I use a Tablet PC and have Chinese Simplified as well as English handwriting recognition installed. It's built-in if you have XP Service Pack 2 installed, or for earlier versions you can install a seperate "Tablet PC Recogniser Pack". (the SP 2 stuff is much much better though, so I'd recommend that. Run Windows Update to get it if you don't have it already.)
After you have that sorted out, go into Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Languages. Check "Install Files for East Asian Languages" if you don't have that already. When that's sorted out, hit "Details". Hit "Add" and install whatever Chinese variant you want. I'm using PRC which gets me simplified HWR, you could choose Taiwan or Hong Kong if you want Traditional, & it's possible to install more than one. You should check "Advanced Services" and choose "Tablet PC Text Insertion", then hit OK. You can also go back into the Details box and choose other "advanced services", I'm not sure what they do but I think they are for inking applications like Journal and OneNote.
When you want to insert text, you open up the text input panel as usual, drop down the Langauge list (it'll say EN to start with) and select Chinese, then write one character per box. It works pretty well for me :)
If you want any more info, let me know.
Also, I've been looking for something that could help me learn characters better using the pen - if you ever come across something like that, please tell me!
Thanks for the info! I've seen tablet/stylus software packages for the desktop that do a pretty good job of recognizing cursive characters; can WinXP's built-in software handle those decently, or is it usually best to stick with 楷体?
As for learning - Wenlin is my solution to everything, though I'm kind of skeptical of software-as-learning-tool stuff in general. Still, it's got a kickass dictionary built in, and a primitive drawing input feature of its own, so I suppose you could use it to look up an unfamiliar character by drawing it in...
it's not too good at cursive, however i personally can't write cursive chinese so i'm going on third-hand information here :)
i can already use it to look up characters at www.mandarintools.com (or anywhere else) so no real need for the dictionary in wenlin. i was more looking for something that would drill me on the characters - let me know if i got a stroke wrong, show me stroke order, etc... basic stuff :)
books and rote-learning are ooh so tedious. *sigh*
After you have that sorted out, go into Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Languages. Check "Install Files for East Asian Languages" if you don't have that already. When that's sorted out, hit "Details". Hit "Add" and install whatever Chinese variant you want. I'm using PRC which gets me simplified HWR, you could choose Taiwan or Hong Kong if you want Traditional, & it's possible to install more than one. You should check "Advanced Services" and choose "Tablet PC Text Insertion", then hit OK. You can also go back into the Details box and choose other "advanced services", I'm not sure what they do but I think they are for inking applications like Journal and OneNote.
When you want to insert text, you open up the text input panel as usual, drop down the Langauge list (it'll say EN to start with) and select Chinese, then write one character per box. It works pretty well for me :)
If you want any more info, let me know.
Also, I've been looking for something that could help me learn characters better using the pen - if you ever come across something like that, please tell me!
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As for learning - Wenlin is my solution to everything, though I'm kind of skeptical of software-as-learning-tool stuff in general. Still, it's got a kickass dictionary built in, and a primitive drawing input feature of its own, so I suppose you could use it to look up an unfamiliar character by drawing it in...
Reply
i can already use it to look up characters at www.mandarintools.com (or anywhere else) so no real need for the dictionary in wenlin. i was more looking for something that would drill me on the characters - let me know if i got a stroke wrong, show me stroke order, etc... basic stuff :)
books and rote-learning are ooh so tedious. *sigh*
Reply
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