CHINESE INPUT UTILITY

SUPPORTING THE ISO 10646 STANDARD & HKSCS-2001ON LINUX PLATFORMS

USER MANUAL

Version: 1.0

July 2003© The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

No part of this document may be reproduced in any form.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................................1

2.SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................................................................2

3.INSTALLATION.......................................................................................................................................................3

3.1 PREPARATION OF LINUX PLATFORMS.........................................................................................................33.1.1 Red Hat Linux 8.0.............................................................................................................................................33.1.2 Mandrake Linux 9.0.........................................................................................................................................43.1.3 SuSE Linux 8.1.................................................................................................................................................7

3.2 INSTALLATION....................................................................................................................................................8

4.USING THE CHINESE INPUT UTILITY...........................................................................................................11

4.1 INPUTTING CHINESE CHARACTERS............................................................................................................114.2 SWITCHING INPUT METHODS........................................................................................................................124.3 INPUTTING ENGLISH AND NUMBER............................................................................................................124.4 TOGGLE OFF CHINESE INPUT METHOD......................................................................................................124.5 EXAMPLES OF USING OF CHINESE INPUT UTILITY.................................................................................134.6 QUIT......................................................................................................................................................................14

5.UN-INSTALLATION.............................................................................................................................................15

6.FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS................................................................................................................17

1. INTRODUCTION

As Chinese is the language used by most people in Hong Kong, the development of acommon electronic interface for users who prefer to use Chinese in electroniccommunication is very important. Currently, the major problems of electroniccommunication conducted in Chinese are the existence of different coding standardsand insufficient characters in some Chinese character sets used on computers.

Under the Digital 21 Strategy for IT Development, the Government has developed anopen and common Chinese language interface for the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region. The objective is to address the above problems so as to achievemore accurate electronic communication conducted in Chinese. A pivotal element ofthe open and common Chinese language interface is the adoption of the ISO 10646coding standard, which is an international standard developed by the InternationalOrganization for Standardization (ISO) for the handling of characters in electronic datastorage and exchange. The ISO 10646 standard embraces characters used in majorlanguages in the world including traditional and simplified Chinese characters. TheGovernment has been actively participating in the development of the ISO 10646standard.

To promote the common Chinese language interface, the Government provides asoftware, “Chinese Input Utility supporting the ISO 10646 Standard & HKSCS-2001on Linux Platforms” (Referred as “Chinese Input Utility” hereinafter), which supportsthe ISO 10646 standard and the Hong Kong Supplementary Character set – 2001(Note1), to let users to input Chinese characters into Unicode compliant application software(Note 2). The Chinese Input Utility is made up by the following components:

Components DescriptionInstallation program(setup.bin)

For the installation of the Chinese Input Utility.

Input utility Can be used to input characters into Unicode compliantapplication software.

Input method tables Input method tables for Changjei, Quick and StrokeCount.

Unicode fontMing(for ISO10646)(ming_uni.ttf)

A font contains Chinese characters defined in Unicodeversion 3.0 and HKSCS-2001 for display.

Un-installation program(imuninstaller)

For un-installation of the Chinese Input Utility.

This user manual provides installation instructions and step-by-step guides with detailsfor using this Chinese Input Utility.

Note 1 : The HKSCS-2001 is the updated version of the HKSCS released in 1999. The HKSCS-2001contains 4,818 Chinese characters that are specific to the Hong Kong environment and thatare used by the public and the Government in electronic communication and data exchangeconducted in Chinese.

Note 2 : In 1991, the International Organization for Standardization and the Unicode Consortiumagreed to synchronize the ISO 10646 standard and Unicode. Therefore, products supportingUnicode also support the ISO 10646 standard.

1

2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Hardware:

- Pentium II 266 MHz or above;- 128 MB RAM or above ;- 50 MB of available disk space; and - Display resolution with 800x600 or above.

Linux distribution:

This Chinese Input Utility has been tested and is compatible to the following Linux distributions: Red Hat Linux 8.0, Mandrake Linux 9.0 and SuSE Linux 8.1.

Related software:

- GNOME desktop environment and- Application software supporting Unicode.

(For information :Chinese Input Utility can work with following application software:Mozilla 1.2 and OpenOffice.org 1.0 on Red Hat Linux 8.0;Mozilla 1.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0 on Mandrake Linux 9.0; andMozilla 1.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0 on SuSE Linux 8.1.)

Regarding the usage of individual Linux platforms and application software, werecommend users to take reference to the manuals or information provided by thesesoftware, or to browse the corresponding websites.

2

3. INSTALLATION

3.1 PREPARATION OF LINUX PLATFORMS

Before the installation of the Chinese Input Utility, please ensure that the Chineselanguage support, GNOME desktop environment and python library are properlyinstalled in your Linux platforms, and display resolution is also required to be 800x600or above. Please also backup your data in your computer.

3.1.1 Red Hat Linux 8.0

Step 1: During the installation of Red Hat Linux 8.0, select “Workstation” option. When thescreen “Additional Language Support” appears, please select “Chinese (Hong Kong)”and “Chinese (Taiwan)” and then click “Next” to continue.

