Write Pinying on a Mac AZERTY - Taper pour obtenir du pinyin sur un Mac en Azerty (Mac OS Yosemite, May 2015)

[Guillaume Vorreux]

Hi all,

I work on a recent Mac, with Yosemite, and I've got an AZERTY keyboard. I spent quite a lot of time trying to find a good method to write pinyin - not to get the caracters, just the pinyin.

Here is my finding  : there is no better way than using the same shortcuts as the QWERTY users do, with the American Extended keyboard (which you install on your computer via the settings). So you have to know where one would find the a and the `on a QWERTY keyboard.

In short, my cheatsheet :

Hope this helps. If you have better ways, please tell me !

[Audrey Julian]

These are valid shortcuts and tips for OSX Yosemite down to Snow Leopard:

Required Keyboard

U.S. Extended

Keyboard Input source shortcuts
⌘ Space : IME selector window pop up
⌥⌘ Space : IME menu bar toggle
⌃ Shift Space : Trackpad launch

Diacritical Marks - Method One

Press and hold desired vowel for about 1 second, pop up menu appears with available diacriticals. This method does not provide umlaut Ü or 3rd tone vowels.

Diacritical Marks - Method Two

Option + a + vowel = First Tone

Option + e + vowel = Second Tone

Option + v + vowel = Third Tone

Option + ` + vowel = Fourth Tone (the key is the one with the ~ and ` next to the number 1)

Option + a + v = First Tone ǖ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

Option + e + v = Second Tone ǘ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

Option + v + v = Third Tone ǚ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

Option + ` + v = Fourth Tone ǜ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

Tone Selection
During Chinese input, to cycle through only the characters with a specific tone mark, type the pinyin then press Option key, then press tab until desired tone appears. Example for shì, press s + h + i, option, tab to show only shī, tab to show only shí, tab to show only shǐ, tab to show only shì.

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[Tom Gewecke]

On May 5, 2015, at 1:24 PM, Audrey Julian wrote:

>
> Diacritical Marks - Method Two
> Option + a + vowel = First Tone
> Option + e + vowel = Second Tone
> Option + v + vowel = Third Tone
> Option + ` + vowel = Fourth Tone (the key is the one with the ~ and ` next to the number 1)
> Option + a + v = First Tone ǖ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)
> Option + e + v = Second Tone ǘ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)
> Option + v + v = Third Tone ǚ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)
> Option + ` + v = Fourth Tone ǜ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

And if you have an AZERTY hardware keyboard like Guillaume, these become

> Option + q + vowel = First Tone

> Option + e + vowel = Second Tone
> Option + v + vowel = Third Tone
> Option + < + vowel = Fourth Tone (the key is the one with the ~ and ` next to the number 1)

> Option + q + v = First Tone ǖ (for a capital press v with the Shift key)

[TenThousandThings]

If you are typing more than little bit of Pinyin, there are more efficient ways to do it. One would be to download the free version of Wenlin and use it to type the Pinyin, then copy and paste:

https://wenlin.com/products/wenlinmianfei

Long ago, I put together the Biaoyin input method, which is available here (in theory it still works in Yosemite, but I have not tested it):

http://chinesemac.org/downloads/Biaoyin2.zip

While Biaoyin is easier than typing a lot of Pinyin via U.S. Extended, it is still not ideal. The ideal is what happens in Wenlin, where you just type the syllable and the tone number and the correct Pinyin diacritic appears automatically.

HOWEVER, there is another option now, a little crazy, but one that I think might just work if we can find a way to implement it that is not too painful. Yosemite has a text-replacement feature, located at System Preferences > Keyboard > Text

I don't know if there is a limit to the number of these text-replacements you can have. But I've modified the Biaoyin source file to provide the text required:

http://chinesemac.org/downloads/PinyinCode.zip

That will speed up the process of putting it into the text-replacement feature the hard way, I don't think I would recommend trying it -- it would take at least a day or probably more of seemingly infinite tedious boredom cutting and pasting it in. There is probably a data file (plist) somewhere that can be edited, so if anyone knows where it would be and how to edit it, let us know. We just have to find it and learn how to do it. Maybe it is common knowledge? Seems like it might be. I don't know.

[TenThousandThings]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 9:50:06 PM UTC-4, TenThousandThings wrote:

text-replacement feature, located at System Preferences > Keyboard > Text

I don't know if there is a limit to the number of these text-replacements you can have. But I've modified the Biaoyin source file to provide the text required:

http://chinesemac.org/downloads/PinyinCode.zip

That will speed up the process of putting it into the text-replacement feature the hard way, I don't think I would recommend trying it -- it would take at least a day or probably more of seemingly infinite tedious boredom cutting and pasting it in. There is probably a data file (plist) somewhere that can be edited, so if anyone knows where it would be and how to edit it, let us know. We just have to find it and learn how to do it. Maybe it is common knowledge? Seems like it might be. I don't know.

Okay, I haven't tried it (yet), but here is a relevant thread in the Apple forums:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6644517