38 replies to this topic

[Tyler]

Odd indeed Home Edition has Eastern languages perhaps it's the service pack. Are you currently using SP1 or SP2?

[Shadowfax]

SP2

[Yuri]

Hmmm interesting! I never knew that you could use Quan Pin or some other method. I'd always been using Microsoft IME 3.0, which was useful but also cumbersome. It'd take me like 10 mins or so, to just type in a few words!!! :/

To ShadowFax: if I'm not wrong, some versions of Windows XP are slightly different from one another. Hence, your problems with Windows XP. The best thing you can do is to ask someone to copy the language files which are required and send them to you? However, I'm not really sure which files are exactly required. o_O;;

[hansioux]

It's all about the BOSHIAMI 嘸蝦米輸入法.

[Doktormartini]

There are several ways to input chinese characters. You can use chinese software such as Njstar, Chinese Star, Twinbridge etc.

Where would I get one of these programs?

[urofpersia]

For Windows 2000/XP user:

1. Go to "Start"->"Settings"->"Control Panel"

2. Click "Regional Options" ->"Input Locales"

3. Under "Input Language", click "Add"

4. For simplified characters, choose "Chinese (PRC)" under "input locale" and "Chinese (Simplified) -QuanPin" under "Keyboard Layout/IME"

5. For traditional characters, choose "Chinese (Taiwan" under "input locale"
and "Chinese (Traditional) - any options (phonetics e.g.)".

6. Click "Ok" to complete it and after that you should see a button option at the bottom right with the label "EN". Click the "EN" to switch to chinese mode and you can start inputting chinese characters using Pinyin or Zhuyin.

I should add, there is also another option for those using Hanyu Pinyin for both Simplified or Traditional Chinese. Instead of selecting QuanPin as above, select MS Pinyin instead.

For all methods you can easily cycle between input methods by pressing Shift+Alt at the same time including the default English. One of the nice option of using the MS Pinyin method is that pressing Shift will go to temp English mode, pressing Shift again brings you back to Pinyin input. MS Pinyin also allows you to easily switch between Simplified and Traditional characters at a click of a button without leaving the input method.

I started off using MS Pinyin so I favour it over QuanPin although from experience once you are familiar with QuanPin, it should be somewhat faster.

[Tyler]

Where would I get one of these programs?

One should try google.
http://www.njstar.com/

[Doktormartini]

I know but I figured that I would have to go somewhere special and buy them. Thank you very much!

[Hapless Researcher]

ok i was wondering, how do you specifiy which homophone you want? i noticed that there's a lot of homophones in chinese. for example, how can i tell the computer that i want the "he" ta1 and not the "she" ta1 and vice versa? or like shi2 "stone" and not "10"????

i'm using the built in windows XP home edition chinese character input also....

please help!

[Aaron]

I can't see any Chinese characters on my computer. I used to be able to, but now I can't. Perhaps it's becuase I reformatted my computer. Could someone provide me with a link to download a patch or something for Windows XP Home Edition so that I could see them?

[esse]

I can't see any Chinese characters on my computer. I used to be able to, but now I can't. Perhaps it's becuase I reformatted my computer. Could someone provide me with a link to download a patch or something for Windows XP Home Edition so that I could see them?

Control Panel - Regional and Language Options

Click on "Languages" tab

Check "Install files for East Asian languages" box

Insert your XP cd, follow the instructions. Voila.

[Aaron]

Control Panel - Regional and Language Options

Click on "Languages" tab

Check "Install files for East Asian languages" box

Insert your XP cd, follow the instructions. Voila.

Oh, my XP is directly on my computer so I don't have to insert any CDs, but thank you for the help.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 (input method) as recommended by Urofpersia is another method

You can download Global IME method at
http://office.micros...0347361033.aspx
and then install it.

Or for Windows 2000/XP user:

Basically, follow the procedure below

1. Go to "Start"->"Settings"->"Control Panel"

2. Click "Regional Options" ->"Input Locales"

3. Under "Input Language", click "Add"

4. For simplified characters, choose "Chinese (PRC)" under "input locale" and "Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 " under "Keyboard Layout/IME"

5. Click "Ok" to complete it and after that you should see a button option at the bottom right with the label "EN". Click the "EN" and select "Show the language bar". The language bar will go to the top right hand side of the windows.

6. Click "EN English (united States" and choose the option "Chinese PRC" and then you can start inputting chinese characters using Pin yin.

7. Press Shift+Alt key to switch between english and chinese or vice versa

8. In the "Chinese PRC mode", click "Context Menus" and choose "Properties". Under "General", for input method, you can choose "Full pinyin" and under "Conversion Mode", you can choose "Sentence" or "Word".

9. Type the Pinyin and you can start inputting the characters

10. You can cycle through different selection of characters by pressing the Up/Down ( ↑ / ↓) button.

The method is alot faster than Quanpin.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Currently, the pinyin method is the 2nd fastest method for inputting chinese characters.

For professional chinese typist, they will normally used the Wubi method (Wubi Zixing 五笔字型), which is the fastest method. Wubi is extremely fast and efficient for an experienced typist. But this method would require a person to know how to write the characters very well (i.e. know the radicals) instead of being able to read and recognise. In short, it is not based on Pinyin.

For more info about the Wubi method, refer to http://en.wikipedia....iki/Wubi_method

The wubi input method can easily be downloaded from the internet and is also available for Windows. But one would require to learn the method, which can be tedious for those used to pinyin. Wubi method is generally used for professional typist who needs to type a large amount of chinese characters for print.

[Chen Chun]

I use njstar as well, and the free trial version. Once I find a more stable job, I'll probably purchase the program and see how that goes. I would definitely recommend njstar for those poor college students that have to write a paper in 中文.

One should try google.
http://www.njstar.com/