How to use hanyu pinyin to input Chinese in Windows XP/2000 ?

To be able to input any foreign languages, you need to install the language first. To learn the details of how to install the foreign language in Windows XP/200, see our article "How to Install Foreign Language in Microsoft Windows XP/2000?".In this article, we walk you through how to use hanyu pinyin to input Chinese characters in Windows XP/2000 using Input Method Editor (IME). IME is a utility in Windows XP/2000 that interprets input from a standard keyboard and changes it to characters in a foreign language. For Simplified Chinese, there are several different IME's which use different schemes to map keys on the keyboard to actual Chinese characters.

Click on Start
Go to Settings
Click on Control Panel
Double click Regional Options
Click on the Languages tab
Click on the Details-button
Click the Add button. Under "Input language", chose "Chinese (PRC)". "Keyboard layout/IME" should show "Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin". Click OK to close out the Control Panel dialogue boxes.

How to use hanyu pinyin to input Chinese in Windows XP/2000

This brings up the Add Input Language dialog box. From the drop down menu in the Input Language field, select Simplified Chinese (PRC). From the drop-down menu in the Keyboard Layout / IME field, select the simplified Chinese IME which you feel most comfortable using. Additional IME's can be added by repeating this step, and later on you can switch between these IME's using the Language Bar.

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At this point, whenever you need to enter data using a different language, you can set the language, and also the IME(s) for that language through the Language Bar.

Using the Language Bar to Change the Active Language and IMEs

The Language Bar is the main Window XP/2000 utility for switching between input languages and also IMEs for each input language. The Language Bar can either be docked:

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or floating:

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In the language bar, the first icon represents the active language (Simplified Chinese) in this case, and the second icon represents the active IME (Quanpin in this case). To switch from floating to docked mode, click on the button. To switch from docked to floating, click on the Active Language button and select Show the Language Bar from the resulting menu: