This manual explains how to type Manchu with Manju IME, an input method editor (IME) for Windows. It starts with what the IME does, then goes through typing one word, the window that shows the word, and every key the IME uses. Installing Manju IME covers setup.
On a keyboard, each key normally puts one letter into your document. Manju IME works in two steps. First, the letters you type go into a small window beside the text, the candidate window, which shows them as a Manchu word; the document shows a mark where the word will go. Then, when you press Space, the word goes into the document in Manchu letters. Until then you can add letters, delete them, or pick another form of a letter.
You spell each word in Latin letters, with one of six input schemes: Input Schemes shows each of them letter by letter.
Press Win+Space and pick Manju IME. It is listed under the language you chose in Setup.
- Type the letters of a word, for example
nama. The candidate window opens beside the text and shows ᠨᠠᠮᠠ. - Press Space. ᠨᠠᠮᠠ goes into your document, and the candidate window closes.
The candidate window after typing šanyan with the Möllendorff input scheme: s, a tap of
Shift, then anyan.
The candidate window has two parts.
- The letters typed, on the left: one row for each letter of the word. A letter spelled with two
Latin letters takes one row, such as
ng, and so does a whole syllable, such assy. One row is highlighted: at first the last one. - The cards, on the right: each card shows the whole word, with a different form of the letter
of the highlighted row. The first line of a card names the form:
baseis the plain form, andvariant FVS1is the form that free variation selector 1 (U+180B) selects. Then come the position of the letter in the word, such asfinal, and the letter’s code point, the number Unicode gives it.
ng is one letter in every scheme and takes one row: angga (mouth), typed with the Möllendorff input
scheme.
A whole syllable is one row too: sy, and the jy of jytu, typed with the Möllendorff input scheme.
Followed by g, ng is drawn as one glyph with it: angga with the row of ng highlighted, after
Up twice, in the Möllendorff input scheme.
Each card shows another form of the highlighted letter: gisun and bithe, typed with the Möllendorff
input scheme.
The table is for Manchu input; in Latin input every key works as it does without an IME. While you type a word, the keys act on the word. When you are not typing a word, most keys go to the program you type in, as they would without an IME.
| Key | While you type a word | When you are not typing a word |
|---|---|---|
| A letter | Adds the letter to the word. A letter that the input scheme does not use joins the letters typed as itself, and goes into the document as that Latin letter. Caps Lock, and Shift held with a letter, make no difference. | Starts a word. A letter that the scheme does not use goes into the document as itself. |
| Space | Puts the word into the document in Manchu letters, with the forms you picked. | Types a space. |
| Enter | Puts the word into the document as you typed it: the letters you picked in their Manchu form, the others in Latin letters. | Goes to the program. |
| Esc | Cancels the word: nothing goes into the document. | Goes to the program. |
| Backspace | Takes back the last pick; when no letter has a pick, deletes the last letter typed. Deleting the only letter closes the candidate window. | Goes to the program. |
| 1 to 9 and 0, also on the numeric keypad | Picks the card with that number for the highlighted letter: see Pick a form with the number keys. A number with no card does nothing. | Types the digit. |
| Up, Down | Moves the highlight to the letter before or after. | Goes to the program. |
| Left, Right | Moves the highlight to the card before or after; this does not pick the card. | Goes to the program. |
| Page Up, Page Down | When the word has more letters than the window shows, shows the rows before or after, and highlights the first letter shown. | Goes to the program. |
| Tab | Goes to the program. Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and the other programs built on Chromium end the word when they get it, so Manju IME first puts the word into the document as you typed it: see Leaving a word. In other programs, such as Notepad, the word stays open. | Goes to the program. |
| Ctrl, Alt, or Win with another key, and F1 to F12 | Go to the program. In Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and the other programs built on Chromium, Manju IME first puts the word into the document as you typed it, as it does for Tab; a key that takes you to another program, such as Alt+Tab or Win+D, drops the word: see Leaving a word. | Go to the program. |
| Shift, tapped | Adds the mark or the apostrophe to the letter before it: see Tap Shift in the middle of a word. | Switches between Latin and Manchu input: see Switch between Latin and Manchu. |
' |
Separates two letters, or, pressed a second time, puts the word into the document as Enter does and adds an apostrophe after it: see The apostrophe key. | Types an apostrophe. |
- |
Inserts the Mongolian vowel separator: see Suffixes. | Types a hyphen. |
| Shift+Space | Does the same as -. |
Starts a word that holds only the vowel separator, shown as a dot in the document, with no candidate window. |
, . Shift+; |
Adds the Manchu comma ᠈, the Manchu full stop ᠉, or the colon ᠄ to the word: see Punctuation. | Starts a word with that mark. |
| Any other symbol key, and Shift with a digit | Adds the symbol printed on the key, which goes into the document as it is. | Starts a word with that symbol. |
| Delete, Home, End | Change nothing. | Go to the program. |
When you switch to another program with Alt+Tab in the middle of a word, Manju IME drops the word, as Esc does, and nothing goes into the document. When the program you type in ends the word itself, for example when Microsoft Edge moves to another field on Tab, on a click, or on a key such as Ctrl+L or F6, or when you click another window of Edge, the word goes into the document as you typed it: the letters you picked in their Manchu form, the others in Latin letters.
