Does Your Word Processor Speak Chinese?

I just (as in a few minutes ago) set up my word processor (Microsoft Word 2007) in my office to write in Chinese. It is so awesome! When I write in pinyin, it automatically translates what I write into characters. I don't know how it decides which characters I meant since it doesn't ask me to input tones but I imagine it decides based on how frequently particular characters are used and used in combination with each other. Anyway, this is a pretty straightforward process in Windows XP (I'll try Vista later on my laptop) and I will briefly explain here how to do it. Also, I don't know how to do this with an Apple but maybe someone else does?

In Windows XP, navigate to the Control Panel (Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel).

Double-Click the Regional and Language Options icon (a globe).


Click on the Languages tab within that and then check the option that reads, Install files for East Asian languages.

I think that it will ask you then (I've already forgotten) which language you want to install. I chose Chinese (PRC) which installed the Chinese (Simplified) Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 language support files. This has worked very nicely so far.




After you have told it what language you want to install files for, you will need to restart your computer (it should prompt you to do so after installation).

After restarting your computer, navigate again to the Languages Tab within Regional and Language Options, click on details and you should see that you now have support for both English and Chinese listed here.

Click on Key Settings to see what keys you will need to press to toggle between languages. Switching from one language to the other is as easy as pressing two keys at the same time, the left alt button and the shift key. (You can change this to any combination of the left Alt or Control key and any other key but left Alt and shift is very easy to press anytime so I left it as is.)

















Now you can open Word, press left Alt + Shift and start typing away in pinyin.

For Example...

I type:
Yinwei wo shi nide hao pengyou suoyi wo bu xihuan Gao xiansheng. Gao xiansheng bu xihuan ni.

The computer translates this on the screen as:
因为我是你的好朋友所以我不喜欢高先生。 高先生不喜欢你。

Hope this is helpful! I am happy to answer any questions you might have in the comments section. :-)