"Five strokes" Chinese character input method

[Ole]

Chinese expert invents "Five Strokes" Chinese character input method

http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn//200406/29/eng20040629_147876.html

Anybody got more information on that ?

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ole.sass@onlinehome.de

interested in contact with native mandarin speaking Chinese

studying or learning the German language .

[Ole]

http://www.wangma.com.cn/gb/wbzx/20020218.htm

Does anybody know, how to obtain this software ?

have fun,

Ole

[imron]

The input method talked about in the first article is different from the input method in the second. The first article is for Wuibihua, and the second is for Wubizixing. Unfortunately they both have the abbreviation Wubi.

If you're looking to learn the best and fastest method of Chinese input, then without doubt this is Wubizixing.

A great explanation in English can be found at:http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~wicentow/index.html.

Wubizixing used to come installed by default with the Chinese version of Windows, but for some reason they left it out of Windows XP. However if you install the Asian Language pack for OfficeXP (regardless of which language version of windows you use) then by doing a custom install you can choose to have the Wubixizing input method installed. If you can't or don't want to do that, then you can also try using IMEGen to generate the required IME files. Check out http://www.sinoptic.ch/internet/wubi/ for more info. The site's in French, but it's not to hard to follow anyway. Alternatively, you could copy the IME files from a Chinese version of Windows98 or something.

For learning Wubi, you might want to look at programs like 五笔快打: http://www.shunsoftware.com

Also, one thing to note is that you should probably learn Wubi'86 and not Wubi'98. Wubi'86 is the original and most widespread version of Wubizixing. Wubi'98 was designed by the same person to improve upon Wubi'86, and contains minor variations in key assignments to improve consistency. However it never really took off.

If you are using Linux, then FCITX http://www.fcitx.org supports Wubizixing, and is really simple and easy to set up.

Using the Wubizixing input method also helps if you are trying to learn Chinese characters, because you have to know how to write the character if you want to type it. This is different from pinyin input methods where you only need to know how to read the character. Therefore, regularly using Wubizixing is a great way to help your written Chinese as it requires you to actively recall the character, rather than passively recall it.

[amperel]

sounds promising. have you used it yourself? how does it compared to pinyin method? if it's the easiest and fastest of all then surely it'd put a dent in the argument for abolishing characters.

[Ole]

Just finished reading http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~wicentow/index.html

Thank you , Imron !

That´s interesting stuff and I am really looking forward taking a glance at

your software tip.

had fun,

Ole

[imron]

Yes I have used it myself, and have been using it almost exclusively for a while now - though I should say that at the moment I don't actually do much typing in Chinese :-) Anyway after a couple of weeks of regular practise (using the program listed above, and one or two others I found for download), it was already faster for me than pinyin input methods - with the exception of needing to type a word I didn't know the character for, then it's pain because you have to look it up in the dictionary or switch input methods, and then switch back.

If you can't already touch type, then it might take you a bit longer to build up speed.

I've also seen Chinese people using this method, and they can type at amazing speeds - faster than I could type an equivalent document in English (I type at about 75 wpm which is not super fast, but it's not exactly slow either). This is what piqued my interest in Wubi in the first place, although when asking about it, I was told that it was far to complicated for a foreigner to learn :-) Such statements are of course utter rubbish.

Many Chinese people will probably also tell you that it's not necessary to learn such an input method and that pinyin input methods are just fine. However if you can touch-type in your native language, then it's the same as hearing someone tell you that you touch-typing is not necessary, and it's fine just to use two fingers. It might be fine for some people, but personally I like to be able to type at high speeds and high accuracy without needing to look at either the keyboard or the screen unless I want to.

For a foreigner, learning Wubi doesn't just have the benefit of speed, it also helps you learn to recognise and break-up characters into their composite shapes. For that alone it's worth learning over pinyin input methods.

Finally, it also has a huge WOW factor. If you've ever seen Chinese people impressed by even the most rudimentary Chinese, wait 'til you see their expressions when you break out the Wubi :-)

[benotnobody]

I know this is kind of off-topic, but you should check out Chinese Pen at http://www.njstar.com It allows you to "write" the characters on screen with your mouse, which is pretty useful. Although I think its fairly buggy at this point, plus the download took a while even over cable.

[Ole]

I favor the Wenlin program, as I think it has the strongest working tools

for learning the Mandarin Language.

But its "Pen stroke "-recognition part is merciless -- !

I am keen on trying out your recommendation.

thanks to Benotnobody,

Ole

[Claw]

I know this is kind of off-topic, but you should check out Chinese Pen at http://www.njstar.com It allows you to "write" the characters on screen with your mouse, which is pretty useful. Although I think its fairly buggy at this point, plus the download took a while even over cable.

The functionality to write with your mouse comes with Windows XP too if you install the "Chinese (Taiwan)" input method editor. After you install it, just choose "Chinese (Taiwan)" in the language bar, click on the Tool menu button, and go to "IME pad." This page talks a bit about it (though the example uses the Japanese version of the IME pad):

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/IME_Paper.mspx

It works pretty well and I haven't found it to be particularly buggy. You can write both traditional and simplified Chinese. I often use it in order to input Cantonese-specific characters that I don't know how to type in pinyin.

[benotnobody]

I often use it in order to input Cantonese-specific characters that I don't know how to type in pinyin.

Does this mean i could write hai instead of 是 etc? (Sorry if the romanisation is weird.)