3

Step 2: After installation, please follow the instructions below to upgrade the Mozilla 1.0 to Mozilla 1.2.

- download all *.rpm available at the following link to /tmpdir folderhttp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.2.1/Red_Hat_8x_RPMS/xft/RPMS/i386/

- login as a “root” to your system- change to the /tmpdir folder- execute rpm –Uvh *.rpm

(Users can refer “/tmpdir” folder in the above example, or select other folder according to theirpreference on Linux)

3.1.2 Mandrake Linux 9.0

Step 1: During the installation of Mandrake Linux 9.0, when the screen “Please choose alanguage to use” appears, please click the “Advance” button.

Step 2: Please install “Chinese | Traditional | Big5” and “Chinese |Traditional| UTF-8” , thenclick “Ok” button to continue.

4

Step 3: When selecting software, please select “Office Workstation”, “Internet station” and“Gnome Workstation” options.

Step 4: After installation, install Python library according to the following screen.

Step 5: Type “python” in the Search field, then press “Search” button.

5

Step 6: In Search results, click “python-2.2.1-13mdk” checkbox.

Step 7: Click “Install” button to install Python library.

6

3.1.3 SuSE Linux 8.1

Step 1: During installation of SuSE Linux 8.1, use default options.

Step 2: After installation, please install “Gnome system” and “Mozilla-mail” according to thethe following screen.

Step 3: In “Selections” click “Gnome System” checkbox.

7

Step 4: In “Package Groups” click “mozilla-mail” checkbox.

Step 5: Click “Accept” button to continue the installation.

3.2 INSTALLATION

(Before you start installation, please make sure again that Linux platform has met therequirements as specified in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.1.)

Step 1: Download the Chinese Input Utility file

“setup.bin” is the installation program file for Chinese Input Utility file.Please download a “setup.bin” file suitable for your Linux platform according to theinstructions in the Government’s Digital 21 website(http://www.info.gov.hk/digital21/eng/hkscs/download.html).

Step 2: Login as “root” in GNOME desktop environment

Close all applications which are running. Login to as “root” in your GNOME desktopenvironment and copy the downloaded “setup.bin” to “/usr/local/setup.bin”.

(Users can refer “/usr/local” folder in the above example, or select other folderaccording to their preference on Linux )

8

Step 3: Verify that “setup.bin” is executable.

At a file manager program, select “setup.bin” and click the left button of the mouse toview the attribute. Please select the “Execute” option(as shown in diagram below) andthen click the “Close” button.

Step 4: Execute “setup.bin”

In desktop environment double click the “setup.bin” to install the Chinese InputUtility. After a while, you will have the following screen.

9

Step 5: Installation

Please click the “I Accept” button to start installation.

Please wait a moment as the installation program will un-compress and copy theChinese Input Utility and its related files to your system.

Step 6: Completion of Installation

When the installation completed, you will have the following screen. Click the “OK”button and restart your computer to complete the installation.

10

4. USING THE CHINESE INPUT UTILITY

The Chinese Input Utility provides 4 input methods (Changjei, Quick, Stroke Countand Unicode Internal Code) to users to input Chinese characters to applicationsoftware that support Unicode.

4.1 INPUTTING CHINESE CHARACTERS

Step 1: In Linux desktop environment, launch an application software that supportsUnicode, such as OpenOffice.org for word processing or Mozilla forInternet web browsing or Email.

Step 2: In the application software, select the font “Ming(for ISO 10646)” to displayChinese text.

Step 3: Press “Ctrl + Space” to activate the Chinese Input Utility, then the followingstatus bar will be shown.

(Note : Status bar can be re-positioned by the following steps:- hold the “alt” key- move the mouse pointer over the leftmost icon of the status bar- press down the left button of the mouse and then drag this status bar to the desired

location- release the mouse button and “alt” key.)

Step 4: Chinese Input Utility sets Changjei as default Chinese input method. Typethe input code(s) of the Changjei code(s) of a Chinese character and thenpress the “Space” key. Please press “ESC” key to cancel the input code(s),or press “Backspace” to delete the input code just keyed in.

Step 5: If only one Chinese character corresponds to that input code(s), then theChinese character will be automatically input.

Step 6: If more than one Chinese character correspond to that input code(s), usenumeric keys “1” – “9” on the upper part of the keyboard to select thecharacter you want. If all the characters cannot be displayed in one page,then please press “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys to show the previousand next page of Chinese characters respectively.

11

4.2 SWITCHING INPUT METHODS

Step 1: If Chinese Input Utility is not yet activated, please press “Ctrl + Space” keysto activate it.

Step 2: Move the mouse pointer over the leftmost icon, press and hold the mousebutton (right or left mouse buttons), then drag the mouse pointer to select therequired input method among Changjei, Quick, Stroke Count and UnicodeInternal Code, and then release the mouse button.

Step 3: Click the application software where the characters to be input, and thencontinue to input Chinese characters.

