Preparing the texts

Before converting your text, some steps are required to prepare them. First of all, you will need to save the texts you want to convert as pure text files, that is, as files that contain no formatting. If you are preparing a JIS file for conversion to Big5, it is recommended that you first use the script NEW2OLD to replace any postwar Kanji that might be in your text with prewar forms. This script does not touch variant forms, but it is recommended that you use the standard forms, rather than the variant forms in preparing your text, as these will be easier converted.

Performing the Conversion

Once you have your text prepared, you can invoke the program. A separate program exist for each of the three grades of precision and for each of the possible directions, making a total of six program files.

The naming convention of these programs is as follows:
• The name for programs for JIS->Big5 conversion begins with JB, for Big5->JIS with BJ
• The strict conversion adds the suffix STRICT to the name, resulting in JBSTRICT and BJSTRICT
• The 'middle way' conversion as the default does not have any suffix, the names are JB and BJ
• The black hole conversion programs have LAX as the suffix, e.g. JBLAX and BJLAX.

The invocation for the programs is the same for all cases, BJ or JB will serve in the following example as placeholder for the other programs as well.
Conversion from Big5 to JIS is invoked on the DOS commandline as follows: BJ THISTEXT.BIG > THISTEXT.SJS
"BJ" is the name of the executable file, "THISTEXT.BIG" is the name of the source file, ">" is the redirection symbol and the resulting file will be written to "THISTEXT.SJS". If the target file already exists, it will be overwritten without warning.

Conversion from JIS to Big5 is similar: JB THATTEXT.SJS > THATTEXT.BIG the same conventions apply.