Chinese Keyboard and Input Methods

In Traditional Chinese dictionaries, the phonetic symbols are used to indicate the pronunciation of the Chinese characters but are not used as the indexes to search a Chinese character. The numbers of stroke, or radical (a part or a component of a Chinese character) are used as the index to search a Chinese character.

In Simplified Chinese, the Alphabet is used to indicate the pronunciation of the Chinese character. The Xinhua Chinese dictionary uses the Alphabet as the index to search a Chinese character.

Based on the above situation, there are numbers of Chinese input methods provided in the current Chinese information processing industry. In IBM Chinese system software products, the following Chinese input methods are supported:

• Tsangjye Input Method (T-Chinese)

• Phonetic Input Method (T-Chinese)

• Radical Input Method (S-Chinese)

• Ping-in Input Method (S-Chinese)

Note: The Chinese input methods other than these input methods, are not covered in this document.