Japanese IME settings nightmare

[4leaf]

GOD... I have Japanese FFXI installed and have been able to type in Japanese for a while... I simply hit Alt+ ` to activate switch to hiragana mode, and then I hit Alt + caps to switch to Katakana mode.

The problem is that I cannot put anything into the Auto translator. Every time I hit tab while in Hiragana mode the auto complete feature refuses to work

I tried switching back to english mode and then hitting tab and that worked, but the problem was that when I switch to english mode while Some Hiragana is still highlighted it will fuck up everything I typed! UGHHHHHH


Please someone tell me as if I were a freakin two year old... step by step how to optimize my IME settings for FFXI specifically. So that all my settings and hot keys will work PERFECTLY and auto translate just fine...

If no one here has any freakin clue what I am talking about then please redirect me to a place that will.

Frustrated... grr

[yuzu]

I have never had this issue with my JP FFXI so what I say may offer you no help.
First, I have never had to switch to Katakana mode since using the space bar you can tilt the words (provided they are written correctly) to katakana automatically.
If you want to activate auto trans, you need to have the word set (press enter so the word is no longer green) before you press the tab button. If you are using the JP keyboard mode you don't have this issue.
Seeing as you can write JP, perhaps you can read JP. A good place to go to would be the JP POL homepage. They recommend that you download a series of their POL dictionaries to help with typing in game words.
Hope that helps.