Characters
Users can enter non-Hangul/Hanja characters that cannot
be typed directly on the keyboard.
It works the same as "Hanja Character Lookup Choice Mode"
- Typing Control-N or Control-P pages forward or back through the lookup
choice area display
- Typing the letter of the choice makes/commits the choice and returns
to Hangul input mode
- Typing Control-A at any time aborts the current lookup choice pages
without choosing and returns to Hangul input conversion mode.
To start to enter Special Symbols,
- With Hangul input conversion on, type Control-J. The status
area shows that you are now in symbol input mode and input method server
pops up a page of category choices:

- Type the letter of a category (a in the following example)
to display the first page of choices, or press enter after scrolling down
the list using space key to do the same thing.

- After Control-N has been typed six times the following
is displayed:

- Type k to choose/commit the displayed character and return
to Hangul input mode:

- In case user wants to abort the symbol lookup mode, user
can press Control + A to exit from the symbol input mode.
3.5. Entering
Hangul Character using Hex Input Mode
Any character that are defined at the current locale can
be entered directly by entering their encoding values from its character set.
In ko_KR.EUC locale, user can use the ecoding value of
KS X 1001 to input all the characters defined for the character set.
In ko_KR.UTF-8 locale, user can use the encoding values
of following character set to input all the characters defined in it.
- KS X 1001 (known as ks c 5601-1987)
- UTF-8 Encoding
- Unicode
Below is the table that describes how you can use each
encoding values to enter a character.
current locale |
Key sequence |
character set to use |
ko_KR.EUC |
Contrl+X |
KS X 1001 |
ko_KR.UTF-8 |
Control+X |
KS X 1001 |
ko_KR.UTF-8 |
Control+Shift+X |
UTF-8 |
To use the hex input mode, you can use the Control[+Shift]+X
key sequence to active hex input mode or select the Hex input mode from the
PaletteAux window.
Under ko_KR.EUC locale, or ko_KR.UTF-8 locale, to enter
Hangul character using Hex value from KS X 1001,
- Make sure Hangul input conversion is on:
- Then toggle hex mode on by typing Control-X.
The status shows that now you are in hex input mode. It also tells you that
you are using KS X 1001 encoding values to input Hangul characters.

And the Palette Window's input mode window changes to show the current
input mode.

The only keys that have any effect at this point are delete keys,
letters a through f, numbers 0 through 9, and Control-X (which toggles
hex mode off again).
- Type the first three keys of the hex code of the character, for example
a2d, in the preedit area. The screen appears as follows after the first
three numbers are typed:

- Type d. The designated character is then displayed and automatically
committed after the fourth number is typed:

- Hex mode remains on until toggled off by Control-X.
- A character can be entered using UTF-8 encoding after pressing Control+Shift+X.
3.6. Switching Between
Half width Character Mode and Full width character Mode.
In Korean Input mode, Type [Shift+Spacebar]
to switch between Half_width Character Mode and Full_width Character Mode.
When in Full_width mode, the Full_width character of the
input key will be committed to applications.
For example: Inputting 'a' when in Full_width mode, the
fullwidth character of 'a' will be committed to application as shown below:

4. Auxiliary
Windows for Korean Input Method
4.1. Palette Auxiliary
Window
PaletteAux window consists of following buttons

- Grabber:Click this button to move the pallette window
- Input Mode selector: Click this button to select the input mode that
you want
Upon click on this button, submenu appears that includes
- Normal Hangul input mode
- Hex Input mode
- Symbol input mode
- Symbol input mode
- Half_width/Full_width mode selector:click this button to toggle between
Half width and Full width input mode
- Hangul->Hanaj convertor:Click this button to convert the current
Hangul character(s) in the preedit area into Hanja character(s)
- Visual Keyboard Launcher:Click this button to show Visual Keyboard Window
- Utility Button
4.2. Input Method
Options Auxiliary Window
To Launch this window, click Utilities button from Palette
Auxiliary window and select "Input Method Property Configuration" menu. The
OptionsAux Auxiliary window shows up.

Use this window to save your preference settings and make
them available by default. This window provides the following options for
you to specify.

- Default Keyboard Layout to use
- 2 beol sik
- 3 beol sik 390
- 3 beol sik final
- Default Hangul to Hanja conversion format
- Hangul -> Hanja
- Hangul -> Hangul(Hanja)
- Hangul -> Hanja(Hangul)
- Automatic commit on a character basis
This option allows you to commit a character in the
preedit buffer as soon as the single character is completed.
- Automatic commit on a single candidate conversion
This option allows you to commit a converted Hanja
character(s) automatically if there is only one candidate available for
this conversion.
4.3. Virtual
Keyboard Auxiliary Window
To Launch this window, click Visual Keyboard Launch from
the Palette Auxiliary window. The selected Virtual Keyboard Auxiliary window
shows up.
- 2 Beol Sik

- 3 Beol Sik 390

- 3 Beol Sik Final

You can click the keyboard button on the Virtual Auxiliary
window to enter the character on the keyboard button.
To close the Virtual Keyboard Auxiliary window, chose
the 'Close Keyboard' menu of Visual Keyboard Launcher submenu.
4.4. Lookup Table
Auxiliary Window
To Launch this window, click Utilities button from the Palette Auxiliary
window, and select Code Point Table menu.

The Lookup Table Auxiliary Windows shows up.

Use this window to find/input any characters that are
available from the current locale. Depending on the current locale, all the
characters included in the current locale are displayed.
This window contains 2 tabs of following
- Character table: show all the characters contained in the current
character set sorted by code point value.
- Symbol table: shows special characters grouped by category. The
list of categories are same as the ones that you will see when you press
'Ctrl + J' to start the symbol input mode
To input any of those from the table, double click a character, or select
a character and press the 'Insert' Button at the right hand side of the window
4.5. Input
Method Help
To access the online help of Korean Input method, click
the input method help item from the utilities menu, a browser such as Netscape
will appear and display the help information for input methods.