Scroll page down for Windows XP instructions

Use these installation instructions for your personal computer running Windows 7

1. Click Start button
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click Regional & Language
4. Select Keyboards and Languages tab, then click Change keyboards button
   
   
   
   
5. Make sure the General tab is selected, then click the Add button
   
   
   
   
6. Select Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin New Experience Input St, then click OK
   
   
   
   
7. Click the OK or Apply button to complete installation of the keyboard
   
   

Using the Chinese keyboard - Windows 7

These instructions apply to computers running Windows 7. The active keyboard is indicated on the Language Bar (e.g., the English keyboard is represented by the letters EN)

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To select the Chinese keyboard, first open the software you intend to use (e.g., Microsoft Word) and make sure that the software has the focus (click inside the window for the software). The Language Bar may be docked to the title bar of the active software or can be at the bottom of the window. Now click the letters on the Language Bar (EN in the example illustration above) to open the keyboard selection menu.

Select Chinese (Simplified, PRC) from the keyboard selection menu. The Language Bar should now appear as illustrated below:

The default input mode is Chinese, as indicated by the button. If the button does not appear as illustrated, click the button to toggle to Chinese Input Mode (the input mode toggles each time you click the button and allows you to enter Chinese and English text in the same document). The Input Style button should appear like this: , indicating the New Experience Input Style. Click on the Input Style button to view the input choices and confirm the correct selection as illustrated below:

Now the Language Bar should have the buttons displayed like this: .

In the example that follows, we will write the sentence "I am Chinese" in Chinese (wo shi zhongguo ren) in Microsoft Word.

Type wo, which will display like this:

A choice of characters will appear. The first choice is highlighted in blue. In this case we want the highlighted character so we simply press the space bar to select it. Then the display appears like this:

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Note that the character has a dashed underline, which indicates that the character is provisional. We could press the space bar again to set this character or just continue adding more characters. We will take the second approach..

Type shi, which will appear like this:

In this case we do not want the first, highlighted character. The one we want is labeled 2. So press the 2 key and the display will appear like this:

Type zhong, which will appear like this:

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Type guo, which will appear like this:

In this case we want the first, highlighted character, so press the space bar and the display will appear like this:

Type ren, which will appear like this:

In this case we want the first, highlighted character, so press the space bar and the display will appear like this:

We now have all the characters we need, but they are marked with a dashed underline, indicating provisional characters. Press the space bar to set the characters. The display will now appear like this:

We are now finished with the sentence, so add the period to display this:

Anyone who is reasonably proficient in Chinese language input will take fewer steps than the example given here. In fact, typing in woshizhongguoren and then a period, and pressing the space bar will produce the same outcome. What we are demonstrating here is not the most efficient way to achieve the result, but rather some general principles: (i) with each syllable typed in in pinyin format, and the provisional character displayed, a prompt line interface is available. This offers alternative characters that the user can accept by typing in the number corresponding to the desired character. (ii) The editor will anticipate possible word combinations on the basis of what has been typed so far to save time for the user. (iii) For a provisional choice indicated by a dashed underline, the user needs to press the space bar to save it.

You can learn more about using this keyboard by opening Help on the Language Bar (the button with a question mark).

1. Click Start button
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click Regional & Language Options (depending on your desktop settings, you may need to select Date, Time, Language and Regional Options in the Pick a category window, then select Regional & Language Options)
4. Select Languages tab in the dialog box
5. In the Supplemental language support area, check to see if the check box is checked for install files for East Asian languages. If it is not, follow steps 6 through 10 below
6. Click in the check box for install files for East Asian languages
7. A dialog box with the following text should appear "you chose to install the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language files..." Click the OK button for this dialog box.
8. Click the Apply button in the Regional and Language Options dialog box.
9. An Insert Disk dialog box with text like the following should appear: "Please insert the Compact Disc labeled Windows XP...." Insert the CD disk that contains the Windows XP software (part of the bundled software you received when you bought your computer). Then click the OK button in this dialog box to start the installation.
10. When the installation is complete, click Yes to restart your computer in the dialog box that appears. You are now ready to install the Japanese keyboard, following the instructions starting with step 11.
11. Click Start button
12. Click Control Panel
13. Click Regional & Language Options (depending on your desktop settings, you may need to select Date, Time, Language and Regional Options in the Pick a category window, then select Regional & Language Options)
14. Select Languages tab in the dialog box
15. Click the Details button
16. Text Services and Input Languages dialog box should now be open - in the Installed Services area click the Add button
17. Add Input Language dialog box should now be open - select Chinese (PRC) in the Input language drop-down slot
18. If there is a check box to the left of Keyboard layout/IME, click the check box to add a check mark for Keyboard layout/IME (otherwise, ignore this step)
19. Click the OK button for the Add Input Language dialog box
20. In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box, click the Language Bar button to open the Language Bar Settings dialog box
21. Place a check mark in the check box next to Show Language bar on the desktop
22. Close all dialog boxes by clicking their OK buttons. Your computer should now have the Chinese Keyboard installed in addition to the English Keyboard.

