QuickPinyin - Type pinyin with tone marks (portable)

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin v1.07 update released. Please see first post for download link.

Here's what's new:

• Added: Unchecked mode to allow users to manually choose which vowel carries the tone mark.
  
• Added: Spinner control in About dialog to adjust how often QuickPinyin checks for updates.
  
• Removed: Check for updates on very first run as it is pointless.
  
• Change: Faster system tray icon loading when toggling QuickPinyin ON/OFF.
  
• Change: Minor cosmetic changes to GUI.
  
• Misc: General code tidy-up.
  
• Misc: Amended Readme.txt.
  

[linxall]

Dear Manuel

This works a treat. Many thanks.

Kind regards

Jonathan

[Manuel]

对不起 to those of you who have already downloaded v1.07 (about 5 users so far). I've just uploaded the same files with a minor typo amended. This typo is so insignificant that it's not even worth upping the version number (and also considering how few people have downloaded the program so far). Basically, while doing some tests, I typed "v1.07a" and later forgot to change it back to "v1.07". I am only posting this so that next time QuickPinyin reminds you to upgrade to v1.07 it doesn't come as a surprise.

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin v1.08 released to fix two small bugs (the first one was introduced with the previous update):

• Fixed: Enable/Disable QuickPinyin checkbox always checked.
  
• Fixed: Small bug which could cause checking for updates to fail.
  

As always, refer to first post in this thread for download link.

[talbotrg]

I have been studying Mandarin for only a month and just came across QuickPinyin. Installed 1.08 on a Win7 x64 notebook and it performs very well so I uninstalled the other program I was using...no more switching between EN and JP keyboards.

Now I just need to find a program as easy to use for Mac:(

[Manuel]

Good luck with your studies, talbotrg. For Mac you could try this: MacPinyin - Pinyinput for Mac. However, MacPinyin isn't portable because it's a full-blown input method (needs to be installed) and, according to the author's description, it has some limitations such as not being able to type upper-case pinyin.

[skylee]

I am curious - what is upper case Pinyin?

[imron]

ZHÈ JIÙ SHÌ.

Depending on the IME, it might also have trouble with capitalised first letters in words such as Běijīng and so on.

[jerry42]

Manuel --

QuickPinyin is just what I need, it looks great -- BUT I cannot make it work!

I have downloaded v 1.08 many times and have tried every whichway to make it function, but nothing happens.

Alsos there is no Readme.txt -- at least I can't find it.

Please let me know what I am missing or doing wrong.

My desktop OS is Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3, and I have plenty of disc space and memory.

Many thanks, jerry42

[Manuel]

Jerry, thanks for supporting QuickPinyin. I may be wrong but I think you're having trouble opening the .RAR compressed archive, rather than actually running QuickPinyin. I've emailed you detailed instructions on how to open the RAR file, let us know if it works.

[jerry42]

Manuel --

YES!! I should have known about RAR. Good grief! I've been mucking around with computers for 25 years! Anyway, with the RAR file opened, the QuickPinyin.exe and Readme.txt files were right there, and the program works like a charm, just as advertised.

By the way, WinRAR looked to be not exactly free, so I used jZip, which is totally free.

Many thanks for making your programming wizardry available to all.

jerry42

[Manuel]

I am glad it works

[jerry42]

Two questions:

1)I want to delete the line in my yesterday's posting which gives my email address, but I cannot find any way to do it. "Help" says "To edit or delete one of your messages in a conversation, press the " Edit" or " Delete" button underneath the post." But there are no such buttons there or anywhere else. What to do?

2) Manuel -- is there a way to apply QuickPinyin to text already written and saved in, say, a Word document? I've written a number of articles using pinyin with numbers and would like to convert them all to tone marks.

jerry42

[roddy]

Removed the email address for you. There are (or were, years ago) Word Macros which could do that. Not sure what the most efficient way of doing it now is, but might be worth looking at.

[imron]

There are a number of online tools that allow you to do this, e.g. this one. A google search for online pinyin converter will turn up many more.

[Manuel]

Jerry, at the moment QuickPinyin cannot do this although I will consider it for the next release. For the time being your best shot is to follow Imron's advice above.

[Skunq]

Thanks, buddy!

[Manuel]

Does anybody actually use unchecked mode? I am doing a little update and I am thinking of removing this feature in the interest of simplicity. Personally I have never used it myself.

[Manuel]

QuickPinyin v1.09 update released. Please see first post for download link.

New in this update:

• Added: Select language tray menu item.
  
• Added: User configurable IME detection for full compatibility with IMEs.
  
• Added: Restore default settings (including IME window classes) by deleting QuickPinyin.ini.
  
• Changed: QuickPinyin.ini settings file no longer hidden.
  
• Changed: Default check for updates interval is now 14 days (2 weeks).
  
• Changed: About dialog does not automatically check for updates when opened.
  
• Changed: New faster update check URL to prevent long GUI hangs especially in Mainland China.
  
• Removed: Unchecked mode
  
• Misc: Code tidy-up.
  

See included Readme.txt for full details. Unchecked mode has been removed to avoid confusion and keep things simple. I don't think anyone is going to miss it, but if you do, let me know.

[Manuel]

Just a quick note to point out that the Select language user interface option only affects the tray menu labels and tooltips. The About dialog, except for the window title, is still only shown in English.

The only reason I even bothered adding language selection is that a couple of non-English speaking classmates recently suggested it. My Chinese teachers also seem to have welcome the Chinese UI, for cosmetic reasons mainly.