WebIME

Web-based Chinese Input Service (WebIME) is a webpage that enables users to input Chinese characters on Internet anytime, anywhere. It provides five conventional Chinese input methods (Cangjie (倉頡), simplified Cangjie(簡易), Hanyu pinyin(漢語拼音), Cantonese Pronunciation(粵語拼音)[#1] and Chinese dictionary-like method (Radical/Number of Strokes(部首/筆劃))) augmented with two special features, homophone and candidate characters filtering. WebIME aims to bring more ease and convenience for users to input Chinese characters when surfing the Internet.

Web based Chinese Input service has two modes:

WebIME (compatibility mode)
- It is suitable for inputting Chinese characters to applications that have been designed for accepting characters coded in ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 and HKSCS-2001 (for example: input from Windows XP/2000 platforms)
- In this compatibility mode, HKSCS characters coded in the Private Use Area (E000-F8FF) are shown in blue:

WebIME (default mode)
- It is suitable for inputting Chinese characters to applications that are able to accept the newly implemented code ranges (20000-2FFFF) in the ISO/IEC 10646:2003 (for example: input from Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 platforms)
- In this default mode, characters coded in 20000-2FFFF are shown in red:

The major differences between the 2 modes are:
- HKSCS characters coded in the E000-F8FF are shown in blue in the compatibility mode while most of them are assigned to 20000-2FFFF and shown in red in the default mode.

- The default mode includes 191 more characters than compatibility mode. They are newly included characters since the publication of HKSCS-2001.

Most characters marked in black (4E00-9FFF) and green (3400-4DFF) are the same in the two modes.

Promotion Materials (promotion.pdf, 832KB)

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The basic usages and features of the WebIME are illustrated in the following demonstrations

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- If it is uncertain whether an application can accept characters coded in 20000-2FFFF, a user could try the compatibility mode.

- It takes time for the browsers to load and initial WebIME. Web browsers with improved support on JavaScript and code range 20000-2FFFF (such as Firefox 3.0 and IE7/8) are preferred.

- Users are required to copy and paste the characters from the WebIME to other applications that support ISO 10646 (or Unicode).

- The Cantonese pinyin (粵語拼音) makes reference to the“Cantonese Pronunciation List of the Characters for Computers”: http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/ccli/eng/structure/jyutping.html

- WebIME includes the 9810 IICORE characters, which is a subset of the Chinese characters in the ISO/IEC 10646:2003 amendment 1. Further information is available at http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/ccli/eng/structure/iicore.html

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Hardware requirements

- Screen resolution of 1,024x768 pixels

- PC with 1G Byte memory

Browser requirements

Firefox 3.0 and IE7/8 are preferred

Font requirements
- Some characters may be displayed as a square, "?" or blank if the platform has not installed a font including those characters, most of them are the newly included characters in HKSCS or ISO 10646.

Example 1: To input a character (224CC) included since the publication of HKSCS-2004
Since Microsoft’s HKSCS-2001 addon on Windows 2000/XP does not include this character, it is shown as a square by Firefox 3.0.10

It is shown as a "?" by Firefox 2.0.0.20

It is shown as blank by IE 7.0

Since Windows Vista’s bundled font includes many Chinese characters newly included in the ISO/IEC 10646:2003, this character is properly displayed.

Example 2: To view a character coded in E000-F8FF using Firefox 3.0.10 on Mac OS X 10.4
Before font configuration

After font configuration

More details on the font configuration of Firefox to view the characters in the Private Use Area in the compatibility mode are shown this document ( pdf format, 400KB ).

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WebIME Download Area
(for web administrator’s reference)

** Users of the WebIME do NOT need to install the WebIME. User should browse the http://www.ccli.gov.hk/webime-e.html where they can input Chinese characters.

If web administrators would like to modify or install the WebIME on their own web servers, please download the following cim-download.zip, and read the Installation Instruction.

Terms of Use

Before downloading the software and documents provided on this Web page (Software and Document), you have read, understood and agreed to the following:

1.The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) has the sole discretion to amend or vary the terms under this Terms of Use from time to time.

2.By using the Software and Document, you irrevocably agree that the HKSARG may from time to time vary this Terms of Use and you also irrevocably agree to be bound by the most updated version of the Terms of Use.

3.You have the sole responsibility of obtaining the most updated version of the Terms of Use which is available in the "Common Chinese Language Interface" Web site (http://www.ccli.gov.hk/webime.html).

4.By accepting this Terms of Use, HKSARG shall grant you a non-exclusive licence for your use only of the Software and Document.

5.Except as specifically authorised in Clause 15, you are not allowed to make copies of the Software and Document and distribute the Software and Document.

6.The Software and Document are copyrighted.  Title to the Software and Document and all associated intellectual property rights are retained by the HKSARG.

7.You understand and agree that use of the Software and Document are at your sole risk, that any material and/or data downloaded or otherwise obtained in relation to the Software and Document is at your discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damage caused to your computer system or loss of data or any other loss that results from the download and use of the Software and Document in any manner whatsoever.

8.In relation to the Software and Document, HKSARG hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantibility, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

9.HKSARG will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages of any kind resulting from the use of or the inability to use the Software and Document even if HKSARG has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

10.You agree not to sue HKSARG and agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless HKSARG, its officers and employees from any and all third party claims, liability, damages and/or costs (including, but not limited to, legal fees) arising from your use of the Software and Document, your violation of the Terms of Use or infringement of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

11.The Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong.

12.Any waiver of any provision of the Terms of Use will be effective only if in writing and signed by HKSARG or its representative.

13.If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of the Terms of Use to be unenforceable, the remainder of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.

14.The Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes and replaces all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter.

15.In addition to the licence granted in Clause 4, HKSARG hereby grants you a non-exclusive limited licence to reproduce and distribute the Software and Document with the following conditions:

(i)     not for financial gain unless it is incidental;
(ii)    reproduction and distribution of the Software and Document in complete and unmodified form; and
(iii)   when you distribute the Software and Document, you agree to attach the Terms of Use and a statement that the latest version of the Terms of Use is available from the "Common Chinese Language Interface" Web site (http://www.ccli.gov.hk/webime.html).

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(Please right-click and save the file to your computer)

The cim-download.zip contains the following files:
-Installation Instruction (instruction.pdf, 177Kbytes)
-WebIME files (cim.zip, 10.5Mbytes)
-Source of the WebIME (cim-source.zip, 1.5MBytes)

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WebIME Download Area (for web administrator’s reference)

WebIME Download Area
(for web administrator’s reference)