how to use touchpad to enter chinese characters?

Hi Folks,

I am using vista home premium on a laptop with a touchpad. I am trying to
find a way to use the touchpad to enter chinese characters (or any language
in fact) via the handwriting recognition feature described in
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx#EDLAC.

If anyone can tell me how to set this up, I would much appreciate. I have
essentially zero knowledge in all this - in fact I don't even know how to use
the keyboard to enter chinese - so if you can describe from scratch, that
would be great. Thanks a lot.

Synapse
Mon May 12 03:17:32 PDT 2008

"rockhammer" <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4AE95AC8-AD5E-45DD-A5DA-16FF2D9BDA2F@microsoft.com...
> Hi Folks,
>
> I am using vista home premium on a laptop with a touchpad. I am trying to
> find a way to use the touchpad to enter chinese characters (or any
> language
> in fact) via the handwriting recognition feature described in
> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx#EDLAC.
>
> If anyone can tell me how to set this up, I would much appreciate. I have
> essentially zero knowledge in all this - in fact I don't even know how to
> use
> the keyboard to enter chinese - so if you can describe from scratch, that
> would be great. Thanks a lot.


Look here:
http://www.declan-software.com/chinese_ime/

And there is even a YouTube video I found on Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fNeNbmGQrE&feature=related

ss.

rockhammer
Mon May 12 18:48:00 PDT 2008

First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this post.
But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
much appreciate if you could repost.

Since I posted the question, I found out how to use the mouse to write
chinese via the Tablet PC Input Panel from these webpages:

http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/enable-and-use-handwriting-recognition-input-method-in-windows-vista
http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/how-to-install-and-enable-tablet-pc-optional-components-in-windows-vista/

By replicating the mouse movements & clicks on the touchpad, I can also use
the touchpad to write chinese. However, the shortcoming of going this route
is that:

a) the hand movements required to use the mouse to write what you normally
use a pen to write feels very unnatural and will certainly hurt your wrist
after about a dozen or so chinese characters; and
b) the hand movements required to use the touchpad suffers from the same
problem as for the mouse but has the additional problem that, between
strokes, you need to first reposition the mouse pointer to the proper
location first before continuing to the next stroke - you do indeed need to
do the same when using the mouse but that movement is very natural to normal
mouse usage whereas it is very unnatural for touchpad usage (to me anyway)

The effect of issue (b) is that if I were to use the touchpad like you would
use a writing pad peripheral or an actual tablet pc, all your strokes would
become connected with the resultant line looking like tracing a path through
a maze. In order to avoid that, the mouse pointer needs to be repositioned
to the desired location between strokes.

So the last piece of my puzzle is thus this: how can I configure the
touchpad such that when I use it as a Tablet PC Input Panel to enter chinese
(or other handwriting) it will behave like a writing pad peripheral while
behaving like a regular touchpad in other/normal situations?

If anyone has any pointers for that, I would much appreciate it. Thanks.



"rockhammer" wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> I am using vista home premium on a laptop with a touchpad. I am trying to
> find a way to use the touchpad to enter chinese characters (or any language
> in fact) via the handwriting recognition feature described in
> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx#EDLAC.
>
> If anyone can tell me how to set this up, I would much appreciate. I have
> essentially zero knowledge in all this - in fact I don't even know how to use
> the keyboard to enter chinese - so if you can describe from scratch, that
> would be great. Thanks a lot.
>

Nonny
Mon May 12 19:02:47 PDT 2008

On Mon, 12 May 2008 18:48:00 -0700, rockhammer
<rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this post.
>But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
>much appreciate if you could repost.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5jdznq

Marcel_H
Tue May 13 00:09:04 PDT 2008

Hi rockhammer!
I am using Vista Ultimate and Word 2000.
I have installed the IME for Simplified Chinese, and that works well.
However, the Ruby (pinyin) text feature (in Format ->Asian Layout ->Phonetic
guide) doesn't work
The MS Knowledge base has a patch for Traditional Chars, but not Simplified.
It is in support.microsoft.com/kb/939398
Do you (or does anyone) know how to get Ruby to work with Simplified Chars
in Vista? Or how to edit the patch in kb?
Thanks.

