Guide to Installing and Using
Microsoft's Chinese IME (The 中文 IME) A comprehensive guide to installing and using the
Microsoft Chinese IME for Windows Vista
NEW!, Windows XP, Windows 2000.The IME allows users ofnon-Chinese versions of Windows to read
and enter Chinesehanzi characters (using
pinyin and a number of other systems) in IME enabled
applications.
How to Installing the Chinese IME without the
windows installation CD in windows XP
◊
Open the Control Panel (Click the
"Start Menu" and chose the "Control Panel"). Then click the "Regional
and Language Options" icon.
You should then see the "Regional and
Language Options" dialog box as shown below.
In Advanced
Tab, now click the "Language for non-Unicode programs"
drop down box and select "Chinese (PRC)".
While there are a number of other Chinese choices for Simplified
Mandarin Chinese we recommend this one for its functionality and ease of
use. BTW - PRC stands for Peoples' Republic of China.
just click the OK button. You
may be asked to reboot your machine and restart your computer.
Open the Control Panel (Click the
"Start Menu" and chose the "Control Panel"). Then click the "Fonts"
icon. Then Copy and Paste those fonts to here. Restart your computer.
◊ From here you can view any
texts in chinese language and if you do not want install any softwares,
you can use Online Chinese
Input Method
For Installing Chinese IME, This is all you need Just click Download and
install :
How do I install the Chinese IME in Windows
Vista?
To install the Chinese IME in Windows Vista,
start by opening the Control Panel.
Click the Start Button:
and chose Control Panel:
Then click the "Clock, Language and
Regional" option.
You should then see the Regional and
Language Options option as shown below. Under the Regional and
Language Options item select Change keyboards or other input
methods.
That will bring up the Keyboard and
Languages tab in the Regional and Language Options dialogue.
Click the Change keyboards... button:
In "Text Services and Input Languages"
dialog box we need to add the ChineseIME and the Chinese Keyboard
components.
Click the "Add..." button.
You should now see the "Add Input
Language" dialog box.
Scroll down to the Chinese (PRC)
entry, expand it and select the Chinese keyboard that you would like to use (I would
recommend the Microsoft Pinyin IME is you are using Simplified Chinese) as
shown below:
Finally click the "OK"
button.
You should end up with a "Chinese" entry
under "Installed Services".
Finally click the "OK" button.
You may be asked to put your Windows
Vista CD-ROM in the CD drive so that the relevant files can be copied
across to your hard drive. NOTE: You can not install the
IME without the CD (please do not email me to
ask..!).
That's it. You should now see the IME icon in
your task bar that has a Japanese option when it is clicked... like
this:
How do I use the Chinese IME in Windows
Vista?
After you have select
CH (Chinese)from the IME task bar menu the task bar look
like this.....
If you have the Chinese IME selected as above
and you right click on the CH you will bring up
the Options Menu:
Choosing the Restore Language bar option will convert the IME into a
floating toolbar with all the IME options visible:
Click on the Input Mode
button (set to Chinese by default) will allow you
to toggle the Input Mode between Pinyin and
English. The keyboard shortcut for this is the left shift
key.
The IME Pad button will
bring up the IME Features menu. This includes
hanzi by radical dialogue:
Here is a text box that will let you try the
IME .
While installing the Chinese fonts is
sufficient if you only want to view Chinese characters in emails or when
browsing the web, if you need to type in Chinese characters then you need
to complete a couple of additional steps.
First return to the "Regional and Language
Options" dialog box as we showed above. But this time click the
"Details..." button in the "Text services and input
languages" frame as shown below:
That will bring up the "Text services and input languages" dialogue
box. Now we need to add the Chinese IME. Click the "Add..." button
in the "Installed services" frame:
You should
now see the "Add Input Language" dialog box as shown here:
Now click the "Input language"
drop down box and select "Chinese (PRC)".
While there are a number of other Chinese choices for Simplified
Mandarin Chinese we recommend this one for its functionality and ease of
use.
BTW - PRC stands for Peoples' Republic of China.
Once you have select "Chinese
PRC" click the "OK" button.
Now you should see "Chinese (PRC)" as
one of the listed Installed Services. Click the "OK" or
"Apply" button to finish.
You may be asked to put your Windows XP
CD-ROM in the CD drive so that the relevant files can be copied across to
your hard drive. PLEASE NOTE: You can not install the
IME without the CD.
Now we are ready to take the Chinese
IME for a spin.
All installed IMEs are accessed through the the Windows Icon
Tray. Here we see the EN signifying
that the English Input Method is active.
To view the other installed IMEs
simply click in the EN icon. You should
then see a popup listing all the other languages installed. Below we see
in addition to several others we have the Chinese (PRC) IME available.
If you go ahead a click the Chinese
(PRC) item in the IME popup menu you will see a new active IME icon will
display - namely the Chinese (PRC) IME signified by the CH icon.
NOTE: The Chinese IME will only become active if there is
software running in the foreground and active that will accept Chinese
input.
Here is a text box that will let you
try: .
You can view the full IME menu bar by
right clicking on the Chinese IME (CH)
icon. An option popup will appear with a "Restore the Language
bar" item. Select this and the IME menu bar will appear...
Here is what the IME menu bar
will look like - floating some where on your Windows desktop.
Now it is time to show you how to use
the Chinese (PRC) IME.
Here is a text box that will let you
try . Alternatively you can use
the Windows Notepad program, or your email program.
With the Chinese IME active (CH in
the icon tray) type the letters "t" then "a" in the text
box. You should see a small popup appear like this:.
Now hit the space bar... The
first candidate hanzi character will appear (in this case the character
for "him" pronounced "ta1"). If that is the character you are after
then just hit the enter key. Otherwise...
If that is not the character you are
after, then press the right arrow key, and the candidate list will
appear as shown below. Here is access to all the Chinese characters
written with a "ta" in PinYin. You can select the character you would like
by typing its corresponding number or by using the mouse, or
by using the up and down arrow keys to move along the candidate
list.
NOTE: you could have typed "ta" and then the pinyin tone
if you had known it - that would have reduced number of choices in the
candidate list to one characters pronounced with that tone.
Here I have tapped the down arrow
key 4 time to get to the fifth character in the candidate list.
Once you have highlighted the
character in the candidate list that you would like, then just hit the
enter key.
Now you can just proceed on your merry way typing Chinese character by
Chinese character....
The Chinese (PRC) IME has a pretty
decent help file which you might like to look at for the advanced
functionality of the IME. This can be access through the floating IME menu
bar as can a number of other options including a Chinese phonetic
keyboard which some people might prefer to this pinyin entry method.