Each card shows the word with one form of the highlighted letter. To pick a form, press the number of its card: the letter shows the picked form beside it, and the highlight moves on to the next letter when that letter has no pick yet. When every letter has a pick, the word goes into the document. Otherwise Space puts it there, and each letter without a pick keeps the form of its first card. Press Up or Down to choose the letter first; Left and Right only move the highlight from card to card.
nama typed with the Möllendorff input scheme, then 2: the last letter shows the form of card 2, and
the word waits for Space.
Forms picked with the number keys in the Möllendorff input scheme: the last letter of julesi
(forward) given each of its four cards; bithe (book) with its two joined pairs joined or apart, where
the order of the picks makes no difference; three letters of hūwašabumbi picked, the middle one first;
and after a pick, Space, which enters the word in Manchu letters with the form picked, and Enter,
which enters the letter picked in its Manchu form and the others in Latin letters.
When you are not in the middle of a word, a short tap of Shift switches between Latin and Manchu input. In Latin input the keys type as they do without an IME.
manju in Manchu, a tap of Shift, manju in Latin letters, another tap of Shift, and hergen
being typed, with the Möllendorff input scheme.
ere bithe be English gisun de ubaliyambuha. (This book was translated into English.) Typed with the
Möllendorff input scheme: a tap of Shift switches to Latin input for English, and another tap
switches back.
A standard keyboard has no key for some spellings: the apostrophe in spellings such as k', and ū,
š, and ž in Möllendorff and Norman. For these, type the letters up to the apostrophe, or the letter
without its mark, then tap Shift: k, then Shift, gives k' in every scheme but BabelPad and Hu,
and in Möllendorff, s, then Shift, gives š. A second tap changes nothing.
In Möllendorff, t and s typed one after the other make the one letter ts, so Shift after them
gives ts'. For t followed by š, type t, the ' key, s, then tap Shift.
Spellings typed with Shift lists every such spelling of
each scheme.
In the middle of a word, the ' key separates two letters that would otherwise make one: ng gives the
one letter ᠩ, and n'g gives ᠨ followed by ᡤ. The ' key itself does not go into the document. Pressed a
second time, it puts the word into the document as Enter does, with the letters you picked in their
Manchu form and the others in Latin letters, and adds an apostrophe after it.
nga and n'ga, typed with the Möllendorff input scheme: the ' key separates n from g.
Three keys give Manchu punctuation: , gives the Manchu comma ᠈, . gives the Manchu full stop ᠉, and
Shift+; gives the colon ᠄. Every other symbol key, [ and ] included, with or without Shift,
gives the symbol printed on it, and in the middle of a word the symbol joins the letters typed, except for
' and - without Shift: there ' separates two letters and - inserts the Mongolian vowel
separator, as The apostrophe key and Suffixes describe.
In the middle of a word, - and Shift+Space insert the Mongolian vowel separator (U+180E), which
sets a suffix apart from the word before it: bi, -, de gives ᠪᡳᡩᡝ. The settings file can make them
insert a narrow no-break space (U+202F) instead.
The - key before each suffix inserts the Mongolian vowel separator: manju-i, bi-de, boo-ci,
bithe-be, gurun-i, and niyalma-de, typed with the Möllendorff input scheme.
The input scheme is the spelling you type. Pick one in the settings file, keymap.scheme:
| Input scheme | Name in the settings file |
|---|---|
| Abkai | abkai |
| BabelPad | babelpad |
| Hu | hu |
| Möllendorff, the default | mollendorff |
| Norman | norman |
| Refined Romanisation (draft) | refined |
The display scheme is the spelling that the letters typed show in the candidate window,
display.scheme. The default, input, shows what you typed; the name of an input scheme shows that
scheme’s spelling, whatever you typed. It changes only the Latin letters on the screen, not the Manchu
that goes into the document.
shun typed with Refined Romanisation (draft), shown as šun with the display scheme set to
Möllendorff.
The candidate window after typing manju with the Möllendorff input scheme, in each theme.
To choose a theme, set theme under appearance in the settings file to windows11, soyoung,
solarizeddark, court, highcontrast, beangreen, google, or android. The next key you press
after saving the file uses the new theme.
- Windows 11, the default: light grey, with blue highlights.
- So Young: the light colours of Solarized, a colour scheme by Ethan Schoonover, with cyan and magenta highlights.
- Solarized Dark: the dark colours of Solarized, with blue highlights.
- Court: warm gold, with vermilion highlights and gold lines.
- High Contrast: black on white, with blue highlights.
- Bean Green: pale green, with navy blue highlights.
- Google: white, with blue highlights.
- Android: deep teal, with white text and yellow-green highlights.
The settings are in Runtime\Resource\Configuration\configuration.yaml, in the folder Manju IME is
installed in. It is a YAML file, plain text with one setting per line, and it describes each setting.
keymap.scheme is the input scheme and display.scheme the display scheme.
Save the file, and most changes apply at the next key you press, half a second or more after saving.
Font settings apply the next time you switch to Manju IME. If the saved file holds a value Manju IME
cannot use, it ignores that version of the file and keeps its current settings. If Manju IME is
installed under C:\Program Files, saving the file needs administrator rights.
The colours of the So Young and Solarized Dark themes come from Solarized, by Ethan Schoonover.
This manual, with its pictures, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0): see LICENSE.