4.3 INPUTTING ENGLISH AND NUMBER

Step 1: Press the “Ctrl + Space” keys to toggle off the Chinese Input Utility, orselect the English/Number icon in the leftmost icons of the status bar toswitch to input English or number.

Step 2: Input English or number.

4.4 TOGGLE OFF CHINESE INPUT METHOD

Step 1: Press the “Ctrl + Space” keys to toggle off the Chinese Input Utility. Step 2: Close the application software.

12

4.5 EXAMPLES OF USING OF CHINESE INPUT UTILITY

4.5.1 Changjei

Step 1: Select Changjei input method.

Step 2: Press “A”, “A”, ”A” and “Space” keys, then the Chinese Input Utility willshow the character “晶” , which will then be input into the applicationsoftware automatically.

4.5.2 Quick

Step 1: Select Quick input method.

Step 2: Press “T”, ”T” and “Space” keys, then the Chinese Input Utility will showsome characters (e.g. “1井 2卌 3并”) for selection. Press “1” key on theupper part of the keyboard to input first character “井” into the applicationsoftware. If there are less than 10 characters for selection, press “PageDown” or ”Space” keys to input the first character into the applicationsoftware.

13

4.5.3 Stroke Count

Step 1: Select Stroke Count input method.

Step 2: Press “5” key on the upper part of the keyboard and “Space” keys, and thenthe Chinese Input Utility will show all characters with five strokes. Pleaseuse “Page Down” or “Space” keys to navigate the characters.

Step 3: Press the “1” key on the upper part of the keyboard to select and input thefirst character.

4.5.4 Unicode Internal Code

Step 1: Select Unicode Internal Code input method.

Step 2: Press “4”, “E”, “0”, “0” and “Space” keys to input the character “一” tothe application software.

(Note on Unicode Internal Code :The Unicode Internal Code input method accepts 3 or 4 hexadecimal digits (valid hexadecimal digitsare 0 to 9 and A to F). If 4 hexadecimal digits are input, the character corresponding to that Unicodeinternal code will be input automatically into the application software. If 3 hexadecimal digits (e.g.4E0) are input, then corresponding 16 characters (i.e. 4E00 to 4E09 and 4E0A to 4E0F) will bedisplayed for selection. )

4.6 QUIT

Please press “Ctrl + Space” keys to toggle off the Chinese Input Utility and then closethe application software. If the application software has been closed, then you can

click the right most button of the status bar to close the Chinese Input Utility.

14

5. UN-INSTALLATION

(Caution: After un-installation of Chinese Input Utility, the Chinese font Ming(for ISO 10646)will also be un-installed. Program or document using this Chinese font may notproperly display Chinese characters. If this happens, please manually select otherChinese font for this program or document.)

Step 1: Login in as “root” in GNOME desktop environment and close any applicationsoftware that are running.

Step 2: The un-installation program is “/usr/share/inputmethod/imuninstaller”.

Step 3: Select “imuninstaller” at file manager program.

Step 4: Click the right button of the mouse to view and clarify that it has “Execute”attribute.

15

Step 5: Execute “imuninstaller”

Double click “imuninstaller”.

Step 6: Wait a moment, then you will have the following screen. Click the “Un-install” button to un-install the Chinese Input Utility.

16

6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What input methods are provided by this Chinese Input Utility software ?

The Chinese Input Utility software provides 4 input methods (Changjei, Quick, Stroke Count and Unicode Internal Code) to input Chinese characters to Unicode compliant application software.

2. Which application softwares on Linux support Unicode?

Examples of application softwares are, including but not limited to, Internet browser/Email client from Mozilla (www.mozilla.org) and office suite from OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org).

3. I want to install a Linux distribution for this Chinese Input Utility. Which option(s) is (are) required ?

Before you install the Chinese Input Utility, please make sure your system has met the system requirements in Chapter 2 and has completed the necessary preparation of Linux platforms in Chapter 3. Examples of installation on Red HatLinux 8.0, Mandrake Linux 9.0 and SuSE Linux 8.1 are given.

4. I have successfully installed the Chinese Input Utility in SuSE Linux 8.1. How can I enable other user accounts on the SuSE Linux to use the Chinese Input Utility ?

Step 1: Login as root.

Step 2: Set Ming(for ISO 10646) as the default font of “Desktop” and“Standard Application” in the desktop configuration files.

The following diagrams show examples of desktop configuration files with an user account, named “user”.

/home/user/.gconf/desktop/gnome/interface/%gconf.xml

/home/user/.gconf/apps/nautilus/preferences/%gconf.xml

17

Step 3: Logout the “root” and then login the “user”. The “user” can then use theChinese Input Utility.

5. How can I print Unicode Email or Webpages under Mozilla ?

It is recommended to use the “save as” function in Mozilla to store the webpage to a HTML file first and then use OpenOffice.org (Writer) to open and print this saved HTML file. In general, we recommend users to take reference to manual orwebsites of the application software or platforms for latest update or information.

<END>

18