Home Keyboard & Typing Setup

Keyboard & Typing Setup

By alan
• 30 articles

How do I set up the Chinese keyboard on my Mac?

On your Mac, go to the Apple menu by clicking on the apple icon in the top-left of the screen and select ‘System Preferences’.  Click on ‘Keyboard’ and then ‘Input Sources’. Click the add (+) button at the bottom of the window and then scroll down to find ‘Chinese, Simplified’ or ‘Chinese, Traditional’. Simplified Chinese - If you would like to type in Simplified Chinese characters, used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia, click on ‘Chinese, Simplified’. Next, select the type of Simplified Chinese keyboard you’d like to use from the list of options that appears. The keyboard you’ll probably find most useful is ‘Pinyin - Simplified’. If you would like to use trackpad handwriting to draw Chinese characters, select ‘Handwriting - Simplified’. Click Add.  Traditional Chinese - If you would like to type in Traditional Chinese characters, used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and some overseas Chinese communities, click on ‘Chinese, Traditional’. Next, select the type of Traditional Chinese keyboard you’d like to use from the list of options that appears. The keyboard you’ll probably find most useful here is ‘Pinyin - Traditional’. If you’d like to use trackpad handwriting to draw Chinese characters, select ‘Handwriting - Traditional’. Click Add.  4. Make sure the ‘Show Input menu in menu bar’ is checked and a flag icon should appear in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Japanese on my Windows PC or Mac?

How to type kana/kanji/romaji on Windows/Mac OS and rules on typing certain letters Whether your intention is to input romaji, kana, or kanji, you will have to type phonetically using the QWERTY keyboard on your Mac or Windows computer. This means that you have to learn what combinations of letters on your keyboard correspond to which syllables in Japanese writing. To toggle between romaji and kana input, you simply hit the Windows Button + Space on Windows or Ctrl + Space on Mac.  Romaji Romaji refers to the romanization of written Japanese. “Sushi” and “karate” are common examples of Japanese loanwords that have been introduced to English. “Sushi” and “karate” are the romaji spellings of these words. Of course, Japanese folks don’t usually write “sushi” or “karate” with the alphabet like this --- they write 寿司 (すし) and 空手 (からて)! The bold word is written in kanji (or Chinese characters) and in the parentheses is the kana for the words. Kana indicate how the character is pronounced, and are kind of like an alphabet but indicate syllables instead of individual letters. There are multiple accepted romanization systems in Japanese. The word for “Tokyo” (とうきょう), which has two elongated vowels, can be written Toukyou, Tōkyō or Tôkyô. However, when typing in romaji for FluentU quizzes, we will only accept the “Toukyou” spelling. Elongated vowels must be spelled like their corresponding kana. For example, おおかみ (wolf) must be spelled ookami, not okami.  For more detailed information on systems of romanization in Japanese, please check out this Wikipedia article. You can use this chart to guide you in typing Japanese phonetically. Kana To type in kana, simply toggle the keyboard until the あ symbol appears. As you can see in this chart, there are a few ways to produce certain kana in Japanese. For example, if you want to type ふ, you can type either “fu” or “hu” to produce the kana. It’s important to note that the input methods written in red in this chart are acceptable ways to type letters to input kana but will NOT be accepted in FluentU quizzes if you are typing in romaji. For example, when you are using your QWERTY keyboard to produce kana and write the word すし (“sushi”), you are able to input either “susi” or “sushi” and it will produce the hiragana すし. However, if you type “susi” instead of “sushi” when typing in romaji,  your response will be marked incorrect in the quiz. Some key input tricks to note include: - If you would like to type ん, you must type “nn”  - If you would like to type a small っ to indicate a geminate consonant, you must double the consonant that should follow the small っ (e.g. “kitte” or “kocchi” would produce きって and こっち, while “kite” and “kochi” would produce きて and こち) - An alternative way to type the small っ or other commonly used small kana like ぁ, ゅ or ぇ is to type the letter “l” (as in “little”) before the other romaji for the kana. For example, typing “la” produces ぁ and typing “ltsu” or “ltu” produced っ. Kanji When you type a word out in kana, the word will be underlined. This underline goes away if you hit the Enter key. However, this underline is important if you would like to input the kanji for a word. For example, if you type the kana す and し, they will look like すし when you’ve finished typing them.  To select the kanji for a group of syllables, you hit the spacebar while they are underlined and cycle through a list of options for kanji, kanji and kana combinations, katakana, or emojis on a drop-down menu that appears. Keep clicking space until you find the one that you want to use. You can keep the underline going for longer segments of text such as きょうはいいおてんきですね and, if it’s a commonly input grouping of words, it will likely guess the correct kanji for everything when you hit space --- 今日はいいお天気ですね。 However, if you’re a beginner to typing in Japanese, we recommend starting with selecting kanji for one word at a time.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Chinese on my Mac?

