How to Type Chinese Ping Yin in XP

Pinyin, or Ping Yin, is a system which uses Roman characters to transcribe Mandarin Chinese. Because of the specificities of the Chinese language, the Chinese government published the Pinyin system in 1958 to help people type it. While the Pinyin system does use the same Roman characters that Western languages use, it also requires users to input tone marks and accents. You can type in Chinese Pinyin on your Windows XP system.

Instructions

1. Click "Start," and click on "Control Panel." Double-click on "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options" and select "Regional and Language Options."

2. Select the "Languages" tab and activate the check box next to "Install files for East Asian languages." Click on "Apply."

3. Click on the "Details" button under the "Text Services and Input Languages" category. Click on the "Add" button.

4. Select "Chinese (PRC)" from the "Input" drop-down menu at the top of the window. Then click on the "Keyboard layout/IME" check box and select "Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0" from the drop-down menu under it. Click on "OK" to finish adding the Pinyin keyboard layout. You can now type using your Pinyin keyboard layout by selecting it in your language bar. The language bar is in your Windows taskbar, to the left of the tray notification area.

References

• Microsoft: Add Another Keyboard Layout or Input Method Editor (IME)
• Southern Illinois University Carbondale DFLL: Chinese (Simplified) Microsoft Pinyin Input Method Editor (IME) for Windows XP
• University of Redlands Asian Studies Dept.; Installing East Asian Language Support Under Windows XP; Robert Y. Eng

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish