KEY Quick Reference

This overview explains, in point form, how to use the features of KEY.

Summary. KEY is a user-friendly software system for writing, learning and teaching Chinese (Japanese and Korean word processor included). The strength of KEY lies in its user-friendly text entry and in its linguistic infrastructure. To write a Chinese document in KEY, double-click the KEY icon: the KEY edit screen appears, with the toolbar beside it. Choose the entry mode from the toolbar (e.g., "S" for Simplified Chinese, "T" for Traditional Chinese etc.). You can now enter Chinese text in Pinyin Romanization and convert it into Chinese characters by pressing F11. It allows you to generate CJK text, or import CJK text from outside sources (Internet etc.). KEY works well with other Windows applications, but working in stand-alone mode lets writers, authors, teachers and learners take advantage of the full range of instructional technology features of KEY. For example, when Chinese character text is copied/pasted into the KEY edit screen, the word boundaries are automatically reconstructed, laying the basis for analysis and comprehension of the text through the C/E dictionary (with Tool Tip lookup), the "Pinyin With Hanzi" feature, Text To Speech, etc. Advanced features like the Timed Reading module (TR) automatically generate, from static text, dynamic interactive Chinese multimedia lessons running directly within KEY. Automatic Chinese/English glossary building for a given text, and the ability to add (and hide) annotations in electronic CJK documents or lessons facilitate the authoring of instructional materials, in both printed or electronic form.

The KEY features in point form:

• Writing Chinese (Japanese, Korean) text as easily as Roman text: KEY in stand-alone work mode. Double-click on the KEY icon: the edit screen appears, with the KEY toolbar beside it. Hovering the mouse pointer over the buttons of the toolbar for 1-2 seconds will display a summary of the button.

By default, the text entry mode is set to "S" (Simplified Chinese characters). You can now enter Chinese text in Pinyin, and convert it to Chinese characters through F11, or by typing a punctuation mark. This stand-alone work mode is recommended for writing Chinese text which does not require some of the more complex formatting options of othr Windows applications such as MS Word, Corel WP, etc.

You can finalize your CJK text on the KEY edit screen and print it out through KEY's own print engine. For a complete detailed overview of the KEY word processing features, launch the file "Chinese Input" from the Help menu. A major advantage of working in KEY stand-alone mode is that all the advanced linguistic and didactic functions of KEY are available to you, such as the Chinese/English dictionary, Hanzi with Pinyin, Pinyin with tone marks, Annotations in English and Chinese, Text To Speech, Timed Reading of Chinese text in electronic format - to name only the main features.

• Working with KEY in connection with other Windows applications (MS Word, Corel WP, etc.). You can transfer CJK text from a KEY document into documents of other Windows applications through standard Cut/Copy & Paste. KEY provides several different "filters" for your clipboard copy operations. Whenever your formatting requires that your document is written in an application like MS Word, Corel WP, MS Publisher, PowerPoint etc., first write the text in KEY and then copy & paste it into the document of the other Windows program. Access the clipboard settings through "Clipboard Format" (on the Edit menu). Use the default clipboard setting Rich Text (RT) for most of your word processing Cut/Copy & Paste work (for certain MS applications such as Outlook Express, use the Unicode clipboard setting). After the Chinese character text has been pasted into the document of the other Windows application, it can be formatted just like other Roman text.

Example: using KEY for creating tables in MS Word / Corel WordPerfect:

1. Write the whole table in KEY, separating the contents of each (future) cell with one Tab stop. If your cell content is wider than the KEY default tab of 1", change the Tab stops (from the KEY format menu). Do not use two or more tab stops to separate the table items: imagine that each tab stop you set in KEY will later become the vertical line of the table cell.

2. Having finalized the table (still without lines) in KEY, "select all", then "copy".

3. "Paste" the table into your MS Word / Corel WordPerfect document. Important: If the vertical alignment of your tabs is off, do not correct it at this point, it will automatically be corrected in the next step.

4. Select (=highlight) the entire table contents, and from the "Table" menu of MS Word / Corel WordPerfect select "Convert (Text) to Table". Clicking OK will now generate the MS Word / Corel WordPerfect table with your KEY contents. The CJK characters in the table can be formatted just like any other Roman text. For changing the CJK contents of table cells, write the replacement items in KEY and copy & paste them into the MS Word / Corel WordPerfect table one by one.

• Combining Chinese Traditional and Simplified text and Pinyin with tone marks in the same file, and accurately converting text between the different modes.

a. PINYIN (WITH OR WITHOUT TONE MARKS) TO CHINESE CHARACTERS. Select (=highlight) the Pinyin text and click on the "S" button on the KEY toolbar to convert it to Simplified characters, or click on the "T" button to convert it to Traditional characters.

b. SIMPLIFIED TO TRADITIONAL. You can convert Simplified Chinese character text into Traditional characters by selecting (=highlighting) it and clicking the "T" button ("Traditional") on the KEY toolbar.

c. TRADITIONAL TO SIMPLIFIED. Vice versa, you can convert Traditional Chinese character text into Simplified characters by selecting (=highl