Pinyin Tone Marks

I've tried adding US Extended keyboard (which is the one to use for typing these marks on a Mac) and a few other keyboard combinations, all to no avail.

There's now no need to switch keyboards, connect a hardware keyboard, or wait for held down keys or loading web pages. (BTW, in my testing, the Czech keyboard only has a 3rd tone option for "e", not for any of the other vowels. As for the acute accent and caron buttons next to the M, they don't work right with all the vowels.) Now, the fastest and easiest way to type pinyin, with proper diacritical tone marks, on the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad is to use the app Pinyin Typist.

Here is the App Store link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/pinyin-typist/id443069995?mt=8

In Pinyin Typist, to type a 3rd tone "a", for example, just type an "a" like usual, then tap the 3 button on the toolbar above the regular keyboard. Pinyin Typist will then change the "a" to an "ǎ".

Pinyin Typist also recognizes complete, valid pinyin finals, and will automatically add the requested tone mark above the correct vowel of the pinyin final. E.g., to type a 4th tone “ai” pinyin final (“ài”), you can type “ai”, then tap the 4 button above the regular keyboard. Pinyin Typist will then automatically properly add the 4th tone mark above the “a” instead of the “i”.

Pinyin Typist has a dedicated Ü button, and it can convert both lowercase and uppercase vowels.

Once you've typed some pinyin text in Pinyin Typist, you can copy it and paste it elsewhere, like another app. You can also email your pinyin text directly from the app. Snippets of pinyin text can also be saved for future use.

For more info, go to http://troubadourworks.com/pinyintypist/.

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link. <Edited by Host>

Wow, i never knew that before. But hold any vowel on the standard built in key board, and a whole set of accented options pops up. Just slide your finger to the one you want. I dont know if it has all the choices you need, but at least try it. It is there!

pjl123 wrote:

I dont know if it has all the choices you need

As was made clear in the other postings in this thread over a year ago, it does not have one of the choices needed, namely the caron, as in ǎ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caron

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link. <Edited by Host>

Sorry.

Full disclosure: I am the creator of Pinyin Typist. That said, I do sincerely believe that this app is exactly what the original poster is looking for.

Tom Gewecke wrote:

pjl123 wrote:

I dont know if it has all the choices you need

As was made clear in the other postings in this thread over a year ago, it does not have one of the choices needed, namely the caron, as in ǎ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caron

Yes, and not only does tapping and holding on the keyboard not provide all the needed options for pinyin vowels, it just takes longer than using Pinyin Typist, and this gets more and more true the more pinyin text one has to type.

troubadour wrote:

I do sincerely believe that this app is exactly what the original poster is looking for.

Yes, nice work!

Tom Gewecke wrote:

troubadour wrote:

I do sincerely believe that this app is exactly what the original poster is looking for.

Yes, nice work!

Thanks, Tom! I especially appreciate the kind words coming from someone who is as knowledgeable about this subject as you are.

I was going to get Pinyin Typist, but I don't have $2.99 at the moment.

iOS 8 allows the upside down circumflex to work with all the vowels. You just type the vowel and then the symbol.

JustinCase539 wrote:

You just type the vowel and then the symbol.

What keyboard are you referring to?

On the Chinese pinyin keyboard, you hold down the vowel key and choose the version with the tone mark you want from the popup menu that appears.

It's 2015 now, iOS allows 3rd keyboards finally. So I've made an app for that: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinyin-keyboard-type-pinyin/id959310626?ls=1&mt= 8

OK, there is a built-in solution in the iOS software for adding 3rd tone Mandarin tone marks.

Not sure when it happened, but I just updated my iPad to iOS 9.2.1, made the changes and it works like a charm.

Here's what you do:

1. On your Apple Mobile Device go to: Settings\General\Keyboard\Keyboards\ and choose "Add New Keyboard..."

2. Choose "Add New Keyboard Chinese (Traditional)*

and you're almost done!

The final step is when you're entering Pīnyīn text you will touch a text field with your finger which then brings up a keyboard with a globe icon on it, and you must continue pressing the globe icon until the Chinese characters for Pīnyīn appear in the lower left corner: 拼音 , and then press on those characters to choose that keyboard, and then you will see the 3rd tone appear over the vowels in your text.

Thank you, Apple!

*or Choose: "Add New Keyboard Chinese (Simplified)