Chinese Input with Scim-Pinyin
In order to be able to type Chinese on my FreeBSD system I installed two things. I installed an input method called scim-pinyin that allows me to type pinyin to input characters, and then I installed CJKfonts because you can't type Chinese if you have no fonts for it.
To install scim-pinyin from the ports collection, change to the '/usr/ports/chinese/scim-pinyin' directory and run 'make install'. When scim-pinyin has finished installing you will need to install fonts.
For CJKfonts, change to the 'usr/ports/chinese/CJKUnifonts' directory and type 'make install'.
To type Chinese follow the steps below.
1. Open a text editor such as Abiword then click the right mouse button. At the bottom of the menu that appears you should see a menu item called "Input Methods".
2. Place your mouse cursor on top of "Input Methods" and you should have several input methods to choose from. One of those input methods should be Scim Input Method.
3. Select Scim Input Method and wait for the change to be accepted.
4. Simultaneously press the control key and the space key. This will cause a tool bar to appear in the lower righthand corner of the screen.
5. In the scim toolbar, click the character just to the left of the moon symbol untill it says either 简 or � depending on what kind of Chinese you wish to type. If you want Roman letters, click untill it says 英.
6. If you are not seeing Chinese characters appearing in a bar when you type, then you need to select a Chinese font. The fonts that come with CJKUnifonts are called “AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni" and "AR PL ZenKai Uni". Select one and type a syllable in pinyin.
7. You should see several characters that correspond to the pinyin you typed appearing in a bar. Use the keyboard to select the number of the character you want. If the character you want doesn't appear in the first nine, click on the forward arrow >> to see the next nine. Repeat as needed.
