Do you have a Chinese-speaking relative who wants to write email in Chinese but doesn’t know pinyin?
Give them the gift of computer accessibility with Jade Gazebo Keyboard Stickers.
I’ve had so many reports of problems on Windows XP that I’m temporarily dropping support for that platform. I’ve tried to fix what I can, but I’m greatly hindered by the fact that I don’t have a Windows XP development machine, and I can’t even buy one because Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP in 2008.
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Characters are usually typed from top-to-bottom, using as few keypresses as possible. For example, 犬 is e k . 羊 is o q d d . 牛 is J d .
Sometimes characters have parts that are typed left-to-right. For example, 北 is y w s . 卅 is d d d.
If a character [...]
If you want to practice using Jade Gazebo, I’ve prepared a short passage of text you can use. It has the radicals for each character printed underneath the character. It contains some of the trickier characters you might have to master.
I recommend looking at this only if you’ve had a chance to play with [...]
中國是個美好的國家。
Pinyin: zhong guo shi ge mei hao de guo jia. (36 keypresses)
Jade Gazebo: H Enter p v Enter b Tab Enter u p Tab Enter o q j k Enter K t Enter r b Tab Enter p v Enter e p Tab . (31 keypresses) 祝你生日快樂。
Pinyin: zhu ni [...]
I recently learnt about something called Character Amnesia. Apparently Chinese youth are so used to communicating using pinyin input methods, that they have trouble recalling the shape of characters when writing by hand.
I assume that using a shape-based input method like Jade Gazebo would prevent that problem.
Jade Gazebo can be used by anyone who knows written Chinese, regardless of their native dialect.
It is often assumed that practically every Chinese resident knows Mandarin. But that’s not true. Tests show that only 53% of China’s population can communicate in Mandarin.
Jade Gazebo allows you to type “blind” (without looking at the screen), with less training than Cangjie or Wubi. This is useful for professional typists.
Jade Gazebo: Simple enough for beginners; perfect for professionals.
Jade Gazebo can be grasped instantly without study or classes.
Other methods (like Cangjie, Wubi, or Four Corner) require the user to memorize shapes and rules. Jade Gazebo uses graphical feedback to assist the user instead.
Jade Gazebo requires fewer keypresses than pinyin, and you never need to select your desired character from a long list of candidates.
Ninety-eight percent (98%) of the time, there is no list of candidates at all. (And when there is a list, it only has two or three items.)
Pressing CapsLock switches to English mode, and pressing CapsLock again switches back to Chinese mode. Use English mode for typing letters or numbers.
In English mode, punctuation keys generate Western-style punctuation. In Chinese mode, they generate Chinese-style punctuation. You can use AltGr (the right Alt key) to access additional punctuation symbols, like the ¥ currency [...]
The Tab and Enter keys are completely optional. You don’t need to use them, but they can make Jade Gazebo very fast.
Jade Gazebo will anticipate what you might be typing, and display it as a candidate labelled “Tab”. Pressing the Tab key will select that candidate. If a candidate has a dot next to [...]
If you don’t have our keyboard stickers on your keyboard, tap the Ctrl key to see the on-screen keyboard.
Then type the radicals that correspond to character you want to type.
For example, if you want to type 一, press the q key. For 二, press the y key.
For 三, you could type y q or [...]
Jade Gazebo can be used with almost any Windows application.
After opening your favourite word processor, you can activate Jade Gazebo using the Language Bar. The Language Bar is part of Microsoft Windows. If the Language Bar is minimized, it will appear as an icon on the Taskbar.
Jade Gazebo version 2.0 is now available for download. This release adds support for Simplified Chinese. Download it!
A comparison of Jade Gazebo against other leading input methods, in table form.
