Pinyinput - Type Pinyin with Tone Marks

[imron]

Unfortunately I don't have access to a 64-bit compiler for windows or a 64-bit platform to test the resulting binary on. If anyone would like to do the compiling and testing feel free to contact me. The code currently compiles cleanly in Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition.

[jslee]

I think it's possible to compile it for 64-bit in a 32-bit operating system using the Windows SDK.

I would be up for testing it, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to be able to port the code and compile.

[imron]

Yes it is possible if you have a cross-compiler, which I don't - I also use a Mac now and don't really use Windows any more. Although I believe a 64-bit cross-compiler can be downloaded for Visual Studio Express (which I was using to compile Pinyinput), it's not explicitly supported and involves mucking around with various registry hacks and config files to get it set up. The reality is, I don't currently have the time or the incentive to spend half a day trying to get it working, however I am willing to provide the source to anyone who does have the time to do this.

[Donald]

I have installed pinyinput, but it doesn't show up on the language bar. I only have English and Chinese(PRC). Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[imron]

Pinyinput will be one of the options under Chinese (PRC). See the first post for a screen shot showing how to select it.

[MadJesta]

Thank you - This is very useful! :-)

[cclow]

Hi Imron,

Can you provide a 64bit version for Windows 7?

Thanks.

[imron]

Sorry, but I don't currently have access to a 64-bit compiler. I'm happy to provide the source if someone else wants to compile and test it.

[ABCinChina]

Just install Pinyinput in Windows XP Mode. That's what I did though it's not a fix. Whenever I'm working with Chinese, I just open up XP Mode.

If you find out Windows XP Mode is kinda slow, or you don't have Windows 7 Professional and up, then use VMware Player 3.0 or VirtualBox which are great free programs that will let you run almost any OS virtually from any Host OS. I even ran Mac OS X Leopard virtually which was kinda fun!

Edited December 8, 2009 at 10:06 AM by ABCinChina

[checdbh]

Thank you so much for sharing this tool. I am a real fresh learner of Chinese and this helps greatly with spoken lessons.

Chec.

[Singaporean]

Someone please give this man a Nobel Peace Prize. He deserves it more than Obama.

[imron]

Failing that, donations are always welcome too

[magnace]

xièxie imron!

This tool is exactly what I have been searching for!

[coopermj]

I can compile and test it for you on Win7 x64.

Thanks

-Micah

[imron]

I've sent you an email.

[Hein63]

Hello Imron,

I am using to great satisfaction Pinyininput for Words. However, I do not like Word but usually use WordPerfect as a wordprocessor.

I tried to use Pinyininput with WordPerfect but did not competely succeed. Pinyininput shows the well-known, by now, grey line, but the tonemarks are not translated into the WordPerfect text.

Would you know about how to solve this?

Meanwhile, all kudos for this nice programme.

[chrix]

I have a problem with Word as well, whenever I use pinyinput for a "nonstandard" accent mark, like the first or third tone, or any tone on ü, it chooses a different font for just that character. I don't know if you can do much about it, and it's not too big a hassle, but I thought I'd just mention it.

[renzhe]

It's almost certainly a font problem.

Have you tried using a unicode font?

[chrix]

They're all unicode fonts. So let's say you're typing pinyin in font A, then suddenly those nonstandard accents appear in font B. I can remedy this by marking everything and manually changing everything to font A, i.e. font A has those characters.

[imron]

It's a long-standing problem that comes up repeatedly, but is not my fault. It's MS Word trying to be intelligent and set your font based on the IME. You'll get the same problem with any non-Ascii character typed with any IME. There is however a possible workaround if you want to set your default font for both western and Chinese scripts to Arial MS Unicode.

@Hein63: are you able to provide a screen shot of what happens? Also, what version of Word Perfect are you using and does it have support for Unicode? Finally, what happens for example if you open up Notepad and use Pinyinput to type nǐhǎo, and then copy and paste that into WordPerfect. Do the tones display correctly in this situation?