Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The meaning of iOS Chinese handwriting input buttons

Each time you start using Chinese handwriting to compose text for a note, e-mail message, etc. (though not for a search -- see below), the two button choices on the left are:
  • 空格 (kōnggé) Space
  • 換行 (huàn háng) Return

Then, after you have entered 1 or more characters that iOS considers could be part of a longer (more characters) expression, the button choices change to:
  • 其他 (qítā) Show other choices for next character(s) of longer expressions. A character that is part of a set expression might have multiple characters grouped together as a single choice. For instance, 孑 (jié) offers up the lone choice of 然一身 (rán yī shēn) because of the set expression 孑然一身 (jié rán yī shēn; to be all alone in the world).
  • 停止聯想 (tíngzhǐ liánxiǎng) End the current attempt to auto-complete, the expression is already complete.

The functionality of the 停止聯想 button was clear to me long ago, but I only recently looked up the definition of the decidedly newfangled expression of 聯想 (liánxiǎng; auto-complete).


For (typically Google) web search in a browser, the two button choices on the left start as:
  • 空格 (kōnggé) Space
  • 搜尋 (sōuxún) Search

Then they follow the same transformation described above.

The functionality of the 搜尋 button was clear to me long ago, but I mistakenly thought the button label was 尋找 (xúnzhǎo; look for), probably because I was more familiar with 尋找 which shares the 尋 character.


7/9/12: If (at least in iOS 5.1.1) you are on a screen which has more than one box for text entry, and you are poised to enter text in one of the boxes which is not the last one, the lower of the two Chinese-labeled buttons can be:

  • 下一個 (xià yī gè) Next

to move to the next text input box, as seen here in the Errands To-Do List app:


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