Pinyin - After installing a Chinese keyboard, click on the input menu (the flag or Pinyin symbol 拼) in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then select the Pinyin keyboard you have installed. - Type the pinyin for the character you want, then select the correct character from the window by clicking on it and pressing the spacebar. Alternatively, you can press the corresponding number and then the spacebar.                             - If the first suggestion that comes up is correct, you don’t need to click anything - pressing the spacebar alone defaults to this option.  - You can also move between the options using the left and right arrow keys. - There is a small downwards arrow to the far right of the box that expands and provides more possible characters. - With the Pinyin keyboard, you can switch between English and Chinese using the Caps Lock key. Trackpad handwriting  - After installing the ‘Trackpad Handwriting’ input source, you can use the trackpad to enter Chinese characters and punctuation with your finger. - Choose ‘Handwriting’ from the Input menu bar.                                   - Use your finger to draw a character on the trackpad. Matching characters will appear, with the closest match in the upper left corner.                     - To select a character, tap the trackpad in the location that corresponds with the item that appears in the candidate bar. - If you don’t see the character you want,  tap the Delete button in the upper-right corner of the Trackpad Handwriting window or press the Delete key on the keyboard. Then, try writing the character again.  - When the Trackpad Handwriting window is open, you can’t use the pointer. To use the arrow without closing the window, press the Escape key. To resume handwriting, click anywhere in the Trackpad Handwriting window. To close the window, press Control - Shift - Space bar or click the x in the top-left corner of the window.  NOTE: The Pinyin and Handwriting keyboards allow you to type the Chinese language by spelling out the Chinese characters’ pronunciation with the Roman alphabet or drawing the characters with your own handwriting.  Tip: Some Chinese pinyin words are spelled using ‘ü’ which you might not have on your keyboard. To type ‘ü,’ type the letter ‘v’ instead. For example, if you want the character 女 (nü), typing ‘nu’ won’t bring up the right character, you will have to type ‘nv.’ J, Q, X, and Y are never followed by an ‘ü,’ so you don’t need to type ‘v’ after these letters.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Japanese on my Android device?

NOTE: All the names for menus and the locations might be slightly different depending on the devices How to type kana/kanji/romaji on Android and the rules on typing certain letters On an Android, there are two ways of inputting Japanese.  QWERTY Method You can use the QWERTY keyboard method just like on your computer to type in romaji or to produce kana and kanji. The only real difference is that on your smartphone the suggested kanji appear above your keyboard instead of in a new pop-up window.  For example, let’s type “kami.” k + a becomes か and m + i becomes み. As you can see, there are multiple common kanji options for this word, including 髪 , 神 , and 紙. Simply click on the kanji you would like to use and continue typing! If the kanji you would like to input does not appear, you can click on the dropdown arrow for more options. Flick Input The second method is commonly referred to as flick input. The flick keyboard shows only the first kana (the “a” kana) in each group of sounds: あ, か, さ, た, な, は, ま, や, ら, and わ --- A, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, and ra. To choose the other kana of each group (“i,” “u,” “e,” and “o”) you must touch the “a” kana in that group and swipe left, up, right, or down, respectively. For example, to type “sushi,” you must swipe up on the さ button to produce す and then swipe left on that same さ button to produce し. The わ key is a little different - swiping up gives you ん, left gives you を, right gives you the long vowel mark ー, and down gives you the wave dash ～.  Here is a chart showing each basic kana group. The top row are the first characters you will see on the flick keyboard layout: Let’s type the word kami (かみ) again. If you tap the か button, it will input か. However, when you press it, you can see the other typing options with that key. If you swiped up, you’d input く. If you swiped right, you’d input け, and so on. Next we need to input み. To do so, tap and hold the ま button and swipe left to input み. Then,  just like in QWERTY, you will select a suggested kanji from the list. Instead of swiping, you can also just tap each key until it cycles through all the options and you reach your desired kana. However, this is much slower than the flick method and isn’t recommended. If you practice the flick method, you will get used to the pattern of swiping and learn to type very quickly!  On the Gboard flick keyboard layout, there is also a button on the bottom left of the keyboard that shows the two dakuten that can change the pronunciation of a syllable by indicating that it should be voiced. One mark looks like a quotation mark and the other a small circle. When typing on a QWERTY keyboard, you can just type “ha,” “ba” and “pa” to produce は, ば and ぱ. When using flick, input your desired kana and you can swipe left on the dakuten to pick the quotation mark one and swipe right for the circle. This same button can also change the size of the kana in the あ group and the や group. Simply tap the button after inputting one of these kana and it will shrink to the ぁ or ゃ size. Let’s take a look at adding dakuten to turn te (て) into de (で). Type て by tapping the た button and swiping right. Then tap the button with the ゛and ゜ on it. Then your て will become a で! Just like in the QWERTY method, suggested kanji, kanji and kana combinations, katakana or emojis appear above your keyboard as you type. Much like on the computer, you can hit the enter key to get rid of the underline below the kana you’ve input.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Chinese on my Windows PC?

