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(I apologize if this question is off-topic on Japanese.SE or is more suitable for SuperUser).

I like to write computer notes about what I learn in Japanese. From time to time, I would like to be able to include in my text a given radical, say kokoro , which takes several graphic forms when used as an element in a more complex kanji, for instance .

I did not succeed on my system (Mac OS X 10.7) to find the glyphs for these variants exactly as I would like them (I would also be interested about how to do this on Windows 7 or Linux).

I first tried the name of the kanji from which the radical is derived. Then I tried to use the japanese name for them, such as risshinben (as in 快) and shitagokoro (as in 志), hoping that the hiragana or katakana input would recognize them and propose me their representation, but it did not work.

So I looked into the Full Japanese Character Table, under the "by radical" tab, and found at least a version of each of them : 忄 (CJK 5FC4) and 㣺 (CJK 38FA) with the correct kun readings. I have them now as favorites but do I need to do that for all radicals? Do I need to register all of them in a user dictionary? I would imagine that I am not the only one who wants to do use them.

Besides, the versions I have found are not suited for all occasions: they are centered on a standard kanji square. If I want them to appear near to a placeholder, or demonstrate their proportion to the rest of a typical kanji, I have to make complicated adjustments, depending on my use and the kind of radical.

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  • A question about usage of a computer is off-topic here even if the question is about Japanese text. The questions in the same category have been closed as off-topic: How to write hiragana and katakana in Windows?, What's the best utility for identifying kanji? Voted to close as off topic. Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 22:24
  • this is probably better suited on superuser Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 22:33
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    @Tsuyoshi I expected this but still feel that this Japanese.SE community would certainly be the most knowledgeable about this question.
    – ogerard
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 22:48
  • I once had a question about LaTeX and Japanese, I wrote it on Latex SE... So @Tsuyoshi is right, this question is off topic, because it doesn't deal with Language itself but with computers input. :) Voting to close as well...
    – Alenanno
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 22:55
  • @Tsuyoshi and all: I reposted this question, sligtly edited on SuperUser. Hope I will receive some interesting answers.
    – ogerard
    Commented Jun 21, 2011 at 15:21

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