A friend asked, "how to type in Chinese punctuation characters on Windows XP?"
Here are the few ways I know of doing so:
- The easiest way is to run CharMap.exe. Choose the font named MingLiU. Scroll to and double-click on the Chinese symbol you want. Click the Copy button to send it to the cupboard. Then you can paste it to the window of your desire.
- Download from the Microsoft Taiwan site a free software called "New ChangJie IME 2003". After installing and selecting the new IME, you can enter Chinese punctuations in full font size mode (you can change font size mode with Alt-Shift). Also you should be able to find a Symbol option in the Language bar for the IME. Selecting it brings up a virtual keyboard showing various symbols on its keys.
- In addition to "New ChangJie IME 2003", download also another piece of software called "Microsoft IME Pad 9.0" from the Taiwan site. After installing both software and selecting the New ChangJie IME, you will see a couple options for the input method on the Language bar. One of the new options is to bring up the IME pad. In the IME pad, you can use mouse or other pointing devices to graphically write the character/symbol/etc that you want.
- The friend got back to me with a solution that I didn't know about. With Quick IME, you can type in Chinese punctuations by hitting Z and then another characters. Different combinations give you different set of symbols!
Labels: How-tos