Pinyin After installing a Chinese Keyboard, click the ‘ENG’ icon located on the screen’s bottom right-hand corner. You should be able to see the Microsoft Pinyin Keyboard appear, select the keyboard you want to use. Type the pronunciation of the character (Pinyin) you want to write down using your keyboard. A pop-up with suggested characters will appear, giving you the ability to choose a specific character. (When you start typing, you may need to hit Shift to type in Chinese as the  Chinese/English switch key defaults to the Shift key.) To select a highlighted character, either press the corresponding number (1, 2, 3, etc.) or simply click on the right character, then press ‘Enter.’ To go back to English mode, click on “中” at the bottom right corner, or by pressing the ‘Shift’ key, you can switch between typing in Chinese and typing in English. Handwriting In settings, download ‘Handwriting’ in your Chinese (Hong Kong, SAR) language pack. At the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, click the ‘ENG’ icon on the taskbar. Right-click on the taskbar and ensure the ‘Show touch keyboard button’ option in the menu is enabled. Click on the keyboard icon that appears on the taskbar. Next, click on the keyboard icon located on the open keyboard, then click on the paper and pen handwriting icon. You can now draw Chinese Characters in the boxes provided. NOTE: The Pinyin and Handwriting keyboards allow you to type the Chinese language by spelling out the Chinese characters’ pronunciation with the Roman alphabet or drawing the characters with your own handwriting. Tip: Some Chinese pinyin words are spelled using ‘ü’ which you might not have on your keyboard. To type ‘ü,’ type the letter ‘v’ instead. For example, if you want the character 女 (nü), typing ‘nu’ won’t bring up the right character, you will have to type ‘nv.’ J, Q, X, and Y are never followed by an ‘ü,’ so you don’t need to type ‘v’ after these letters.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Chinese on my Android device?

NOTE: All the names for menus and the locations might be slightly different depending on the devices. Pinyin - Android users will have to download the “Google Pinyin Input” app Chinese in the Google Play store. This will allow you to use a Chinese keyboard and type in Chinese.  - Once the keyboard is installed, go to your phone’s settings and select “Language & input.” - Under “Keyboard & input methods,” select “Current Keyboard.” For example, this might be “English (US) - Android Keyboard.”  - Select “Choose Keyboards.” Look for “Google Pinyin Input” under the list of keyboards and input methods. Switch it on.  - When you go back to “Keyboards & input methods,” you’ll notice there is now a tab for Chinese. From there, you’ll find lots of settings and options to chose from, but for the sake of simplicity, leave those settings as-is. - To use the keyboard, select the little globe on your keyboard’s left side when you open an app. There will be a 中 (zhong) - China and EN tab. Select the “中” tab and the “QWERTY” layout, as it is the easiest to use.  - You can switch between keyboards using the globe icon on your Android device.  - Typing - When you type the Pinyin for a word, for example, ‘ni hao,’  a space between ‘ni’ and ‘hao’ will be added automatically, so you don’t need to add one yourself.  - After typing in the pinyin,  the character list appears at the top of the keyboard, so you might need to recognize basic characters, but helpfully, the characters are shown in the order of how frequently they are used. - To select a character, press on the character you want.  Handwriting - Install the Google Handwriting Input from the Play Store. - Open and enable the Google Handwriting Input. Go to Configure language under Optional, select Google Handwriting input, and enable the additional language (Chinese).  Scroll down. There will be options for Chinese, Traditional, and Simplified.  - Go back and click on “Download languages.” - Exit Google Handwriting Input. You will now be able to practice Google handwriting in Chinese.  - Use your finger to draw characters in the box that appears. Tap on the characters you want from the options that appear at the top of the box.  You are now all set to go and start practicing typing in Chinese! NOTE: The Pinyin and Handwriting keyboards allow you to type the Chinese language by spelling out the Chinese characters’ pronunciation with the Roman alphabet or drawing the characters with your own handwriting.  Tip: Some Chinese pinyin words are spelled using ‘ü’ which you might not have on your keyboard. To type ‘ü,’ type the letter ‘v’ instead. For example, if you want the character 女 (nü), typing ‘nu’ won’t bring up the right character, you will have to type ‘nv.’ J, Q, X, and Y are never followed by an ‘ü,’ so you don’t need to type ‘v’ after these letters.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Chinese on my iOS device?

