Return of the Unicode IME

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/07/20 03:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/07/20/671835.aspx

I have previously (like in Typing in random Unicode code points) talked about using the Unicode IME as a way to input random Unicode code points by their code point values. It was therefore something of a shock to me when Lionel Fourquaux mentioned a few months ago that:

I have been unable to find the Unicode IME in Vista (build 5308). Was it removed? If so, why? I'm missing it.

I looked, and yes, this IME had been removed! :-(

I talked to some of the folks on the Input Method Editor (IME) team and on the Text Services Framework (TSF) team, and the removal was intentional. There was a concerted effort to assist with maintainability of the IMEs to make sure that they were using TSF rather than the old IMM mechanisms, and since this IME was kind of built in to all of the other ones, there just wasn't a strong advantage to having a standalone one that did the same thing....

And of course just having something mentioned here in this blog is not a compelling enough reason, either. :-(

However, after working with some of the folks on the TSF team I have a beta version that may eventually be a great sample of a new type of TSF TIP that is entirely text based, which can be used to replace the Unicode IME.

With the permission of that group, I am making this beta available to those who want to try it out. All you need to participate is a somewhat recent build of Vista and to be reader of this blog (how else will you know about it?).

Don't forget the disclaimer text: "Postings are provided as is with no warranties, and confer no rights." To that I would add the same text in Hebrew is something like "הודעה זו מסופקת "כפי שהיא" ללא כל אחריות או חיובים, ואינה נותנת לך זכויות כלשהן".

For those of you who are using Vista who want to try it out, you can download the 1.6 mb text file here (or the 166 kb zipped version here!), then follow these instructions

1) Copy the text file to \Program Files\Windows NT\TableTextService on your Vista machine (if the "Program Files" on your machine is another language, use that directory, do not create a new one!).

2) Open an elevated command prompt and navigate to that directory.

3) Run the following from that command prompt:

rundll32 TableTextService.dll RegisterProfile TableTextServiceUnicode.txt

4) Say OK to the dialog that comes up verifying you want to install it:

You can now add the Unicode IME to the Chinese (Taiwan) locale by going through the following steps that are illustrated here.

And that is all you have to do. Now, when you type in an application like Notepad, you can switch to the IME and type in code point values like 00E5 or 0951 of whatever, and the character will be typed!

Now even as a sample this is a work in progress, like for example I want to change some of the configuration settings so you can see the code point you are in the middle of typing.

And I want it to be able to be available for other locales too, for obvious reasons.

And this IME will not work in the console, sorry about that. I don't think that partiular limitation can be addressed, so pretend you never saw this post before. :-)

You get the idea -- it is a beta!

There will be documentation on the format of the text file that will be available eventually, and I will probably blog about it a bit too in the future (plus maybe share some of my other samples, such as a Cantonese IME I have been working on).

But if you are using a recent build of Vista and want to try out this sample, a meager attempt at a replacement version of the Unicode IME from prior versions, especially if you wanted to post feedback about it here.

Enjoy!

# dono on 20 Jul 2006 4:32 AM:

# Nick Lamb on 22 Jul 2006 2:50 PM:

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# Omi on 17 Sep 2006 3:31 AM:

# Michael S. Kaplan on 17 Sep 2006 9:58 AM:

# Omi on 17 Sep 2006 10:15 AM:

# Michael S. Kaplan on 17 Sep 2006 10:31 AM:

# Omi on 18 Sep 2006 5:22 AM:

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# Omi on 18 Sep 2006 9:29 AM:

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# Omi on 19 Sep 2006 12:32 AM:

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# uccoffee on 7 Oct 2006 5:49 AM:

# Michael S. Kaplan on 7 Oct 2006 11:23 AM:

# Peter Gibbons on 22 Nov 2008 2:10 PM:

# Michael S. Kaplan on 23 Nov 2008 12:30 PM:

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