Can you use an English version of Windows to write Chinese text? The answer is yes you can. By using the Windows Input Method Editor (IME), one can easily type Chinese characters into any field that accepts textual input. Windows IME's have been around for many years; however, in the days of windows 98, they had to be downloaded separately from Microsoft. Windows XP and Vista usually come bundled with the IME's but they need to installed and configured in order to use them.

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Access the Windows Control Panel by using the START button at the bottom left hand side of the Desktop. Once inside, click on Change keyboards or other input methods in the Clock, Language, and Region section.

In this section, simply click on the Change Keyboards button.

Changing the Default input language will switch your input language to something other than English. Leave this at the default setting. Click on Add... to install a new IME.

Here is where you can select which input languages to install. You may choose more than one. In this case, we will install Traditional Chinese for Taiwan. If you wish to use BoPoMoFo (注音符號) you should select New Phonetic.

Once you are back at the Text Services and Input Languages screen, highlight Chinese (Traditional) - New Phonetic and click on Propeties...

Choose your preferred keyboard layout allows you to select which method you will use for entering Chinese.

• Standard - BoPoMoFo or Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號)
• Hanyu Pinyin - Globally recognized Chinese romanization system
• Taiwan Pinyin - Tongyong Pinyin for Taiwan

The IME installation is complete. Now you should see a language bar at the bottom right side of your desktop. EN should be displayed. You can use CTRL-Space to toggle between languages. CH will be displayed when Chinese input is available.

If you right-click the Tool Menu icon on the Chinese language bar, you will see a list of options that you can play around with. A really cool feature is the IME Pad.

The IME Pad allows you to use the mouse or mouse pad to write out a character. This is really helpfu for those characters that you don't know. Simply draw out the character (knowing stroke order is useful) and with each stroke, the list of possible characters changes. If you hover over a character on the list, it will even give you the pronunciation using BoPoMo.

• Microsoft IME Information - There is a link to download IME's for Windows XP just in case they are missing or corrupt.
• Chinese-Tools.com - This website has a cool tool to allow you to write Pinyin with tone marks.