"rockhammer" <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A537C2D3-36F9-4CAF-A854-2BBFE7521F43@microsoft.com...
> First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this
> post.
> But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
> much appreciate if you could repost.
>
> Since I posted the question, I found out how to use the mouse to write
> chinese via the Tablet PC Input Panel from these webpages:
>
> http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/enable-and-use-handwriting-recognition-input-method-in-windows-vista/
> http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/how-to-install-and-enable-tablet-pc-optional-components-in-windows-vista/
>
> By replicating the mouse movements & clicks on the touchpad, I can also
> use
> the touchpad to write chinese. However, the shortcoming of going this
> route
> is that:
>
> a) the hand movements required to use the mouse to write what you normally
> use a pen to write feels very unnatural and will certainly hurt your wrist
> after about a dozen or so chinese characters; and
> b) the hand movements required to use the touchpad suffers from the same
> problem as for the mouse but has the additional problem that, between
> strokes, you need to first reposition the mouse pointer to the proper
> location first before continuing to the next stroke - you do indeed need
> to
> do the same when using the mouse but that movement is very natural to
> normal
> mouse usage whereas it is very unnatural for touchpad usage (to me anyway)
>
> The effect of issue (b) is that if I were to use the touchpad like you
> would
> use a writing pad peripheral or an actual tablet pc, all your strokes
> would
> become connected with the resultant line looking like tracing a path
> through
> a maze. In order to avoid that, the mouse pointer needs to be
> repositioned
> to the desired location between strokes.
>
> So the last piece of my puzzle is thus this: how can I configure the
> touchpad such that when I use it as a Tablet PC Input Panel to enter
> chinese
> (or other handwriting) it will behave like a writing pad peripheral while
> behaving like a regular touchpad in other/normal situations?
>
> If anyone has any pointers for that, I would much appreciate it. Thanks.
>
>
>
> "rockhammer" wrote:
>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I am using vista home premium on a laptop with a touchpad. I am trying to
>> find a way to use the touchpad to enter chinese characters (or any
>> language
>> in fact) via the handwriting recognition feature described in
>> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx#EDLAC.
>>
>> If anyone can tell me how to set this up, I would much appreciate. I have
>> essentially zero knowledge in all this - in fact I don't even know how to
>> use
>> the keyboard to enter chinese - so if you can describe from scratch, that
>> would be great. Thanks a lot.
>>

Synapse
Tue May 13 02:22:44 PDT 2008

"rockhammer" <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A537C2D3-36F9-4CAF-A854-2BBFE7521F43@microsoft.com...
> First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this
> post.
> But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
> much appreciate if you could repost.
>
> Since I posted the question, I found out how to use the mouse to write
> chinese via the Tablet PC Input Panel from these webpages:
>
> http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/enable-and-use-handwriting-recognition-input-method-in-windows-vista/
> http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/how-to-install-and-enable-tablet-pc-optional-components-in-windows-vista/
>
> By replicating the mouse movements & clicks on the touchpad, I can also
> use
> the touchpad to write chinese. However, the shortcoming of going this
> route
> is that:
>
> a) the hand movements required to use the mouse to write what you normally
> use a pen to write feels very unnatural and will certainly hurt your wrist
> after about a dozen or so chinese characters; and
> b) the hand movements required to use the touchpad suffers from the same
> problem as for the mouse but has the additional problem that, between
> strokes, you need to first reposition the mouse pointer to the proper
> location first before continuing to the next stroke - you do indeed need
> to
> do the same when using the mouse but that movement is very natural to
> normal
> mouse usage whereas it is very unnatural for touchpad usage (to me anyway)
>
> The effect of issue (b) is that if I were to use the touchpad like you
> would
> use a writing pad peripheral or an actual tablet pc, all your strokes
> would
> become connected with the resultant line looking like tracing a path
> through
> a maze. In order to avoid that, the mouse pointer needs to be
> repositioned
> to the desired location between strokes.
>
> So the last piece of my puzzle is thus this: how can I configure the
> touchpad such that when I use it as a Tablet PC Input Panel to enter
> chinese
> (or other handwriting) it will behave like a writing pad peripheral while
> behaving like a regular touchpad in other/normal situations?
>
> If anyone has any pointers for that, I would much appreciate it. Thanks.


