Smart Keyboard Forum

Hello!

Could you maybe add a Chinese Pinyin layout? This would not be to write Chinese characters, but to write in Pinyin. For example, not 這是拼音, but Zhè shì Pīnyīn. Currently, this does not seem to be possible, and in any way, it is not quite practical to select the accented letters.

The requirements would be really easy:

Standard 26 letters keyboard, except of an ü instead of an v (so maybe just replace the key v with ü).
Additionally, numbers 1 to 4 for the tones. If you press a number after a syllable, the tone mark will automatically be put on top of the correct letter. The above example would be written like this:
Zhe4 shi4 Pin1yin1.

The tones are shown with the following diacritics: ´, `, ˇ, ¯ (or just the plain vowel for toneless). They can be placed on top of every vowel (a,e,i,o,u,ü). So, there are also syllables like nǚ. Of course, also capital letters need to be supported, for example for words like Àomén (Macau) or if you want to write completely in capital letters (PĪNYĪN).


There are rules where the the diacritics are placed in syllables with more than one vowel (e.g. guāng)

* A and e trump all other vowels and always take the tone mark. There are no Mandarin syllables in Hanyu Pinyin that contain both a and e.
* In the combination ou, o takes the mark.
* In all other cases, the final vowel takes the mark.

(Source: http://www.pinyin.info/rules/where.html)

That is basically all. It would be really nice if you could support this, because right now, there is no way to write Pinyin without having to resort to writing numbers (which is really ugly to look at). I think, the best layout would be to just put the 4 numbers on a 4th row above the other letters, because they need to be accessed with every syllable, so it is really necessary to press them with one key press (and not on the secondary level or so).

You can see a implementation of the number-to-tone method here: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/webime2_pinyin.php

Thanks!

This has been in my TODO list for a long time, I just waited for more requests before starting working on it.
What I had in mind is indeed what you suggest: adding a row on top of the keyboard with the 4 tone symbols. The only difficult part is to put the tone on the correct letter.

I've been looking for a pinyin keyboard too.

In fact I came to this forum to see if there was some kind of sdk for smart keyboard so that I could try my hand at it. Does not look like it.

I'm looking for something a bit different than was requested above. I don't want to mess with numbers, feels very unnatural to me. I just want to be able to type the accents explicitly or have them autocorrected, exactly like I do with French already.

Thanks.

I didn't suggest to use these awful numbers, but to add a row with tone symbols (not numbers) on top of the keyboard for quick access. But tones could be available with long press on each vowel as well.

Hello
you can try the first version of pinyin layout in the latest beta.
I've implemented the extra row at the top, and the algorithm to place the tone mark on the right vowel. There is also a direct access to "accentuated" vowels with a long press, in case someone would prefer that (but I think it's faster to use the dedicated tone keys).
Waiting for your feedbacks

Ok, I would like to download it, but the link seems to be broken. Can you correct it?
Thanks for the work! Showing the accents is actually better than having the numbers, I just didn’t think of it

Edit: I checked it out (if the file name is beta.apk, it works), and it works really great! I only found one small bug:

E.g., if I want to type kàn, but make a little mistake: I write kan, and then, instead of pressing `, I press ˇ, the syllable kǎn will appear. So, after having realized my mistake and I press ˇ, kǎn will appear. But then, if I realize that I don’t want to have the entire syllable anymore and press on backspace, it will go like this: from kàn→kǎn→kan→ka→k, and then it’s deleted. For me, a nicer behaviour would be if I press backscape after I typed kǎn, the n would be deleted, and then ǎ:

kǎn→kǎ→k→nothing. This would also be usual behaviour if you use an ordinary accented key on the computer.

But, apart from this, it works fine (ok, it will not display Ǚ, but this is a font issue of Android, the characters are correct). Thanks!

I just updated and got it. Excellent work and turnaround

So far it works great for me. Thanks!

I just purchased "Smart Keyboard" from Slideme.org. The language I needed is Chinese Pinyin. I think I've followed all instructions fine, and the application was installed fine.

When I'm in an application or a note pad, and trying to type Chinese characters, I can't see any Chinese words showing up. Is there a separate file that I need to download?

Also, The device I'm using is a Android 2.2 Tablet. It does not have Android market access. I'm trying to find "Chinese for Smart Keyboard" and can't find it elsewhese. I've heard it's a free app. Could you tell me where I can download from your website directly?

Thanks
Justin

Dictionaries can be downloaded here.
Note that if you choose Pinyin as language, what you will get is... Pinyin, not Hanzi. Indeed you need "Chinese for Smart Keyboard" to convert Pinyin into Hanzi.

Hi, I'm new to using Chinese on Smart Keyboard.

1. I like to ask a potentially dumb question:
In using Chinese input, I have to turn off T9? I can't figure out how to type the pinyin with the T9 or Compact Keyboard and T9 on.
Think my Nokia was able to have it on. Helped me typed faster with suggestions

2. I installed the Chinese dictionary and found two kinds of Chinese input: ZH and PY.
ZH, I type (without T9 on) and can make out the pinyin and get my words out.
PY, I type the pinyin, but no word suggestions come out?