Simplified Cangjie, known as Quick () or Sucheng () is a stroke basedStroke Based Input explained
/ref> keyboard

input method An input method (or input method editor, commonly abbreviated IME) is an operating system component or program that enables users to generate characters not natively available on their input devices by using sequences of characters (or mouse o ...

based on the Cangjie IME (倉頡輸入法) but simplified with select lists. Unlike full Cangjie, the user enters only the first and last keystrokes used in the

Cangjie Cangjie () is a legendary ancient Chinese figure said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities an ...

system, and then chooses the desired character from a list of candidate

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

that pops up. This method is popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the latter in particular. Simplified Cangjie is one of the few input methods which has an

IME Ime is a village in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located on the east side of the river Mandalselva, along the European route E39 highway. Ime is an eastern suburb of the town of Mandal. Ime might be considered ...

pre-installed on Traditional Chinese-capable personal computers.

Performance and learning

Although described as having an easier learning curve with less errors, Simplified Cangjie users have slower typing speed compared to full Cangjie. The user must choose from a list of candidate characters, which can be compared to "hunt and peck" vs. ordinary touch

typing Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can b ...

. Because Simplified Cangjie does not promote the full sequence of keystrokes of standard Cangjie, it could leave simplified Cangjie users without knowledge of how to code a character without the disambiguation lists.

Implementations

Windows

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, Simplified Cangjie is called 'Quick'. Since Office 2007 and Windows 7,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

offers two types of Quick: 'Quick' and 'New Quick'. Both are found under the section for Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan). The main difference between the two is that after the second keystroke, traditional Quick shows its drop down list while 'New Quick' will guess and output a character depending on the context (the New-Quick list needs to be manually invoked with an arrow key). 'New Quick' may also change previous characters of the sentence depending on whether the context changes. Microsoft also claims New-Quick to have an improved learning algorithm.

Adoption

Hong Kong

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

-speaking

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, average computer users tend to prefer Simplified Cangjie over the full Cangjie largely due to its ease of use, and also the lack of other input methods available. The Cangjie IME itself has evidence of a strong presence in Hong Kong with it being available on most operating systems and

keyboard layouts A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. is the actua ...

. As Hong Kong people are generally unfamiliar with phonetic-based input methods designed for

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

speakers such as

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

and

zhuyin Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...

, these methods are not widely used. Children in Hong Kong learn Chinese in a very different way from their peers in Mainland China and Taiwan, not only that they generally learn Chinese in Cantonese instead of Mandarin, but they do not learn any transliteration system until perhaps much later in their lives when they start learning Mandarin. Indeed, children in Hong Kong learn Chinese characters from the very beginning in kindergartens; in contrast, in mainland China and Taiwan, transliteration systems like pinyin or zhuyin are taught first before introducing any Chinese characters to children.

References