Reading Chinese

More modern web browsers for Windows, XP and Mac OS X automatically detect character encoding by themselves and do not require any other changes to browser settings.

When auto detection does not work correctly:

a. Internet Explorer 5.5 and newer
  1. From the browser menu, click View | Encoding | More, then choose either "Unicode (UTF-8)", or "Chinese Simplified (GB2312)", or "Chinese Traditional (Big5)", depending on the content you are reading.
  2. If your computer does not already have this font installed, Internet Explorer will automatically download it from Microsoft.
  3. If the browser does not display a page in English correctly, from the browser menu select View | Encoding | More | Western European.
b. Netscape 4.7 and newer
  1. Download CyberCJK.ZIP and unzip the file to the Windows; Fonts directory.
  2. From the browser, click Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Fonts | Encoding | Unicode.
  3. For both “Variable Width Font” and “Fixed Width Font”, select “Arial Unicode MS” and click OK.
  4. Again from the browser menu select View | Character Set | Unicode (UTF-8).
  5. If the browser does not display a page in English correctly, from the browser menu select View | Character Set | Western European.
c. Macintosh OS 9 (all browsers)
  1. Insert a Mac OS 9 install CD into the drive.
  2. Open Software installers; the select “Language Kits”
  3. Double click on the “install language kits” file.
  4. Choose the “Traditional” and “Simplified” Chinese language kits.
  5. After installation is complete, restart the computer.

Chinese Characters Input

I. Windows XP or Windows 2000

a. Installing East Asian Language support
  1. From the Start menu, select the control panel.
  2. Double Click the “Regional and Language Options” icon.
  3. On the Languages tab, check the box for “Install Files for East Asian Languages”, and click “OK”. If the box is already checked, skip to step b.3. below.
You will be asked to insert your Windows XP installation CD. Restarting your computer if prompted.
b. Selecting Languages
  1. From the Start menu, select the control panel.
  2. Double Click the “Regional and Language Options” icon.
  3. On the Languages tab, select Details | Add.
  4. Select Chinese (PRC) if you prefer simplified Chinese, or Chinese (Taiwan) for traditional Chinese.

    5. To use Pinyin to input Chinese characters:

  5. Under Chinese (PRC), select Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0. or
    Under Chinese (Taiwan), select Microsoft New Phonetic IME 2002a” and then select Properties | Keyboard Mapping | Hanyu Pinyin.
  6. Click on “OK” to save the changes.
c. Usage
  1. Open a text program such as Microsoft Word or your email editor.
  2. Find the language bar, usually at the bottom of the screen. It defaults to "EN", for English. Select "CH" for Chinese.
  3. You can now type in Pinyin. Try to complete a partial sentence, up to a comma or full stop, before going back and fixing any problems by choosing alternative characters. For next batch of choices, press the "=" key. For the previous, use the "-" key.

II. Pre-Windows 2000

To input Chinese characters, we recommend Global IME, a free download from Microsoft. For Office versions later than XP, such as Office 2002, Office 2003, use the version for Office XP. Follow the online instructions for installation and usage.

III. Macintosh OSX

Use the built-in character input system. View Help for setup and usage directions.

Online Information Sources Unicode fonts http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/