Njstar

Life Technology
#1

Does anyone have any experience of using a word processor called njstar (www.njstar.com)? From the website it seems like it is a very good Chinese word processor for people whose first language is not Chinese. It has many input methods, simple and traditional characters and a Chinese-english dictionary.

A demo can be downloaded for free, but the full version costs $99. Also there are more expensive versions, but the only extra thing they include is more fonts. I wonder why it costs so much to get new fonts.

Anyway if anyone has used this program I would be interested to hear.

#2

NJStar is good for general word processing, although the fonts are ugly unless you register the software. I personally would go for regular old Microsoft Word [gasp!] with an appropriate IME (“Input Method Editor”) from Microsoft, or perhaps the “Natural Input 99” from IQChina.com which has a variety of input methods for your pleasure.

Just my NT$0.66
Terry

#3

I recently downloaded the Microsoft Simplified & Traditional IME’s. As far as I know, you can only input bo-po-mo-fo when using traditional char.s, so if you don’t know zhuyin fu hao, it won’t be very useful for you. The simplified char.s use pinyin…
Another limitation (somebody PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) is that you can’t display the pronunciation beside/above the chinese char.s, which I have been able to do in Chinese Win98 (although on bo-po-mo-fo). That’s actually what I need the most, as well as a Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary.

I’d also like to know more about NJStar… if anybody has it, I’d be happy to invite them to a coffee in Tien Mou or dinner at Club 75 (#75, Tien Mou N. Rd. S. 6) if they could: a) bring their laptop w/NJStar; or b) bring the CD so I could try it out on mine. fyi, we’ll be way too busy this week, but after we’ve settled in to our new place on Friday, I should have more time.

Harold mraulston@aol.com 0918 423 042

#4

Hi Harold,

Assuming that you are using Windows 2000 (it might be the same for XP), please see an earlier disuccsion on how to type in Mainland’s han4 yu3 pin1 yin1 instead of the bo po mo fo.

http://oriented.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000061
(It should be about the 5th post down)

Jeremy

#5

I use NJStar Word Processor - the $US99 version - I love it - biggest features for me are using pinyin to write traditional characters, and converting Chinese characters to pinyin. Also my first choice for a dictionary interface.

The only minus, to me, is that Dreye will not respond to the text in NJStar. So I just cut and past it into MS Word if I need to.