Google Labs (China) announced the Google PinYin Input Method(谷歌 拼音输入法) for all Chinese users. 
Google PinYin Input Method is a free download for Windows users. Although Windows XP and Vista have built-in Chinese input method from Microsoft, Google PinYin Input Method has some unique features:
- Smart sentence building – Google PinYin Input Method builds sentences for you, reduce the time to choose the correct words.
- Popular words – Powered by Google database, Google PinYin Input Method automatically updates the latest buzz words in Internet.
- Sync – You can sync your input habit and personalized words with Google account and apply it on other computer.
- One-click search – It is Google. You can search any word directly from the Google PinYin Input Method toolbar
- English input – Google PinYin Input Method gives English words suggestion when you type english characters. No need to switch input method.
Download Google PinYin Input Method
FAQ
Q: How to switch to English mode? A: Press Shift keyboard shortcut.
My two cents
I do not know other Chinese input other than PinYin. It was a pain to build a sentence word by word, and switching between Chinese input and English input. The smart sentences building and English input are very useful features. Oh, another great tool from Google! :)
More Information:
- "Chinese Primer, Volumes 1-3 (Pinyin): Revised Edition" (Ta-tuan Ch’en, Perry Link, Yih-jian Tai, Hai-tao Tang) listing at Amazon.com
- "Introduction to Standard Chinese Pinyin System (1 Textbook + 1 Workbook + 2 CDs)" (Ed. by Helen H. Shen) listing at Amazon.com
- "English Chinese Pinyin Dictionary" (Qian Suwen) listing at Amazon.com
I am Chinese, and I am wondering if you are learning Chinese.
There is another input method called “Wu Bi” input method.
One can input the char not by the pronunciation, but the Heng Shu Pie Na Dian .
forgive my broken English, I hope what I say can make some sence.
@Darren: 你是说“äºâ€Ã§Â¬â€Ã¨Â¾â€œÃ¥â€¦Â¥Ã¦Â³â€¢Ã¢â‚¬Âå§？那需è¦Âè®°å£诀，我åª会汉è¯Â拼音。
I am not very good in pinyin because I am from Hong Kong. I have been searching for the easiest way to find character by using halfbaked pinyin. I may have found it from Google. Can some one advise me. I have tried Mainland’s sougo, but I could not down load it. The dialogue box keeps saying that my hard disk is damaged. My IT engineer says not every British Computer can take it! I got very fedup!
Now, let’s try the Google download. If Google download is OK, then Google is voted as the the greatest on the market.
good
我下载google pinyin åŽ，没有toolbar出æ¥，所以没法çâ€Â¨Ã¯Â¼Å’有那ä½Â能指教如何在å±Â
幕上看到google pinyind的toolbar。谢谢
I will have a try to google IME :)
I’ve always found it difficult to find a decent input method for traditional Chinese.
In Taiwan the usual is to learn the phonetic symbols kids here learn at school, but anyone else learning Chinese will use pinyin.
Had to mess around because I can’t read the simplified Chinese in the instructions very well. I managed to get it to stick to traditional characters.
Anyways, great tool, I’ve used it with no hassles so far.
我下载google pinyin åŽ，没有toolbar出æ¥，所以没法çâ€Â¨Ã¯Â¼Å’有那ä½Â能指教如何在å±Â
幕上看到google pinyind的toolbar。谢谢
how do i switch btwn english and chinese? i press the shift key and it doesnt work
我下载google pinyin åŽ，没有toolbar出æ¥，所以没法çâ€Â¨Ã¯Â¼Å’有那ä½Â能指教如何在å±Â
幕上看到google pinyindçš„toolbar。谢谢 我們都有一樣的å•Âé¡Œ
it doesnot work, for the same reason billy mentioned
I have downloaded google pinyin.
How do I replace Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0?
Dear Rebacca
Just press Alt -Shift to toggle between English and Chinese pinyin.
I am also encountering problem with no tool bar appearing even after downloading, any kind soul out there that can advise me? Thanks a million
Ctrl + Space
Switch between English input and Chinese input.
it doesn’t work – after downloading and rebooting for several times, nothing seems to happen – don’t know where to get to start to use the tool. It’s frustrating! I see some other folks have the same problem.
tats good…
i like….
u dont know how but i know if dont know please see her ^^ u need press Alt+ Shift and u can see the toolbar ^^ tq tq
IT DOES’NT WORK..
Where is the toolbar??
i cant find it…
SOMEONE !! PLS HELP!
Check control panel->regional and language options->Language tab->Details->language bar->show language bar on desktop
As far as switching between English and Chinese, I used left shit key.
this is kinda good
but then should have 1 more lang.
traditional chinese..
cos im finding
im finding for traditional chinese & sim. chinese
but i cant find
anybdy knw where got these kind of program can dl for both lang?
pls send msg to me
wendykhor123 at hotmail dot com
tq
I am having the same problem with Google Pinyin not appearing when pressing either of the combination of keys. The “google pinyin” keyboard does not appear in the “language settiings” of the control panel either. This is happeining b/c Google Pinyin is installed under a non-admin account under windows. i f I log in with the admin account it works fine. I need to know how to fix this for non-admin accounts in a work environment. Any help is appreciated.
My Google Pinyin choices shown in the selection box are coming out as square boxes what do I need to do to have it display Chinese characters. I have tried changint the IE encoding setting but nothing changed.
