Baidu has just added a function that allows people to use their mouse to write Chinese characters for searches.
On the Baidu home page, click on “手写” (shǒuxiě/手寫/handwrite).
This will bring up a pop-up box in which you can use your mouse to write Hanzi. This functions in basically the same way as the mouse-writing tool that Nciku added about two years ago.
source: Baidu.com’s Search Box Now Supports Chinese Handwriting Input, China Tech News, June 16, 2010
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Well, it loads much faster for me than Nciku’s version, but I wish it showed pinyin on mouseover — if one of the stated purposes is to make it easier to look up unknown characters, then giving the prounciation up front (instead of requiring a search) seems only logical.
Sorry to double-post, but one semi-interesting thing I’ve just noticed: this seems to recognize more variant forms than Nciku, including second-round simplifications. A box with a vertical line down the middle brings up ?, ? + ? brings up ?, etc.
Nciku and Baidu both use Flash (as does Skritter), MDBG uses Java. It would be nice if someone proposed an online solution for writing Chinese characters that doesn’t require a special plug-in (à la HTML 5 with the canvas element).
By the way, this is a bit off topic, but how do you type Pinyin? I use the US International keyboard on Windows and Linux, which allows me to type fairly easily in French, German and Spanish. I type the diacritic first, so I have no problem with má and mà, but I wish I had an easy way to type m? and m?. I also can’t type l? because it uses two diacritics!
how do you type Pinyin?
Most of the time I use Wenlin, which is one of my favorite programs. Even the free, non-expiring demo version (Windows and Mac) will handle typing Pinyin with tone marks. It’s also very flexible about where you type tone numbers. For l?, type lv3.
See also new tools for writing Pinyin.
For Pinyin, I’ve found Pinyinput is indispensible. It works as an IME, so you can type into any program and don’t have to copy and paste — it’s just like switching to any other script.
Well, it loads much faster for me than Nciku’s version, but I wish it showed pinyin on mouseover — if one of the stated purposes is to make it easier to look up unknown characters, then giving the prounciation up front (instead of requiring a search) seems only logical.
I no longer can find this mouse Chinese handwriting functionality as of 2016/09/07.
Mouse input in Google Translate is cute
My problem is :
I have had my PC windows 10 Pro installed the Baidu Shurufa. I can use my mouse chinese handwriting, there is not Input Pinyin display on the right coluum. May I know how to solve this problem?
Thank you in advance for your help.