How To Type Pinyin On Windows

Featured photo for How to Type Pinyin in Windows 10 and 11

How to Type Pinyin in Windows 10 and xi

Equally I have been learning Mandarin over the concluding several years, I've been looking for a good method to type Pinyin, which is how Anglos "spell" Chinese words using the English language (well, Latin) alphabet and tonal marks. To my utter surprise, there is not a unmarried stock keyboard in the Linguistic communication Options settings of Windows 10 that is good for that purpose. So I created my ain, which I dubbed the United States-International+Pinyin keyboard.

This keyboard is very similar to Microsoft'south United states-International keyboard which uses dead keys to create accent marks over vowels for languages such as Spanish and French. The primary difference in my keyboard is that it adds a couple more dead keys and so that you tin blazon vowels with a loftier tonal marker over them (due east.1000., ā,ē,ī,ō,ū,ǖ), and a falling-rising tonal mark (due east.g., ǎ,ě,ǐ,ǒ,ǔ,ǚ).

As I frequently type in English, French, Spanish, and Pinyin, this above keyboard is very useful and is the only one I've been using on Windows 10 and Windows 11 since early on 2019. To use it as your chief keyboard, there is a slight learning bend because if yous demand to blazon i of the characters that is a dead key (i.e., ', `, -, =,~), you need to remember to printing [space] afterwards pressing the central. Eventually information technology becomes 2nd-nature.

Instructions on how to install the keyboard is every bit follows.

Installing the United states of america-International+Pinyin keyboard

Download the U.s.a.-International+Pinyin keyboard from my website: US_International+Pinyin_keyboard_v2.zero
Y'all can unremarkably do this by either clicking on the link higher up, or by right-clicking the link and then selecting Salve equally.
Unzip the file (right-click on it and click extract all).
In the extracted folder, open setup.exe. Windows Defender Smartscreen may requite you a warning saying that information technology "prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk." If that'south the instance, click on More info, and and then Run anyway.
If successful, you should become a message window maxim Installation Complete.

I recommend rebooting Windows later.

To select (activate) the keyboard, click on the language icon (circled in yellow beneath) in the Windows organisation tray, and so select the Us-International+Pinyin keyboard.

The United States-International+Pinyin keyboard in the Windows 10 system tray.

How to Blazon Pinyin and Absolute Characters

Below are the keystrokes needed to type Pinyin, and also accented characters for French and Spanish.

Pinyin Characters

ā,ē,ī,ō,ū,ǖ = [-] [vowel] (i.e., press the minus button and then the vowel)
á,é,í,ó,ú.ǘ = ['] [vowel]
ǎ,ě,ǐ,ǒ,ǔ,ǚ = [=] [vowel]
à,è,ì,ò,ù,ǜ = [`] [vowel]
ü = [ctrl] + [alt] + [u]. So ǖ = [-] {[ctrl] + [alt] + [u]}

Special Characters for French, Spanish, and Other Languages

To type accented characters for French, Spanish, and other languages, the keystrokes are the same equally for Microsoft's standard Us-International keyboard.

á,é,í,ó,ú = ['] [vowel]
à,è,ì,ò,ù = [`] [vowel]
ñ = [~] [n]
ç = ['] [c]
¿ = [ctrl] + [alt] + [/] (Printing [ctrl], [alt], and [/] simultaneously. Note that [/] is the same key as [?] except you don't demand to press shift, making it easy to call up.)
¡ = [ctrl] + [alt] + [i] (Press [ctrl], [alt], and [/] simultaneously. Annotation that [1] is the same central as [!] except yous don't need to press shift, making it easy to recall.)

Typing ', `, ~, -, =

' = ['] + [infinite]
' = ['] + [space]
~ = [~] + [infinite]
– = [-] + [space]
= = [=] + [infinite]

Uninstalling the United States-International+Pinyin keyboard

If you attempt the keyboard and decide you don't like it or demand it, you can uninstall it as follows.

Using the aforementioned installation Zip annal you previously downloaded from this page, open setup.exe. Y'all will go the following dialog box:

Removing the United States-International+Pinyin keyboard.

Select Remove the keyboard layout, and so Cease. Reboot the computer.

How to Blazon Chinese Characters instead of Pinyin

The above instructions are for typing Pinyin and accents for Latin-based languages only.

If y'all want to type Chinese characters instead of Pinyin in Windows ten or 11, follow the instructions in the video below.

YouTube

Release Notes

Version 1 (released November 30, 2019): US_International+Pinyin_keyboard.naught

If y'all had installed this keyboard prior to the release of Version 2, you can download the higher up Nada file to uninstall the keyboard. (Process: uncompress the Zip file, open the extracted folder, run setup.exe, select Remove the keyboard layout, so Finish, and reboot the reckoner).
Install Version 2 instead below.

Version ii (released November 16, 2021): US_International+Pinyin_keyboard_v2.nil

Version 1 was incorrectly displaying the second tone for the letters a and o as ă and ŏ instead of ǎ and ǒ. Version two corrects this; i.due east., it uses a caron instead of a rounded breve for those letters. Thanks to reader Pong for discovering this fault!