[Claw]

係！

Though hai5 (係) is a character in standard Chinese too (xi4 in Mandarin, the same xi in guanxi: 關係/关系) so that probably wasn't a good example. I wrote up a post a while back that had a bunch of Cantonese characters... you can see it here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=16803&highlight=#16803

[benotnobody]

Though hai5 (係) is a character in standard Chinese too (xi4 in Mandarin, the same xi in guanxi: 關係/关系) so that probably wasn't a good example.

um, yeah... that was just the first character that sprang to mind, I didn't actually think if there were any mando equivalents. I suppose its cause I don't think I've ver seen it used it as a word on its own.

[HSC]

Imron,

Wubizixing used to come installed by default with the Chinese version of Windows, but for some reason they left it out of Windows XP. However if you install the Asian Language pack for OfficeXP...

Is this a separate software that is available for purchase? I did a quick search for it but came up with nothing. Is it available for Office 2003?

... If you can't or don't want to do that, then you can also try using IMEGen to generate the required IME files. Check out http://www.sinoptic.ch/internet/wubi/ for more info...

I followed this procedure, but at the final stages where the three dialog boxes are supposed to pop up to confirm the bitmap, icon and help files, this stage is skipped and I am not able to find the IME anywhere (I'm using Windows XP SP2, by the way).

Any other suggestions as to what I can try? Thanks.

[atitarev]

The functionality to write with your mouse comes with Windows XP too if you install the "Chinese (Taiwan)" input method editor. After you install it' date=' just choose "Chinese (Taiwan)" in the language bar, click on the Tool menu button, and go to "IME pad." This page talks a bit about it (though the example uses the Japanese version of the IME pad):

[url']http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/IME_Paper.mspx[/url]

It works pretty well and I haven't found it to be particularly buggy. You can write both traditional and simplified Chinese. I often use it in order to input Cantonese-specific characters that I don't know how to type in pinyin.

IMHO, I don't think you can draw simplified Chinese characters with Windows IME - only traditional. Chinese (Taiwan) IME has the IME Pad, Chinese (PRC) IME doesn't have it.

As for Cantonese specific characters - it was meant, you can draw them, rather then type in pinyin and then convert. MS IME doesn't support the full set of Cantonese characters - you need to install a Chinese input utility and other things (too many steps to describe).

[zhwj]

The absolute best Wubi method I've found is one from Shun Software. It has a 30-day trial period, and it's well worth the shareware cost, including the massive full Unicode CJK set if you have the proper font installed. One nice thing is that you can switch to pinyin and it will tell you what the proper code is for the characters when you input them.

A nice lightweight free one, that I use because I haven't taken the trouble to wire the Shun Software shareware fee yet, is 念青五笔 (search for a download). It's simple, small, and doesn't come loaded with all sorts of horrible extras like some programs do. Making up new phrases is easy, too, so you can add Cantonese compounds. And the guy dedicates it to his girlfriend, so what more do you want?

For mouse input, my version of the MS pinyin IME (PRC version) has the panel that accepts both simplified and traditional, visible in this screenshot below (note both 为 and 爲 as options):

[atitarev]

Where did you get this version? Can you give a link. My PRC version doesn't have a pad.

[zhwj]

I got it when I installed Chinese MS Office, but I think it's the same MS Pinyin 2003 available here.

Edit: that's actually only version 3.0. Version 2003 with extra goodies is here.

[atitarev]

zhwj, I have sent a PM about this link.

[atitarev]

I installed the MS Pinyin IME 2003 from the link (thanks to Zhwj's PM). I now have option from it to choose simple/full forms (for full forms I could use Taiwan IME) but there is still no IME Pad to draw simplified characters with a mouse.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=442507c0-10c9-492c-9f6e-bc64d42148d6&displaylang=zh-cn

[HSC]

zhwj,

Thanks for the details on how to acquire Wubi IMEs.

The absolute best Wubi method I've found is one from Shun Software.

I have not tried this one yet, but will do so soon.

A nice lightweight free one, that I use because I haven't taken the trouble to wire the Shun Software shareware fee yet, is 念青五笔 (search for a download).

I found the main web site and it's download page at http://input.foruto.com/nianqing/gb/soft/nqwbx.htm

1. The set up program's dialog boxes are not Unicode encoded so the Chinese characters don't show well under English Windows. This can be corrected by changing the default code page, but just though I'd mention it. I don't like changing the code page because it causes some other problems for me.
   
2. I noticed that the interface for this program is extremely similar to a Cang-Jie IME I installed. Both parties must be using some standard IME SDK. It is a Malaysian software called 仓颉国际, I think. Anyway, I had a question on the interface: please see below.
   
3. How do you uninstall these IMEs? I could not find any uninstall routine. Good thing I use Norton GoBack!
   

When I open my properties for my Cangjie or Wubi IME, I get a section labeled:　编码查询. The first entry under this section is [无], followed by an entry for each "Keyboard" installed for the Text Service in question (minus the Keyboard for whose property dialog I opened). In my case, I have the Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0, Chinese CangJie-5-International, and the Nianqing Wubi. So, under 编码查询 I have three entries: ［无］，微软拼音输入法，念青五笔输入法。The Cangjie one is not listed, because I am in the properties of Cangjie. Can you tell me what this section is for? Looks like I can set up my Cangjie IME to use Wubi mappings and the such. Don't know why I would want to do that though.