can anyone help me with rikaichan?

[Liz21]

Katie-san suggested rikaichan which would help me with mixi because I can barely read anything there! It's so funny -- I just click buttons and see what happens!! Bizarre!

Anyway, I found I had to download Firefox, which I did. (1.5 version) Then I got a message saying rikaichan works only with version 0.1 I can't seem to get started with this. Can anyone help me?

I am using a Mac G5, system 10.4.6, Firefox 1.5 (How do I get an earlier version of Firefox?)

[Airth]

First let me say that Rikaichan is a fabulous tool, so I hope you get it working. I'm using Windows with Firefox 1.5.0.6 and have no problems using it. Unfortunately, after doing a quick search it looks like there are some compatability issues when trying to get it up and running on a Mac. If I find anything else about it I'll let you know.

[Liz21]

Thanks, Airth-san!
I'm able to go to Rikai.com and paste the URL of a Japanese web site and I do get the roll-over function. HOWEVER, I can't use it with mixi. It works on the opening page, but when I login and try to go to my home page I get a blank page??????????

[Belton]

It's not the same but you could try JEDict.
http://jedict.com/
This has a safari web browser built in. clicking on a word does a dictionary search and gives you that would in a side panel. Not as convenient as the little tooltips and maybe not as fast but it works offline as well because the dictionaries are stored on your hard drive.
It's shareware but the unregistered version works fine. registering allows you to use more dictionaries and feel good about helping this guy develop Mac software useful for Japanese learners.
(it's a very good dictionary reader tool as well)

I couldn't get the firefox rikai plugins to work either (any version). I just don't think they are Mac compatible.

[Liz21]

I answered my own question! So here is the answer, in case anyone else has a problem! In Firefox I needed to go to Tools on the Menu bar and click "toggle rikaichan"!! It works like a charm!!!

[Belton]

How did you manage to install Rikaichan in the first place?

My version of Firefox (on Mac) just won't play ball, it says installation of themes is disabled and to switch it on in options.
(very Windows )
In Preferences there is no option to switch installation on ( or off for that matter.) Just a notification preference that has no effect on the problem.

I can expand the file to it's components but have no idea where to manually install them.

So much for cross platform.

I think this was about as far as I got the last time as well.

[Belton]

To answer my own question.
(we really need some Mac Japanese Computing FAQs)

With a bit more research I found a really really BAD interface decision in FireFox Mac 1.5

http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan#comment-47

Now I know why I don't use Firefox. (It's about Interface and ease of use guys!! )

No doubt I'll repost here when the install hasn't worked.

[Liz21]

Belton-san,
I'm in a hurry, but, briefly -- I went here: http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

I clicked the option "Japanese-English Dictionary" download and that seemed to do the trick in addition to using "toggle rikaichain" under Tools in Firefox.

Good luck

[Alan]

I've just installed Rikaichan over a clean install of Firefox 1.5 on my Mac. I had to add the polarcloud site to the list of sites that were allowed to install extensions & then clicked on the Install link for the main program, Japanese-English Dictionary & Names dictionary in turn. I used the 'alternative site' link in each case as the main link didn't work correctly. Then I restarted Firefox & selected Tools->Toggle Rikaichan (Thanks Liz) & all seems to be working.

[Jason]

You should also be able to right click on a page and there be an entry in the menu to toggle it off and on. If there's not, take a look at rikaichan's options.

[ピーターズ]

There's also POPjisyo: no installation needed.

[Liz21]

Yeah, Jason, "right click". But what if you're a Mac user?

[Jason]

Yeah, Jason, "right click". But what if you're a Mac user?

Ctrl-click.