Free Cantonese Pinyin typing software

[Valencia1]

Where can I download free Cantonese Pinyin typing software (by typing the Cantonese pronunciation in English and get the Chinese traditional character)? My husband has downloaded one before but it doesn't work with my Windows XP. Also I have problems with typing French words. I add French to the language tool bar but I just get strange things. My keyboard doesn't have the French character and accents. Thanks in advance.

[martyn]

Hi Valencia,

Not sure about the chinese program. But I understand the problem with your French acutes, accents, circumflexes etc.

What you need to do is install French (France) and use the Keyboard layout "United States - International". (This maintains the QWERTY keyboard layout).

To type the accutes you type the accute first and then the vowel. This is the same for circumflex (SHIFT + 6).. then the vowel.
For the grave type ` (the tilde key or the key next to the 1) and then type the vowel.
For the cedille type ' and then press c to get the ? character.
For the trema type " and then o to get the ? character.

Hope this helps.

[neither3nor4]

http://www.geocities.com/hoarthur//

http://www.cccl.com.hk/input/index.htm

[Valencia1]

Martyn,

Thanks for the instructions but I can't find the US international keyboard from the add language tool bar. Do I have to install it from elsewhere? My keyboard doesn't have the acute accent either.

3 or 4,

Thanks for the links. However, I've tried the hoarthur link but failed to install the file. The message told me I already had one installed in 2001 of 492K, while the present file is 55K. I said yes to replacing it, and installed it according to the instructions, but it didn't work. In fact, I've always had the older version but it didn't work. I'll try the other link tomorrow.

[neither3nor4]

I haven't tried those myself, so I'm not sure about installing. I have used NJ Star Communicator in the past http://www.njstar.com/ . The demo is the nag screen variety - you can keep using it. It has a variety of input methods (including a couple of Cantonese phonetic ones). Quite a good program. Infact I've just decided to get it again - I don't really like using the MS one.

[mike2525]

this is my favorite, uses jyut6ping3 （粵併）, its better than yale once you learn it

http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/kkl_cime.htm

[Valencia1]

Mike,

謝謝你。 這次行了。 I've downloaded and using it. Although the cantonese input method is diff from that I've used before, at least it's free and it works.Thanks very much.

[mike2525]

glad you like it, lskh puts out a great reference book for it.

粵語併音字表
you can find it in most bookstores with the chinese language books, not always with the english-chinese books (its almost all chinese). Its green and maybe 15mm thick.

its has the pronunciation of about 6000 characters in it, and an explanation of the system's few quirks if using it to go from the romanization to spoken. but thats not a problem if you can say 丁，的，粥，中，去，上.

[HK_Newbie100]

Similar to NJStar, here's also www.unionway.com

It gives 60 day free trial but you can keep downloading new trial version once trial expires. I've been using it for years this way.

[katmandu]

hi mike2525,

i downloaded the software and installed to my machine but when i opened the program to input chinese, all i can see are numbers and question marks, no chinese characters. do i have to be running chinese windows for this to work? thanks in advance.