Input Window Areas

In the Simplified Chinese Operating System, application subwindows contain two areas that are used to enter Simplified Chinese characters.

In the Simplified Chinese Operating System, application subwindows contain two areas that are used to enter Simplified Chinese characters. A lookup choice window and an auxiliary window are also available in Chinese input mode.

• Preedit area – The text entry area that holds your character formations before you commit them.

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  Note –

  When you commit characters, the characters are put in the text block that is assembled for the application.

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• Status area – The area at the lower left of the application subwindow that displays the current conversion mode and the active keyboard. Later sections in this chapter discuss keyboard switching and using the available conversion modes.

• Lookup choice window – A popup window that displays the conversion candidates that are available for the characters or the radicals in the preedit area.

  

• Auxiliary window – This window contains a palette of icons that provide you the following functions and utilities to simplify text entry and to manage input methods:

  • Input method switching

  • Chinese full-width/half-width character mode switching

  • Chinese/English punctuation mode switching

  • Input method properties setting

  • Input method selection

  • Lookup tables for GB2312, GBK, GB18030-2000, and Unicode character sets

  • Virtual keyboard

  The input method auxiliary windows supports all UTF-8 locales and the following Simplified Chinese locales:

  • zh/zh_CN.EUC

  • zh.GBK/zh_CN.GBK

  • zh.UTF-8/zh_CN.UTF-8

  Two kinds of input methods are supported:

  • Methods based on a code table such as Wubi

  • Methods developed by a vendor, such as NewPinYin or NeiMa.

  The following figure shows the interface model for auxiliary window support.

  Figure 4–1 Interface Model for Auxiliary Window Support