In LA

Sometimes, like when you run out of pages in your notebook and pull out your laptop to take notes in Mandarin class, you just need to enter some pinyin (transliterated Chinese) with accent marks. With additional software, such as Wenlin, or the PC-only NJStar, this is easy. But in a pinch you can also enter pinyin with accent marks on a mac with without installing any additional software.

First, you must activate the U.S. Extended keyboard, then with that keyboard selected in your input menu, you can key in one of 4 accent mark key combinations followed by the letter that gets the mark. The accent mark key combinations for pinyin tones 1 through 4 are (in order):

• option-a
• option-e
• option-b
• option-`

For example, to type “wŏ”, you’d type a w followed by option-b followed by o.

It’s not as easy as those dedicated Chinese applications I mention above, in which you can enter input tone markers by number, but at least it makes it possible to type pinyin in any unicode aware application.

Now I can write wonderful sentences like “wŏ bù xiăng hē dōngxi” until I plotz from happiness.

PS. more info on entering other accent marks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 1:03 am and is filed under Apple, Chinese language, Geeky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.