Pinyin  - To input Chinese characters, you need to add a Chinese keyboard in your device’s settings. You can do this by going to Settings > General > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. - After setting up the Chinese pinyin keyboard on your device, to switch to or from the Chinese keyboard, click on the ‘Globe’ icon. The Simplified Chinese Pinyin keyboard is listed as 简体拼音. The Traditional Chinese Pinyin keyboard is listed as 繁體拼音.  - Type the pinyin for the character you want, then select the correct character from the window by clicking on it. - If you want to type in the Roman alphabet with tone marks above the vowels, simply long-press that letter, and the tone options will appear. Handwriting  - Click on the globe icon on the keyboard and slide up to where it says 简体手写 (in the case of simplified Chinese handwriting recognition) or 繁體手寫 (in traditional Chinese).  - You will now be able to write a Chinese character by drawing characters in the box at the bottom of the screen. Some options of characters will appear. Click on the character that you want to enter. When you are done typing in Chinese, you can click on the globe at the bottom of the keyboard again to switch the keyboard back to another language. NOTE: The Pinyin and Handwriting keyboards allow you to type the Chinese language by spelling out the Chinese characters’ pronunciation with the Roman alphabet or drawing the characters with your own handwriting.  Tip: Some Chinese pinyin words are spelled using ‘ü’ which you might not have on your keyboard. To type ‘ü,’ type the letter ‘v’ instead. For example, if you want the character 女 (nü), typing ‘nu’ won’t bring up the right character, you will have to type ‘nv.’ J, Q, X, and Y are never followed by an ‘ü,’ so you don’t need to type ‘v’ after these letters.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026

How do I type Japanese on my iOS device?

How to type kana/kanji/romaji on iOS and the rules on typing certain letters. On an iPhone, there are two ways of inputting Japanese.  QWERTY Method You can use the QWERTY keyboard method just like on your computer to type in romaji or to produce kana and kanji. The only real difference is that on your smartphone the suggested kanji appear above your keyboard instead of in a new pop-up window.  Simply click on the kanji you would like to use and continue typing! If the kanji you would like to input does not appear, you can click on the dropdown arrow for more options. Flick Input The second method is commonly referred to as flick input. The flick keyboard shows only the first kana (the “a” kana) in each group of sounds: あ, か, さ, た, な, は, ま, や, ら, and わ --- A, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, and ra. To choose the other kana of each group (“i,” “u,” “e,” and “o”) you must touch the “a” kana in that group and swipe left, up, right, or down, respectively. For example, to type “sushi,” you must swipe up on the さ button to produce す and then swipe left on that same さ button to produce し. The わ key is a little different - swiping up gives you ん, left gives you を, right gives you the long vowel mark ー, and down gives you the wave dash ～.  Instead of swiping, you can also just tap each key until it cycles through all the options and you reach your desired kana. However, this is much slower than the flick method and isn’t recommended. If you practice the flick method, you will get used to the pattern of swiping and learn to type very quickly!  On the flick keyboard layout, there is also a button on the bottom left of the keyboard that shows the two dakuten that can change the pronunciation of a syllable by indicating that it should be voiced. One mark looks like a quotation mark and the other a small circle. When typing on a QWERTY keyboard, you can just type “ha,” “ba” and “pa” to produce は, ば and ぱ. When using flick, input your desired kana and you can swipe left on the dakuten to pick the quotation mark one and swipe right for the circle. This same button can also change the size of the kana in the あ group and the や group. Simply tap the button after inputting one of these kana and it will shrink to the ぁ or ゃ size. Just like in the QWERTY method, suggested kanji, kanji and kana combinations, katakana or emojis appear above your keyboard as you type. Much like on the computer, you can hit the enter key to get rid of the underline below the kana you’ve input.

Last updated on Jan 23, 2026