pinyin input software for schools

[hongputaojiu]

Hi guys

I am school teacher and just retrained/graduated teaching chinese as a foreign language. We are starting a chinese program in my middle school, so my IT department has asked me to choose which pinyin input method I would like.

The standard on our Windows7 is very clunky and I dont like it. I trialled installing Sogou, but I found random popups which were a bit inappropriate randomly appeared :-0

I like sogou input, but I dont know why the random popups occurred!

Does anybody have any suggestions/experience with this? Is there a more suitable/safe install that we could use?

Cheers

hongputaojiu

[roddy]

Google Pinyin every time. And get Pinyinput while you're at it.

[skylee]

I second Google pinyin.

[hongputaojiu]

thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

[eshton]

+1 to Google Pinyin, Windows 7 also has a native pinyin engine that you can try.

[XiongNu]

Why do you guys pick google pinyin over sogou?

[skylee]

Re #6, I had used sogou for a while but IIRC gave it up because of the pop-ups. I just found it very annoying. Reason here -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/24605-advice-on-computer/page__st__40#comment-244303

[gato]

Sogou does have constant pop up ads. I tried to delete the ad generating executable once, but it was self-generated by Sogou again, like a Trojan horse.

[arrow]

Sogou does have constant pop up ads. I tried to delete the ad generating executable once, but it was self-generated by Sogou again, like a Trojan horse.

If thats the case, maybe you can replace it with a dummy exe file(which do nothing on execution) with the same name, or remove it and create a folder at the same place with the same name(ext needed, like 'xxxx.exe'), and set it to read-only, sometimes it'll do the trick.

[skylee]

Or use Google Pinyin.

[Bates]

Google pinyin, in some way, don't have enough vocabularies, including some slang s///yingku英 库 input maybe a good choice, it's a micsoft s product, and the metro is cool//in fact, many Chinese using a improved sougou input without pop-up, it can be found in some Chinese websites, you know, not a official product.//qq 拼音输入法纯净版 qq input ( without ads) is a official edition// all

[XiongNu]

Gah I tried google pinyin, it was awful. It always thought it knew better than I what pinyin I was trying to enter. Always assuming I was making a mistake and giving me a common word with pinyin similar to the one I typed but totally wrong since it's not like I get pinyin wrong very often. Can't use the thing!

[skylee]

Re #11 and #12. I don't think there is a problem with the vocabulary of Google Pinyin. It is intelligent enough for me. And I don't get pinyin wrong very often, either.

[roddy]

Of course it's going to give you the most common option first. Google can't read your mind*. Which input method did better?

*Can it? I haven't been keeping up.

[XiongNu]

You didn't read my post carefully enough and I didn't explain it as super clearly as I could.

I will enter pinyin and google pinyin will give me the characters that in fact do NOT have this pinyin, but pinyin close to it. The characters/word it gives me are generally more common than the one I am trying to enter, this is what I mean by google pinyin thinking it knows better than what I'm actually trying to enter.

For example (one of MANY).

I try to write

guanliao zhuyi de cengceng zunao (bureaucratic obstruction)

And google pinyin gives me this 官僚主义的沉沉阻挠 instead of 官僚主义的层层阻挠

now 沉沉 is not cengceng, it is chenchen, but this is still the first option that google gives me.

I know I am trying to write cengceng （层层） and not chenchen （层层） google pinyin.

This expresses my problem with google pinyin and I encountered it countless times in my trial run of using this software.

Other examples

I try to write 各阵线 （ge zhenxian) and google first presents me with 个争先 （no, not what I asked for, I know the pinyin, trust me please!)

I try to write 我造成 （wo zaocheng) and google first gives me 我早晨............it just goes on and on and on.

Google pinyin tries to predict mistakes I may be making far too much. Sougou trusts me and I get what I want written a lot faster

[roddy]

Is it perhaps the case that you have fuzzy pinyin turned on on Google, and off on Sougou? Menu (the cog icon), 属性设置， 启动模糊拼音 - is that ticked? Untick it. Problem solved.

Assuming that is the case (and I'm pretty sure it is) - fuzzy pinyin is a feature designed for people who don't handle pinyin very well - basically people with strong ch/c and eng / en issues, etc, from various parts of China and who therefore find pinyin input more difficult. If you have it turned on by mistake then yes, it will look like it's making lots of bad choices, but you've actually told it that you're really bad at pinyin and can't be trusted. Sougou probably has a similar option - turn it on and see how good it is then....

[XiongNu]

It felt curiously like it was trying to give me hints for what I might be trying to say if I was a regional speaker with less than great pinyin, thought there might be an option somewhere but didn't think to look for it. Thanks!

[roddy]

Yes, it was much more efficient to post on here, at length, about how rubbish it was.