Fast pinyin input
bababardwan
February 24, 2011, 01:42 AM posted in General DiscussionMost of you will know this, but for the sake of those newer to typing Hanzi via pinyin input, I thought I'd share a tip to an input time saver I have been using more and more with google pinyin input...namely with common words just typing the first letter for each character. For some time I have been doing this with simple words where it's likely to work, but I'm finding it works more and more with less common words. To give an example from a dictation exercise I was just doing:
那个地方有很多工厂，空气污染很严重，我想搬家了
ngdfyhd..spacebar to enter..gc,kqwrhyz...spacebar...,wxbjl
...is all I had to type. That combination might not work exactly the same for everyone as it will depend on what words you usually type, but sometimes you'll see the right one as one of the options. Sometimes you have to venture further ahead [more characters] with typing the first letter for more characters before it will get back on track and sometimes you have to bail and go back to entering less characters at a time. You get a feel for it after a while as to what you can get away with. It's a lot of fun as well as a timesaver and there are probably some bonus lesson's in there in terms of what comes up. Hope this is useful to some. Good luck. :)
bababardwan
哈哈 ：）
joschka
February 24, 2011, 11:53 AM@bweedin I'm desperately looking for teaching materials in English for changjie (cangjie) input.
Do you happen to know where I can find them?
Thanks,
Jim Kay
bababardwan
While you're waiting for a good answer, I guess you've seen the wikipedia article on cangjie?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie_input_method
...it could be worth exploring some of the links in the article if you haven't already. Sorry I can direct to teaching materials. Good luck :)
bweedin
Hi Jim,
The best thing I can tell you is to ask someone from Hong Kong to teach you, since they seem to be the only people on the planet who use it.
If all else fails, if you look at each entry in the mdgb online English-Chinese dictionary, they will have the canjie input code, and you can learn it one by one, just like you learned how to write characters by hand.
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
Just curious, why the interest in canjie? I'll admit, my interest in canjie was just to show off, but it seemed pretty complicated when I got down to it. If I want to input colloquial Cantonese characters that have no pinyin, I use this other website where you can input characters using a Cantonese Romanization method.
I hope you can make me envious by learning canjie fluently one day. I'll input vicariously through you.
-Bobby
joschka
February 28, 2011, 08:21 AMI've been able to confirm (through someone who claims to know the author personally) that a guy here in Taiwan wrote a book in English that teaches the Cangjie method. But he's very difficult to reach as he rarely answers his phone.
bweedin
Let me know and I might buy the book!
joschka
I managed to reach the guy so I ordered two copies. He charged me US$25 for each. I paid him via PayPal.
(He has an old web site that offers two books for US$10 each but he doesn't respond to the e-mail address given there.)
It feels a little like getting screwed but this is what he said is the price.
If you want a copy, fine; I'll send one to you. If not, That's OK too.
Jim
bweedin
你真的送給我嗎？
joschka
March 19, 2011, 12:28 AMIt turns out that Cang Jie is used extensively in Taiwan (where it was invented) and it's taught in the Taiwan schools. I just ran across another Taiwanese friend who learned it in school and loves it.
My wife, however, does not use it and tried to discourage me from learning it.
Apart from typing speed where Cang Jie may not be the fastest, it also helps learn to write Chinese characters which only the stroke-based input methods will do. For simplified Chinese, Microsoft offers Zheng Ma which is very similar.
bweedin
How much would one of those books be with shipping to Los Angeles? Send me a private message.
joschka
I think he charges US$15 but I'm coming to LA in a couple of weeks so I could bring you a copy if you like.
We'll be staying on the East Side (Walnut) but will be in Beverly Hills too. So, your choice.
Where are you in school?
bweedin
I go to Cal State L.A., but I live on the West Side, so Beverly Hills is way more convenient for me!
bweedin
btw, thanks a lot, AND what a coincidence!
joschka
June 21, 2011, 06:26 AMHi Bobby!
Sorry about the delay. I ordered another copy of the ChangJie book and it arrived yesterday.
Today, I mailed it to you at the Westminster Ave. address you gave me.
I hope you like it.
Jim
jennyzhu
This is a fascinating conversation and exchange. 你真是助人为乐！
darkstar94
June 21, 2011, 09:48 AMHi, I use sougou input program, it's really good as well, one of those programs where you can type in the first letters on the pinyin and it'll guess the sentence you want to say, you can also change to traditional if you want, as well as write in the characters
bababardwan
hi darkstar,
yeah, I've heard good things about sougou but it's for mac right? ...the rare times I have used the mac for chinese the inbuilt one has been ok, but it's cool to know it works with sougou also. When you say:
"as well as write in the characters"
..are you saying that sougou has handwriting recognition also? ...that you could use to directly enter in a post such as this?
cinnamonfern
I use Sougou on my Toshiba laptop. It seems to work fine with Vista.
zhenlijiang
Baba I’ve also been using sougou (PC) but to be honest I can't see that it's veeery much better to use than the apparently unpopular MS built-in. It‘s cool for me though to see some of the features, like it will give you little notices when they’ve added new words to their dictionaries--all part of learning about current subjects in China. And I guess I also don't know it too well yet either, don‘t know about handwriting recognition, sorry.
Hey does anyone using sougou know what that animated cloud symbol thing is that seems to come up randomly among the suggestions for words as you type?
bweedin
February 24, 2011, 07:48 AMTake that, changjie input method!