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Windows 7: How to Implement a Korean Keyboard

This page will explain how you can install a Korean keyboard in Windows 7.

If you landed on this page from a search engine, you may also want to check out our Introduction page, which has a general introduction on the Korean keyboard available in the Windows operating system as well as a typing practice section.

Windows 7: Keyboard Implementation Steps

1) Open the Control Panel.

2) Select “Clock, Language and Region”.

3) Under the “Region and Language” category, click “Change Keyboards or Other Input Methods”. A dialog box (“Region and Language”) will pop up.

4) Under the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, click “Change Keyboards”.

5) The top half of the panel is “Default Input Language” - do not change it. The bottom half is “Installed Services”. In it, click “Add”. A dialog box (“Add Input Language”) will pop up.

6) Scroll down and find “Korean”. Expand the + sign next to “Korean”; and expand the + sign next to “keyboard”.

7) Check “Microsoft IME” (2nd box). Do not check "Korean" (1st box) or "Show More” (3rd box).

At this point, your "Add Input Language" window should look like this:

8) Click “OK”.

9) Click “Apply” and “OK”.

The Korean keyboard option is now available. At this point, you will see a language bar (marked “EN” [for English]) in the lower right corner of your screen.

If you don’t see the language bar in the lower right corner, it must be “floating” in the top right corner of your screen like this:
Language bar floating

You can leave it there or close it by clicking the tiny square (above the tiny triangle within the bar) - then the language bar will come back to the bottom task bar.

How to Use the Korean Keyboard

Locate the language bar (marked “EN”) in the lower right corner of your screen. Click the “EN” sign once - a box will expand. Select "KO" (instead of "EN").

EN and KO in the language bar

The language bar will then horizontally expand as shown below, giving you 4 different control icons.

Four controls of the language bar

Of the four, you will be dealing with Control 1 and Control 3 only.

Control 1 (KO or EN): This shows whether you are in the Korean-enabled mode (KO) or English-only mode (EN). You can shift between the two modes by selecting the KO or EN label, as shown in the previous figure.

Control 3 (A or 가): Being in the "KO" mode doesn't necessarily mean that your keyboard is ready to input Korean characters. It means you can activate Korean when you want. The default in the "KO" mode is still English (hence the "A" sign). When want to type Korean, hit the ALT key on the right side of your keyboard. (A keyboard may have two ALT keys; only the right one works for this purpose.) You will then see:
Four controls of the language bar

Note that Control 3 shows a Korean character, 가, instead of "A". Your keyboard is now ready to input Korean characters. You can toggle between Korean and English by pressing the right ALT key at any time.

We will explain the other two functions (Control 2 and Control 4) shortly, but you probably won’t use them at all. You can now skip to our Typing Practice Page. There is a large picture of the Korean keyboard layout in the first page of this article.

What are the other two buttons for?

Control 4: You won't need this unless you have deep understanding of the etymology of Korean words. Control 4 is used to convert Korean syllables written in phonetic alphabet (i.e. most modern Korean texts) into classical Asian logograms ("Chinese" characters), which had been for centuries the predominant writing system in Korea until the early part of the 20th century.

Control 2: Recall that, in Step 7 above (procedure for Windows 7), we recommended that you check only the second box (Microsoft IME) in the "Add Input Language" window. If you mistakenly checked the first box ("Korean") as well, that window would look like this:
Add Input Language window with two items checked

With both of the boxes checked (not recommended), you will have two choices, which you can see by pressing and holding Control 2:
Language bar with two Korean options
Note that, in addition to the green globe icon, you see a gray keyboard icon. The additional option (gray keyboard icon) apparently does not work as a Korean keyboard. Having this option only interferes with the the Microsoft IME (green globe icon) function from time to time.

If you happen to have the "gray keyboard" icon implemented, your keyboard may occasionally get stuck in the "gray keyboard mode" for unknown reasons (symptom: Korean entry stops working, and the ALT key becomes unresponsive). When this occurs, you can use Control 2 to move back to the "green globe" mode. If you leave the first box unchecked in Step 7 above (and activate only the second box), you won't have this problem, and you won't ever need Control 2.

This article is brought to you by Enunce, LLC, a Korean translation company providing Korean to English translation, English to Korean translation and Korean interpretation services.

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