(My original reply seems to have been deleted on the Microsoft server, by
the idiotic censor)

Look here:
http://www.declan-software.com/chinese_ime/

And there is even a YouTube video I found on Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fNeNbmGQrE&feature=related

ss.

rockhammer
Fri May 16 23:32:00 PDT 2008

Sorry, I hadn't had time to look at this in detail until now.

Hi Nonny, thanks for the link to the google discussions.

Hi SS, thanks for the links to the instructions & the youtube video. I got
to the point where I can use the IME pad as demo-ed in the video. But I am
hung up on the following still:

1) the video showed that the IME pad had the option of "Hand Writing (CH)"
by CH I guess is meant Chinese. I did manage to find Hand Writing (KO) for
Korean and Hand Writing (JA) for Japanese, but no (CH). How can I
find/install that?

2) the IME pad essentially gives the user the same input methods as the
Tablet PC Input Panel (as outlined in the www.tipsandtricks.net links).
However my central question remains which is that both the IME pad and the
Tablet PC Input Panel, while they work, are unnatural. By that I mean,
writing with the mouse is difficult when you are used to holding a pen. Using
the touchpad is much more natural but the need to hold the left button down
PLUS having to reposition the cursor between strokes make the touchpad even
more unnatural. The ideal would be that I can use the touchpad: a) without
holding the left mouse button down; b) without having to reposition the
cursor between strokes during the writing of a single character; and c) use
one of the two mouse buttons to signal/move the cursor to start writing the
next character.

I read something that sounded very promising here
http://yedda.com/questions/Writing_touchpad_computers_software_1499138160555/
that pointed me to here http://www.synaptics.com/support/utili.cfm. Alas,
that executible does not seem to want to run in Vista!! The beauty of Vista!!
Sigh.

So if any one of you can move me further towards the ideal as noted above
that would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.


"Nonny" wrote:

> On Mon, 12 May 2008 18:48:00 -0700, rockhammer
> <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this post.
> >But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
> >much appreciate if you could repost.
>
> http://preview.tinyurl.com/5jdznq
>
>

rockhammer
Fri May 16 23:34:00 PDT 2008

Hi Marcel, sorry, I'm afraid I am familiar with what you are doing there and
so I don't have anything to offer.



"Marcel_H" wrote:

> Hi rockhammer!
> I am using Vista Ultimate and Word 2000.
> I have installed the IME for Simplified Chinese, and that works well.
> However, the Ruby (pinyin) text feature (in Format ->Asian Layout ->Phonetic
> guide) doesn't work
> The MS Knowledge base has a patch for Traditional Chars, but not Simplified.
> It is in support.microsoft.com/kb/939398
> Do you (or does anyone) know how to get Ruby to work with Simplified Chars
> in Vista? Or how to edit the patch in kb?
> Thanks.
>
> "rockhammer" <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A537C2D3-36F9-4CAF-A854-2BBFE7521F43@microsoft.com...
> > First of all, I got an email notification that someone replied to this
> > post.
> > But I don't see any replies here so, if someone did in fact reply, I would
> > much appreciate if you could repost.
> >
> > Since I posted the question, I found out how to use the mouse to write
> > chinese via the Tablet PC Input Panel from these webpages:
> >
> > http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/enable-and-use-handwriting-recognition-input-method-in-windows-vista/
> > http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/how-to-install-and-enable-tablet-pc-optional-components-in-windows-vista/
> >
> > By replicating the mouse movements & clicks on the touchpad, I can also
> > use
> > the touchpad to write chinese. However, the shortcoming of going this
> > route
> > is that:
> >
> > a) the hand movements required to use the mouse to write what you normally
> > use a pen to write feels very unnatural and will certainly hurt your wrist
> > after about a dozen or so chinese characters; and
> > b) the hand movements required to use the touchpad suffers from the same
> > problem as for the mouse but has the additional problem that, between
> > strokes, you need to first reposition the mouse pointer to the proper
> > location first before continuing to the next stroke - you do indeed need
> > to
> > do the same when using the mouse but that movement is very natural to
> > normal
> > mouse usage whereas it is very unnatural for touchpad usage (to me anyway)
> >
> > The effect of issue (b) is that if I were to use the touchpad like you
> > would
> > use a writing pad peripheral or an actual tablet pc, all your strokes
> > would
> > become connected with the resultant line looking like tracing a path
> > through
> > a maze. In order to avoid that, the mouse pointer needs to be
> > repositioned
> > to the desired location between strokes.
> >
> > So the last piece of my puzzle is thus this: how can I configure the
> > touchpad such that when I use it as a Tablet PC Input Panel to enter
> > chinese
> > (or other handwriting) it will behave like a writing pad peripheral while
> > behaving like a regular touchpad in other/normal situations?
> >
> > If anyone has any pointers for that, I would much appreciate it. Thanks.
> >
> >
> >
> > "rockhammer" wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Folks,
> >>
> >> I am using vista home premium on a laptop with a touchpad. I am trying to
> >> find a way to use the touchpad to enter chinese characters (or any
> >> language
> >> in fact) via the handwriting recognition feature described in
> >> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx#EDLAC.
> >>
> >> If anyone can tell me how to set this up, I would much appreciate. I have
> >> essentially zero knowledge in all this - in fact I don't even know how to
> >> use
> >> the keyboard to enter chinese - so if you can describe from scratch, that
> >> would be great. Thanks a lot.
> >>
>

Synapse
Sat May 17 06:55:47 PDT 2008

"rockhammer" <rockhammer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D8F01A33-3086-4BF8-97FA-45E3364B8939@microsoft.com...
> Sorry, I hadn't had time to look at this in detail until now.
>
> Hi Nonny, thanks for the link to the google discussions.
>
> Hi SS, thanks for the links to the instructions & the youtube video. I got
> to the point where I can use the IME pad as demo-ed in the video. But I am
> hung up on the following still:
>
> 1) the video showed that the IME pad had the option of "Hand Writing (CH)"
> by CH I guess is meant Chinese. I did manage to find Hand Writing (KO) for
> Korean and Hand Writing (JA) for Japanese, but no (CH). How can I
> find/install that?
>
> 2) the IME pad essentially gives the user the same input methods as the
> Tablet PC Input Panel (as outlined in the www.tipsandtricks.net links).
> However my central question remains which is that both the IME pad and the
> Tablet PC Input Panel, while they work, are unnatural. By that I mean,
> writing with the mouse is difficult when you are used to holding a pen.
> Using
> the touchpad is much more natural but the need to hold the left button
> down
> PLUS having to reposition the cursor between strokes make the touchpad
> even
> more unnatural. The ideal would be that I can use the touchpad: a) without
> holding the left mouse button down; b) without having to reposition the
> cursor between strokes during the writing of a single character; and c)
> use
> one of the two mouse buttons to signal/move the cursor to start writing
> the
> next character.
>
> I read something that sounded very promising here
> http://yedda.com/questions/Writing_touchpad_computers_software_1499138160555/
> that pointed me to here http://www.synaptics.com/support/utili.cfm. Alas,
> that executible does not seem to want to run in Vista!! The beauty of
> Vista!!
> Sigh.
>
> So if any one of you can move me further towards the ideal as noted above
> that would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.


If you would like to use this a lot, I would recommend you get a Wacom
tablet. They have come down in price a lot since I got my Intuos, and now
they have... wait, they do not seem to make the Graphire or the other one
any more. Maybe the new Bamboo will be your thing..
http://www.wacom-europe.com/index2.asp?lang=en&pid=3

ss.