Using the Chinese keyboard (Windows XP)

The active keyboard is indicated on the Taskbar (e.g., the English keyboard is represented by the letters EN) .

To select the Chinese keyboard, first open the software you intend to use (e.g., Microsoft Word) and make sure that the software has the focus (click inside the window for the software). Then click the letters on the Taskbar (EN in the example illustration above) to open the keyboard selection menu. Select Chinese (PRC) from the keyboard selection menu. The Taskbar should now appear as illustrated below (the actual buttons on the Taskbar may vary but the letters CH should appear):

Right-click on CH to open another menu. Click on Restore the Language bar on the menu. The Language bar should now appear on the screen, probably docked to the title bar of the software window (Language bar is illustrated below).

Your Language bar may not look exactly like the one above, depending on your button settings. Click on the button and select the buttons needed from the menu: Conversion Mode, Charaset, and Help. The Taskbar should look like the illustration above after you have selected the proper buttons.

The default input mode is Chinese, as indicated by the button. Click on this button to change to English input mode (the input mode toggles each time you click the button and allows you to enter Chinese and English text in the same document). There are two character sets available in Chinese: simplified and traditional . In these instructions, we will use the simplified character set (if the traditional character set button is displayed, click it to change to simplified).

In the example that follows, we will write the sentence "I am Chinese" in Chinese (wo shi zhongguo ren) in Microsoft Word.

Type wo, which will appear like this: then press the Enter key to display this: . Note that the character has a dotted underline, which indicates that the character is provisional. In this case we want this character, so press the Enter key again to accept this character, which will now appear without the underline, like this: . If we wanted another character instead, while the underline was displayed, we could press the left arrow on the keyboard (not the backspace) to open a list of alternative characters, which would appear like this: . To select an alternate character, click on the character or enter the associated number with the keyboard. Let us now continue to work on our sentence.

Type shi, which will appear like this: and press the Enter key to display this: . Then press the Enter key again to accept the character, which will now be displayed like this: .

Type zhong, which will appear like this: and press the Enter key to display the provisional character like this: . In this case we must leave the provisional character displayed and continue by typing guo, which will appear like this: . Press the Enter key to display this: . The two provisional characters now displayed are those we need, so press the Enter key to accept them and the display will look like this: .

Type ren, which will appear like this: and press Enter to display this: . Then press Enter again to accept the provisional character to display this: . We are now finished with the sentence, so add the period to display this:

Anyone who is reasonably proficient in Chinese language input will take far fewer steps than the example given here. In fact, typing in woshizhongguoren and then a period, and hitting the Enter key will produce the same outcome. What we are demonstrating here is not the most efficient way to achieve the result, but rather some general principles: (i) with each syllable typed in in pinyin format, and the provisional character displayed, a prompt line interface is available by pressing the left arrow key. This offers alternative characters that the user can accept by typing in the number corresponding to the desired character. (ii) The editor will anticipate possible word combinations on the basis of what has been typed so far to save time for the user. (iii) For a provisional choice indicated by a dotted underline, the user needs to press the Enter key to save it.

You can learn more about using this keyboard by opening Help on the Language bar (the button with a question mark).

When you are finished with the Language bar, you can minimize it to the Taskbar by clicking the minus button on the right side of the Language bar.