I talked about how to install ZiGuang Chinese input software on an English Windows machine here in this post.
Recently I came across InputKing, which allows Chinese input on ANY machine that has Internet access through a web interface. This is perfect for people to try different input methods, playing around, and enter Chinese in many different places. I’ve tried it and it is just awesome.
I am curious about different input methods and their advantages and disadvantages. My Chinese input speed is pretty slow. I am a self-trained touch typist so my English typing speed is decent. I have ZiGuang pinyin on my laptop. I like ZiGuang pinyin because for common phrases, I just need to type the Sheng Mu (声母) and ZiGuang would give me the list of words for me to choose from. However, not knowing other input methods, I am not sure if I miss out on something better.
What is your favorite Chinese input method and why? What tricks and/or shortcuts do you use? Pinyin, Wubi, Microsoft Pinyin, ShuangPin, and/or others? I’d appreciate it if you let me know by commenting below, either in English or Chinese. Thanks.
PS. I highly recommend touch typing. It can make such a big impact on your life, given that most of us use computers everyday. I didn’t touch a computer until when I was in my early 20s so my typing speed was pretty bad for a long time. I taught myself touch typing in 2003. I am so glad I did that. It is very liberating when inputting text is not a hindrance. There are a lot of typing programs available on the web. TypingMaster is one of the best.
7 responses to “Web based Chinese input”
I switch between Ziguang Pinyin and Microsoft Pinyin at work. No particular reason – both are good, though I find that MS Pinyin tends to be a little better at word segmentation for common words, whereas Ziguang is a bit better for stuff that I’ve already taught it.
At home, I use Mac OS X, which has a much sparser choice; there’s the built-in Pinyin input, which sucks, and a third-party input, QiM, which also sucks, but sucks slightly less. I’ve actually thought about learning Wubi/Cangjie/something else, just to get rid of the disappointing Mac input solutions, but I type quickly enough in Pinyin that the alleged speed benefits of Wubi aren’t all that compelling to me, and it seems like it’d be a real pain to learn.
Thanks for sharing Brendan.
I guess I will stick with Ziguang. I just don’t want to miss out something really easy and efficient.
我个人非常喜欢智能拼音，速度基本在120个/分（汉字），尽管我不是专业的打字员。
我不会智能拼音。看来得抽空学习一下。。。
Could someone explain which settings to use for pinyin? I thought it was the first one, but it doesn’t have any output for “shi” (in case you guys don’t use the same pinyin system as me, one of the options should be 是) which is a pretty significant problem for me. I can’t understand the settings very well. (taking Chinese through a class, hence the reliance on this system)
Thanks in advance. :]
PS: I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it on this site, but for Japanese (which I’m self-studying) http://ajaxime.chasen.org/ is an awesome and easy to use option.
EDIT:
So it turns out that this was a browser problem, as I tried it out on safari (currently using firefox) and it worked fine. Does anyone know how to fix this so can use it on Firefox as well?
Sorry about the double posting.
Hi Yu,
No problem. I am not sure how to fix it so it works on Firefox. I’ve always used IE when I need it.
As to Pinyin IME tool (Windows only, sorry), I heard good words about Sogou Pinyin lately. Thanks for the link to the Japanese ajaxime site. I have contemplated of learning Japanese myself someday. My son is pretty fluent at it.
Good luck in your language learning. It will open a new window (or windows) for you.