QuickPinyin - Type pinyin with tone marks (portable)

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin

QuickPinyin is a small app for typing pinyin with tone marks. It works in any Windows program and with any keyboard layout. I originally created QuickPinyin for my private use because I didn't like the way other pinyin typing apps worked. My classmates at the time liked it and I thought other students might find it useful too, so I decided to share it here

 

          

 

Why use QuickPinyin?

• Portable: QuickPinyin is a portable app. This means you can run it on any computer directly from a USB stick without installing anything at all. Other pinyin typing programs must be installed first to work.
• Faster: QuickPinyin adds tone marks as soon as you type the tone number—no need to press Space or Enter like other pinyin typing programs require.
• Compatible: QuickPinyin runs alongside normal input methods without getting in the way—no need to constantly switch input languages.
• Mixed-case: Any combination of mixed-case pinyin is supported, for example: GuAn1 becomes GuĀn, etc.
• Erhua: Full erhua support, for example: dianr3 becomes diǎnr (mixed-case erhua is also supported).
• 32 and 64-bit: QuickPinyin runs happily on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
• Zero-bloat policy: I hate bloatware and malware as much as anyone. QuickPinyin contains no hidden, annoying or malicious garbage.
• Open source: The source code made available for anyone to audit and modify.

 

I provide QuickPinyin free of charge for anyone to use, share and modify—go mad! I am always happy to improve my creations so feel free to post your suggestions here, and maybe a short thank you message if you like QuickPinyin... or buy me a beer some day ?

 

Usage instructions:

This is the easy part... Just run QuickPinyin and then type each pinyin syllable followed by a tone number, for example type hao3. As soon as you finish typing the tone number, QuickPinyin will immediately convert hao3 to hǎo and, yes, it will place the tone mark on the correct vowel so you will get hǎo (correct) and not haǒ (wrong). You can toggle QuickPinyin by double-clicking its system tray icon or via a user-defined keyboard shortcut that you can set in the preferences. For detailed usage instructions, please refer to included Readme.txt document. Enjoy!

 

Portable version:

 

If you prefer portable apps (I do), get the "portable version" below. This version is identical to the "installer version", but doesn't need installation. Instead, you simply copy-paste the QuickPinyin files to a folder and run from there. You can also make a portable version from the installed version simply by copying out the entire QuickPinyin folder to a location of your choosing (such as a USB stick, etc).

 

Downloads:

 

Current software version: QuickPinyin v1.15

Release date: 6 September 2014

System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 either 32-bit or 64-bit

 

Installer version (main download)

Download

Alternative download*

 

Portable version (optional)

Download

Alternative download*

 

Source code (requires Autohotkey to run as script)

Download

Alternative download*

 

*Alternative downloads give you the exact same files but don't require forum membership.

[skylee]

How is it different from the online type pinyin facilities provided by, say mdbg.net?

One that I can think of is that if you use mdbg, you have to copy and paste the output to your document. Another is that mdbg requires internet connection. What else?

[Manuel]

Actually, I wasn't aware of MDBG's pinyin input tool but it's functionally the same. QuickPinyin, like MDBG, also works with mixed-case pinyin. So, yes, the only differences would be that with QuickPinyin you don't need to copy-paste the output and that it works off-line, which in my opinion is a significant advantage no web-based tool is able to provide.

[tooironic]

Would love to see something like this on Mac OS X.

[Manuel]

Autohotkey is only available for Windows, hence no Mac support. Autohotkey is one of the reasons why I use Windows.

[Manuel]

I notice QuickPinyin has been downloaded a few times since I made it available, I wonder if anyone is using it regularly, and if so I'd like to hear about any problems encountered or things that could be improved. Cheers,

Manuel

[scoopneals]

very helpful, thank you!

[Manuel]

Has anybody tested QuickPinyin on a 64-bit computer? I wonder whether it works...

[LanLiBei]

thanks for this... no more writing tone marks on after printing, or switiching to the french keyboard. no 64bit pcs in the house but will steal the boyfriend's next time i'm down to try it on his

[Manuel]

You are very welcome! Remember if there's anything that does not work correctly let me know and I'll be more than happy to fix it.

M.

[danny1997]

I am runing a 64-bit pc and just clicked QuickPinyin.exe. It is working like a charm. Microsoft should consider to include it in Windows system.

Thanks for sharing, Manuel.

[oioioi]

Love QickPinyin (using in on XP) but I still haven't figured out how to type a simple ü without tone mark. Is this possible? If not, can it be added? Otherwise this is a great little application. The best one out there in my humble opinion. Cheers, Oioioi

[Manuel]

Hi Oioioi, thanks for bringing this up. You are absolutely right. I just realised that QuickPinyin does not correctly translate lue and nue, or lve and nve. Interestingly, I never noticed and that's probably because, according to my dictonary, there are only 4 characters whose pinyin is lve and just 2 whose pinyin is nve! In addition, I have never come across any instances of lv or nv in the light tone, but it doesn't mean that they are not possible in spoken Chinese and so I think QuickPinyin should indeed be able to type "ü".

