Displaying Chinese Characters On Your Computer

Here's how to display Chinese characters (instead of ????'s) on your computer.

If you're using Windows XP (please have your WinXP installation disk on hand):

1. Click on Start - Control Panel.

2. Click on Regional and Language Options.

3. Click on the Languages tab.

4. Check the box beside "Install files for East Asian languages" (under the Supplemental language support heading).

5. Click on the Apply button. If the computer asks you to restart, please choose No.

6. Click on the Details button (under the Text services and input languages heading).

7. Click on the Add button (found in the Installed Services section of the Text services and input languages Settings tab)

8. For "Input Language" choose China (PRC). For "Keyboard layout/IME" choose Chinese Simplified.

9. Click on the OK buttons. Please don't restart your computer yet.

10. Run Firefox (web browser).

11. Click on View - Character Encoding - Autodetect - Chinese.

12. Exit all programs and Restart your computer.

Voila! You'll be able to see Chinese characters when you surf the web (using Firefox). You'll also be able to write Chinese characters by typing the pinyin equivalent. For example: wo3ai4ni3 is 我爱你

(If you were able to do the above steps correctly, you should be able to see the Chinese characters beside wo3ai4ni3. Installing additional languages will give you the option of choosing which language you'll be using. This allows you to alternate between typing regular text on your keyboard, and pinyin.)

If you wish to learn how to speak Mandarin, check out the ChinesePod.com podcast.

[ First posted on 03/01/2006 by Manuel Viloria ]