How To Type Chinese Characters From Your Computer Keyboard

One of the first few "challenges" we faced with a child studying in Chinese school is how to type in Chinese using our desktop computer. This started as soon as our kid was required to do a project or search for something on the internet.... in Chinese. We didn't know how to type in Chinese. It took me hours to figure out how to input Chinese characters using our keyboard.

In actual fact, it is quite easy to input Chinese characters or type in Chinese using your computer keyboard. All you have to do is add the Chinese keyboard. The steps are similar for whatever system or desktop computer or software you are running on your PC. I have shown it in the diagram above. Some of the tabs may be named a little differently then shown above but the steps for adding a keyboard in another language is similar to the above. If you wish to know in more detail, you can go here for the step by step guide on how to change your computer's input language.

Once you have installed your Chinese character keyboard (remember to choose simplified Chinese rather than traditional Chinese), you may need to learn how to toggle between your English and Chinese keyboards.