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CKCIS Summary

When we talk about Chinese input method in the subject of "Chinese Computing", you will immediately relate this to the "Chang Jie(仓颉)", "Pinyin(拼音)", "Quick(简易)" etc. input methods. Then, you might also have experienced the hardship when you start to learn using the keyboard and memorize keystroke combinations and complicated input rules. You may have an impression that most of the Chinese input methods are difficult to learn or use through keyboard inputting methods. Some may even prefer to use pen input method. In fact, each Chinese input method is designed for different targeted users. For example, pen input method is easy to learn but relatively slow in input speed, it is good for general users; whereas "Chang Jie" is difficult to learn but the input speed is fast for experienced users. Therefore, it is good for frequent users. And the CKC Chinese Input System(纵横汉字输入法) is designed to provide the best of both the learning curve and input speed.

CKC Chinese Input System(纵横汉字输入法) is developed by 苏州大学纵横汉字信息技术研究所 and 丰利科技有限公司. The software can run on Microsoft Chinese Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 environment.

The software plugs well into the XP environment and supports the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS -2004). After successful installation, an option of 纵横输入法2002简易版 will be added to the available input methods under "CH Chinese (Taiwan)" .

When users have selected the 纵横输入法2002简易版 as the current input method, the system will display an input method task bar, this input method is a keyboard input one. Actually, it only uses a maximum of 4 digits ("0" - "9") to represent a character. Strokes(笔形) of all Chinese characters are classified into 10 groups, each represented by a digit.

Users have to use the numeric pad to key in the code and complete the input with a space. If more than one character can be represented by the same "CKC" code, the system will show all the characters for selection. Users can use numeric pad "0"-"9" for selection, or use "PageUp" / "PageDown" to turn to the other pages.

One of the strengths of CKC Chinese Input System is that it caters for the input of phrases to increase input speed. The system has predefined more than 250,000 common Chinese phrases, such as "香港特别行政区".

By using phrase input technique, you may see that user just key in 063060 to input "香港特别行政区" phrase, instead of typing 06 3417 0450 6200 0120 1814 7171 with selections and a number of strokes for space bar in between one by one. Beside providing a large number of pre-defined phrases, CKC Chinese Input System also allows users to define their own phrases. On top of that, there are many other features in CKC Chinese Input System to help users to input Chinese characters more easily and quickly, such as wild card key (万能键) and associated key(联想键).

The purpose of this article is to introduce CKC Chinese Input System. Other features of this input method are left for users to explore.