Chinese language support on MS Windows
sydcarten
August 11, 2009, 10:13 PM posted in General DiscussionOn my previous computer I downloaded some software from a Microsoft site called Global IME that enabled my to write Chinese characters by typing in pinyin.
I downloaded and installed this software again onto my new computer, but for some reason it doesn't seem to want to work this time. Can anyone tell me how to get it to work, or possibly recommend alternative software?
sydcarten
August 12, 2009, 01:33 AMYeah, it's XP for me.
At the moment I have to resort to copying and pasting characters from online dictionaries and other sources. It's sometimes difficult to find the character I want, even in a good dictionary.
Another problem is that when I paste characters from different sources they come in different fonts and sizes, which is messy. The CP site doesn't give us enough tools to reformat characters here, so I tried doing it via Microsoft Word, but I find that even after this process the characters revert to their original fonts and sizes when pasted into a CP discussion form.
I also want to be able to paste characters into tables in Microsoft Word, but at the moment when I try half the chars. won't display and are replaced by a dot.
sydcarten
August 12, 2009, 01:57 AMthanks for the link, that is what i was using previously on my old computer
like i said, it seemed to download and install correctly, but just doesn't want to work for me any more
trevorb
August 12, 2009, 04:10 PMI'm not sure you need to load anything, you can add a keyboard under XP, Vista and Windows 7 that will allow you to do PinYin typing. Go into the control panel and look for the keyboard icon and its somewhere in there. Add a keyboard.
That said I tend to use the Google IME that allows me to easily switch between pinyin and english. Only disadvantage is no english instructions or menus whatsoever...it is however intuitive once you've sussed the shift key swaps you between english and chinese....
If you have a tablet PC you can also get it to recognize chinese handwriting in both simplified and traditional which is quite good for practice.
WillBuckingham
August 13, 2009, 09:19 AMI think you may need to add East Asian Languages Support in XP (unless you have already done so).This is pretty easy to do.
Control Panel > Regional and Language Options
Then tick the box for "Install Files for East Asian Languages"
And you're done. It's worth installing Google's IME as well (after installing the files for East Asian Languages), because the built-in one for XP is truly horrible, both functionally and aesthetically.
Good luck.
Will
sydcarten
August 13, 2009, 01:47 PMI've already downloaded and installed Google IME.
Not sure if the installation process was a success, because all the installation dialogue boxes were (I presume) in Chinese, and these only displayed on my computer as a series of boxes, so I had to guess my way thru and hope for the best.
After it was done I couldn't find any icons or shortcuts leading me to start up Google IME. Don't know what happened there...
WillBuckingham
August 13, 2009, 11:27 PMHave you tried installing East Asian language support as above. If you are getting a series of boxes, then it looks as if you don't have the right fonts installed. After a quick google serach, it seems as if you may need a windows XP CD to install the language pack.
xiaophil
August 12, 2009, 01:11 AMI think people will need to know what operating system you are using before they can give you details. It might be that you just have to adjust your language settings. I wish I could tell you how to do that, but the computer I am using now has a Chinese OS. I would look around your start menu and click on icons that are system related to see if you can find the language preferences. A google message for 'add languages Windows XP (or Vista if that is the case)' might do the trick.