This is a brief introduction to NJStar, a Chinese word processor available at the Language Center located on the third floor in Taper Hall. The program is installed only on PCs. If you prefer a Mac, you need to learn more about the 'Chinese Language Kit' to do Chinese word-processing.

Getting started
    First, look for an icon that looks like this . After double-clicking on it, you'll see a blank document similar to the one shown below.

    Secondly, in the blank document, look at the bottom to the left. There are three settings to choose from, as shown below. Make sure you choose the setting as shown in the blank document above.

    Thirdly, to the right, you'll see something like this , which shows the third and fourth boxes are selected (the first, second and fifth boxes are deselected). Click on the box to change the setting accordingly if necessary. At this point, you are ready for the real work.  To understand the functions of the boxes, move the curser over the box area and click the right button of mouse.
 

Getting the job done

    Usually, we use the word processors to produce (1) pinyin (to spell sounds) with tone marks and (2) Chinese characters. Let's start with the first - pinyin with tone marks. First, look at the demo below.

    The first line shows you how to do pinyin with tone marks for a single character. In the example given above, the pinyin stands for ' I (personal pronoun),' which sounds like 'wo' in the third tone. In this case, you type 'w-o-3-(Shift-Space).' '(Shift-Space)' means you press and hold the Shift key and then press the Space bar.
    The second line shows that you can do pinyin with tone marks for several characters in a row. In the above example, which means 'us (' I ' plus 'a plural marker for personal pronouns'),' you type 'w-o-3-m-e-n-(Shift-Space).'

Inputting Chinese characters

    Again, refer to the demo below. The first line, which shows the character for ' I ' in English, spells out the pinyin and the tone; namely, you type 'w-o-3-Space' and by default the program gives you a highlighted character. Note that you get a list of two other characters with the same pronunciation to choose from.
    The second line spells out only the pinyin (type w-o-Space). By default, the program still gives you the same character; however, note that this time you get a list of more than ten items at the bottom to choose from. The logic is simple. The more specific is the input, the more specific is the output.
    With the third line, it shows you that you can do two characters or more at the same time (type w-o-3-m-e-n-Space). Again, you can type only pinyin and still get the same output, but chances are you might get a longer list to choose from. In the example, the tone is provided for 'wo' and omitted for 'men' (since it's a neutral tone) and luckily, by default the program gives the exact characters and no list to choose from.

    When you get more familiar with pinyin and the input method, you can just type the initials of a three-character
compound word to get the right characters if the compound exists in the dictionary." (for example, type 'g-h-g' to directly get gongheguo).

    NJStar has other useful functions to help you learn the Chinese language. For more information, use on-line help or consult your instructor.