Typing Chinese

Hey guys, do you know any good and easy to use program for typing Chinese?
I currently type my Chinese through the Chinese keyboard input for Windows 7. Its alright but I feel it's a little slow that I have to type the pinyin (phonetic sound), a small window under my cursor shows a list of the characters. Then I either click or press the number corresponding to the list to get the character I want.

Is there any easier way?
Thanks

 

If you have a tablet PC, I believe there is a way to enable character recognition if you're better at that.

Personally though, my Pinyin is far better than my Chinese handwriting capabilities, so it's really quick for me. Have you tried the various input keyboards available in W7 (ie: MS Pinyin New Experience, QuanPin, etc)? Some work better than others, just find the one you're most comfortable with.

Or, if you type Traditional Chinese, I think there may be a Zhuyin-typing method... not certain, since I use Simplified.

 

Ah I'm using Chinese Simplified (PRC) input. I'll look into the others, thanks.

 

For Chinese input, Google Chinese input probably is the best one, it also has the update function to update new Chinese word.

????????? - Google

For handwriting, Xiao Yao Bi [逍遥笔] is not a bad choice.

http://www.onlinedown.net/SOFT/47068.htm

Personally I think typing Pinyin is must far faster than handwriting, handwriting is only useful when you encounter a word that you don't know.

 

One word. Sogou

They have like 70% of the Chinese input market in China. The best out there in my opinion, way more efficient than Microsoft's Chinese input method editor.

 

I personally use QQ Pinyin along with QQ messenger, both from Tencent.

Before I started using QQ frequently, I'm very fond of Ziguang.

Below is my personal preference when using Chinese input software:

After you installed one of the software, go to Control Panel > Language > Change Keyboards or other input methods > Change keyboards, then you should see a dropdown menu titled "default input language", from there choose the software you just installed, so that when you start up your computer the software will load automatically and you can use it right away.

Under the "Installed services" window, I've also deleted the English keyboard and added only the Chinese keyboard with only the input software selected. So no MS chinese input or any other input devices are showing. But then again, I've also disabled my language bar from showing.

Sometimes after you install the software, a wizard would load automatically, or you can go to the config menu and change settings manually. I usually change the setting to load on English Input by default, and switch to Pinyin with the ctrl key. So whenever I need to type, I'll be sure to type in English unless I use the ctrl key.

These two software are pretty easy to use, and both offer a variety of skin to choose from to unify your appearance (if you are into this sort of thing), and both require minimal setup.

 

I really only use the PRC input, not much you can do otherwise. Everything is similar speeds. You can try QQ pinyin like bllavc stated above, whatever works best for you.