Thanks.
Hello
Following on from the advice above, for all of you that have downloaded the software and cannot see the toolbar because the Language Bar is disabled, ensure that you go to the Advanced tab of Text Services and Input Languages and uncheck the System Configuration (Turn off advanced text services).
Hope that helps
如何看è§ÂGoogle汉å—输入法的language bar
How to use Google Pinyi
我刚æ‰Â安装åŽ也看ä¸Âè§Â输入法的language bar，ä¸Â过解决了。方法如下，供å‚考。
其实输入法已ç»Â安装上了，主è¦Â的原因是没有设置快æ·éâ€Â®Ã¤Â»Â¥Ã¥Ë†â€¡Ã¦Â¢language bar出æ¥。
(1) Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options
(2) Language -> Details -> Settings -> Key Settings
(3) Set the hot keys
Done!!!
Thanks Simon,
I found that when you set the hot keys, you really only need to change “Switch between input methods”
I used ctrl+space.. once google pinyin comes up， you can then use “shift” to toggle between english/chinese after that.
i tried the way Kwong said but after setting hot keys, the google pinyin still do not come up. Really wonder why and how to fix it.
Hi Simon and Kwong:
I am trying to follow the sequence, but after Setting, the Key setting on my computer was in the shades that i can not chose it.
Please advice, appreciate, it.
(1) Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options
(2) Language -> Details -> Settings -> Key Settings
(3) Set the hot keys
Also each time I tried to open the program, it always says “A similar or earlier version exists, go you want to continue” then after a few choices, it goes back nothing happens
Hi Steve and Kelli,
Sorry, can’t give much more info except for the fact that I am using Windows XP and it works.
I do have another problem though… can anyone input pinyin into Powerpoint 07? Apparantly it has a bug?
I have the same problem as Krycek, everything displays as little boxes even though I can read chinese fine elsewhere.
I installed the tool but I cannot find it on my explorer window. How to active it? I did try to press CTRL+SHIFT, SHIFT+SPACE, CTRL+SPACE, still cannot find it.
For bringing up the Google Pinyin IME toolbar:
Here’s what worked for me (on Vista, with MS IME as default): change language input (bottom toolbar) from EN to CH. Cursor on the MS/PY log on bottom toolbar then pulls up a menu with the Google Pinyin logo. Click on that and the Google Pinyin toolbar appears.
I have a French version of vista.
Google Pinyin does not work.
How can I correct this to use Google Pinyin on a French version
I am using the Windows Vista Home Basic software on my computer.I tried going to the Regional and Language Options but I cannot find the Language tab.Even if the input comes out,(it only come out for twice and only for a moment)the first time was okay.But the second time,when I select the CH,alot of different button comes out from there and it disappear.Now,I can’t even find the input.
is there a way or a software where i can learn how to do the pinyin or a software that does traditional chinese?? *please help* *sob* ^^
Is there any way to set Google Pinyin to traditional chinese? Or does that depends on where I downloaded it from? Please advice anyone, Thank You!!
Nevermind, I figured it out. you have to press property in the tools bar and there is a option for traditional characters. or you can use the short cut of clt+shift+t.
Nice Information, i have been looking for Pinyin to translate english to chinese.. Thumbs Upz dude
A short summary, by default on WindowsXP, for the hotkeys
Alt + Shift –> toggle between English and Chinese pinyin
Ctrl + Space –> Switch between English input and Chinese input
clt + shift + t –> Switch between Simple and Trandition Chinese input
å¯以打ç¹Â体å—？？
@shin’s: yes, you can set google pinyin to input traditional chinese
ä½ å¯以打ç¹Âé«â€Ã¥Â—的＠你打： Alt-shift-t 啦ï¼Â
how.to.download????
@King: download from http://tools.google.com/pinyin/
When will Google include Chinese character to pinyin translate option on its language tools web page?
A good tool. You can use it in MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.
Need to have a table for Chinese word in Pinyin (for example, the word 输 is shu, 入 is ru, etc
I can`t use the google pin yin in anyplace…
when i click in the file.. the pin yin gone… can`t type chinese word..
how secured this? pls help pls
wrg wrg… i can use in folder … but can`t use inside game… website… n msn…
yes,thanks but i can’t find any way to dowload the chinese typing microsoft word?
Google Chinese PinYin can be used on other software like Microsoft Word.
你好, I have the same issue reported earlier, with the square blocks showing up instead of the chinese characters when I try to input chinese.
If I select any of the boxes then the corresponding chinese character gets inserted in my doc/msn/explorer window (this is how I typed ni hao in this comment), but this “blind” selection is not very practical…
Any solutions to this problem? I am running on Windows 2003 SP2. On my XP laptop it works without problems.
Thanks in advance!
OK fixed it! Go to Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Languages tab and check “Install files for East Asian Languages”. It will prompt you for the installation CD and then all will be OK.
Or almost OK, I had to uninstall Google PinYin IME, reapply SP2, then install Google PinYin IME again and then it worked :-D
So if you have this problem I would suggest you uninstall the IME first, then add support for the East Asian Languages, reapply the latest service pack and then install Google PinYin IME again.
Have fun!
@Dimitris: thanks for the tips :)
i want cancel google ime, bcoz i already download goole pinyin staller,but i want open goole pinyin, there say i have goole ime exists in system, can not use, have a everyboby can help me
chinese pinyin