How to type Chinese on Mac OSX - Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks Go to System Preferences. Choose Keyboard Choose Input Sources, then click + Select Chinese (Simplified) - Pinyin - Simplified then click Add Make sure Show Input menu in menu bar is checked. Use the language icon in menubar to switch modes. Typing in Chinese using Pinyin. Configuring your Mac to type in Chinese via Pinyin takes just a few minutes and is the fastest, most widely-used method for Chinese input.

First you go to the Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen and you click System Preferences. Then you click on Keyboard and then Input Sources. To add a new keyboard you click the + button at the bottom of the window and then you scroll down to find the language that you’re looking for. Chinese, Simplified is simplified Chinese characters, which are used in mainland China Singapore and Malaysia and Chinese, Traditional is traditional Chinese characters which are used in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and some overseas Chinese communities.

For example, you can choose Chinese, Simplified, and the keyboard that you’ll probably want to use the most will be Pinyin – (Simplified). You can also add a traditional Chinese keyboard at the same time. Just go to Chinese, Traditional. Then click Pinyin – Traditional or an alternative keyboard if you wish and then click Add.

You’ll probably notice that a flag icon has appeared in the top right-hand corner of the screen. You can also click on Shortcuts and then Input Sources and then turn on the two options, which gives you keyboard shortcuts to switch between the keyboards. Once you’ve turned those on, to select the previous input source you use Command and Space, and to select the next source in the input menu you use Command, Shift and Space. You can now open up a document and test everything out.

Click on the flag icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Choose for example Pinyin – Simplified, then try typing something using the Pinyin pronunciation of the characters. You’ll notice that the characters are coming up on the screen.

To choose the character or word, press the number that appears next to the one you want on the keyboard. To switch to traditional Chinese characters, click on the flag icon again and choose Pinyin – Traditional. To switch between the keyboards without using your mouse, press Command and Space and keep holding down the Command Key and press the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to choose between different keyboards. To return to the previous keyboard you were using you can use Command, Shift and Space. You can now type Chinese on your Mac!