[tlug] Slightly messed up Japanese input

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

TLUG,

I have Japanese input sort of working in Dapper. If I'm in FireFox or 
Thundebird or most applications, if I press [Shift]+[Space], the input 
switcher goes from direct input to Japanese input. So far so good.
The first problem is that this does not work in OpenOffice. I've tried 
to ensure Japanese text is enabled in OpenOffice's preferences, but it 
does not seem to take hold. I go to Tools | Options | Language Settings 
| Languages, and I set "Japanese" for the default Asian language for 
documents. And I click the check box beside "Enabled for Asian 
Languages". Not only does this not change anything, I've also noticed 
that sometimes when I come back and check it again, the default Asian 
language is back to "none". The check box for enabling Asian languages 
seems to stay checked at least.
Is there some other setting for OpenOffice I need to do?

The other problem is that the Japanese input isn't exactly perfect. I 
can switch between inputs by pressing [Shift]+[Space], but I'd rather 
not because I keep accidentally doing it. I'd rather it was 
[Ctrl]+[Space]. But, when I click on the input icon on my Gnome panel, 
and select "uim's preferences tool", I can go to "input method toggle 
key", where I select for it to be [Ctrl]+[Space]. And yet, nothing changes.
Of course I went to:
http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/jpninpt.html
... and also:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JapaneseInputHowToInBreezy

From the instructions on the second page, I noticed something else was 
wrong. By going into Gedit, and right clicking, from the drop down menu 
that appears beside the cursor, one can select "input". Going into that 
submenu, I notice that there is no Japanese option.
What am I missing?

--
Dave M G