Regarding nve and lve, I find it rather strange and a little irritating that in pinyin we are supposed to write juē and NOT jüē, but we cannot write nuē and instead must write nüē. This is one of those WTF moments for me. I am sure there are some phonetic reasons behind this nonesense, but if I see nuē I know exactly how to pronounce it, and personally I prefer to type nuē over nüē because the umlaut is distracting. The next version of QuickPinyin will enable users to type both nuē and nüē (with and without umlaut) depending on whether the user typed a "u" or a "v", to suit everybody's taste.

Anyway, here is my proposed solution, which will be available in QuickPinyin v1.05 probably tomorrow:

1. The following already works in QuickPinyin v1.04:

• lu1 = lū, nu1 = nū, etc
  
• lv1 = lǖ, nv1 = nǖ, etc
  

2. The following will definitely be added to QuickPinyin v 1.05:

• lve1 = lüē,nve1 = nüē, etc
  
• lue1 = luē, nue1 = nuē, etc (Note that these syllables don't actually exist in official pinyin, more on this below)
  

3. The following functionaly pertains to the light tone for ü and it will be implemented in QuickPinyin v 1.05 according to your suggestions:

• vvv (three consecutive Vs) = ü
  

I don't think it would be practical to automatically convert all instances of lv to lü and nv to nü because QuickPinyin would get in the way when typing words such as alveolar or envelope.

Another solution would be to type nv5, nve5, etc, for these "special cases", but this would not be consistent with the way QuickPinyin works with the other "normal" syllables, because to type a light tone you simply type the pinyin without the numbers, and QuickPinyin does not modify the text at all. In other words, QuickPinyin only kicks in when you type a number after the pinyin. In my opinion "special cases" should be avoided because they force the user to stop and think, and to learn counterintuitive habits. By contrast, typing "vvv = ü" solution keeps things consistent.

Other features for QuickPinyin v1.05:

I also want to add the ability to toggle QuickPinyin from the keyboard, for example by pressing RAlt-Space or whatever. This will enable users to toggle QuickPinyin without having to reach for the mouse. Again, your thoughts will be appreciated.

Finally, I would also like to know if the beep-beep sounds work on everybody's system, and if you think they are annoying, pointless or useless. That's all for now.

[imron]

Regarding nve and lve, I find it rather strange and a little irritating that in pinyin we are supposed to write juē and NOT jüē, but we cannot write nuē and instead must write nüē. This is one of those WTF moments for me. I am sure there are some phonetic reasons behind this nonesense

It's definitely not one of Pinyin's greatest moments, but the logic behind it is that any -u or -ue following the initials j, q or x is unambiguously -ü or -üe. Although this is also true for -ue with the l and n initials, the same is not true for 'u', and I guess they decided it would be more consistent to have nüe matching the spelling of nü (and lüe with lü) rather than nu and lu.

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin v1.05 is out now! This release includes the features and fixes I outlined in my last post and a few small improvements. Please refer to the attached Readme.txt file for full details. The previous v1.04 release is still available for download just in case. Have fun and please report any bugs.

M.

[Manuel]

I've just spotted a small yet very embarrassing bug which results in un4 being converted to ù instead of ùn. This will be fixed in the next release, soon. My apologies to any existing users.

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin v1.06b released! Once I am sure it's bug-free I'll rename this to v1.06, but for now it will stay as a beta release.

So what's new then?

• Added: Full erhua support (nir, nar, mer, etc).
  
• Added: Option to automatically check for Quickpīnyīn updates.
  
• Fixed: un4 converted to ù, should be ùn
  
• Fixed: Red-yellow system tray icon not the same as 16x16 Explorer icon.
  
• Change: Dynamic system tray menu labels replaced with checkmarks and fixed labels.
  
• Change: Complete overhaul of About dialogue box.
  
• Misc: Amended quite a few typos in Readme.txt
  

[Manuel]

Just uploaded QuickPinyin v1.06b2. The following changes are now in place:

• Added: Compatibility with all Microsoft Chinese input methods. The compatibility feature automatically bypasses QuickPinyin if another input method is currently active. This had already been implemented in QuickPinyin v1.03 but only for compatibility wth Sogou and Google Pinyin. Thanks to this feature, QuickPinyin can run alongside other input methods without the need to constantly toggle QuickPinyin on/off.
  
• Added: Quiet updates. No update available = no pop-up.
  
• Misc: Improved and simplified updater code.
  
• Misc: General code tidy-up.
  
• Misc: Readme.txt tidy-up.
  

[therearenights]

Hi, Manuel!

Just dropped in to thank you for QuickPinyin, it's seriously helpful and saves a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time I've been using it for a couple of months and on various systems and never have had any trouble.

So, thanks again!

A.

[Manuel]

Cool!