Writing chinese with an english windows vista

[oly2006]

How can i write in chinese if I have an english version of Windows VIsta ?

Hm..is there a spceial program that helps you to write in chinese? Hmm..and i always asked myself how do you all write in chinese..I eman there are lots of characters and i suppose it isn't a keybord for that....

I m interested to know all the information about writing chinese on your personal computer.

Thanks in advance,

[imron]

See here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/14636-input-methods-for-typing-characters-and-pinyin

[character]

If you're interested in writing Chinese, this may be of help:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=100177&postcount=3

[tooironic]

search tool is your friend

[atitarev]

I read Imron's link. I now have Windows Vista and I don't like the default Chinese IME, as it doesn't have IME Pad.

I used to use Microsoft Pinyin IME 2003 on Windows XP, which no longer works on Vista.

Is there a similar downloadable Microsoft IME for Vista? (I am not impressed with Google IME).

[Hofmann]

Sogou is better than Google, but if you want to write, NJStar has a pen feature that works on Vista.

[atitarev]

I know about NJStar but I haven't tried Sogou, thanks for the advice!

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/15-cctv-learn-chinese583

[Christina99]

Hi,

I use Sogou now, it's great.

here is the site you can download；http://pinyin.sogou.com/

if you don't know how to download, feel free to contact me.

[atitarev]

Does Sogou have Chinese an IME Pad or something similar, so you can draw the strokes for some hanzi, you don't know how to read?

[imron]

That's what wubi is for ;)

[atitarev]

I haven't mastered wubi

[imron]

What are you waiting for then?

[renzhe]

I've promised myself to try wubi, but the complexity is scaring me away.

Right now, I have enough memorisation on my hand with characters and words.

[atitarev]

What are you waiting for then?

Not sure I need to, not that I am not interested. The most common methods I use are either pinyin or stroke recognition.

the complexity is scaring me away.

Me too.

[imron]

Right now, I have enough memorisation on my hand with characters and words.

Wubi doesn't really require much memorisation, at the beginning it just requires regular practice (much like when you learn to touch type). In addition, it will help you remember all the characters and words in your head because whenever you want to type them, you'll have to actively recall them from memory, compared to pinyin input methods which really on passive recall.

the complexity is scaring me away.

It's really not that complex, and is mostly quite logical. Here's the definitive guide to Wubi in English.

[renzhe]

I've read the introduction back and forth, and I don't really see the logic behind the grouping of the radicals (most of them, anyway). Which means I'd have to memorise their positions.

And I'm afraid that, instead of learning the component, I'd simply learn the keystrokes. My mind is strange like that. I'll give it a bit more time, then try it again, it would be a must if I'm to learn to write at a certain point (read: if I take the HSK ever).

But enough off-topic.

MAybe we could have a definitive wubi thread and move these discussions there?

[imron]

There is a kind of logic for them.

Character roots (they're not really radicals) are first split into 5 regions depending on the direction of their first stroke, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling, other (these are the famous 5 pens). Each of these regions has 5 keys, numbered from one to five, which then tend to contain roots of increasing complexity (with the simpler ones on 1 and the more complicated ones on 5). So, you might not have a definitive logic for mapping a root to a key, but you can narrow it down to 5 keys and once you've had some practice, from there you can usually make an educated guess. As for memorising, like I said, you don't need to memorise them, you just need to practice and then your fingers automatically learn what the right key is. It's like learning to touch-type in English. I don't know about you, but when I learnt to touch type I didn't memorize the position of each key or the layout of the keyboard. All I did was practice typing keys with the correct fingers, and then gradually my fingers learnt which key was where. The same is true for Wubi, and although this is a sort of memorisation, it's quite different to the sort of memorisation you use for learning characters or new vocabulary.

Good typing tutor software can really help with this, but the one I recommend is Windows only, and apparently it doesn't work too well under Wine on Linux.

As for an appropriate thread for all of this, there are probably several definitive threads on Wubi already Will see if this can fit in one of them.

[renzhe]

Character roots (they're not really radicals) are first split into 5 regions depending on the direction of their first stroke, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling, other (these are the famous 5 pens).

Yeah, that part is easy It's figuring out which of them falls on which key that is the problem.

I'm sure I could learn it, but I don't see it as pressing now, and I don't have time to practice typing. I can spent that time reading or listening.

[imron]

You can easily be listening to something while you practice And you can practice by typing out articles/stories that you currently happen to be reading

[renzhe]

You can easily be listening to something while you practice And you can practice by typing out articles/stories that you currently happen to be reading

That would kind of impact my reading speed, though, wouldn't it?