Introduction WinVNKey is a free Windows-based keyboard driver for typing Vietnamese and many other languages in the world.
WinVNKey supports most, if not all, Vietnamese character sets (encodings) known so far. For example, it supports Vietnamese Unicode, VISCII, VNI, VPS, ABC, ... as well as obsolete Vietnamese character sets used in the 1980’s. It can also be used to type many national languages such as French, German, Polish, Czech, Russian, Pali, Pinyin, Japanese, etc.. In particular, users can obtain Hán (Chinese) and Nôm (Vietnamese classic) characters by either typing their pronunciations in Vietnamese or Pinyin, or entering numerical codes. WinVNKey has a very smart algorithm to handle diacritical mark placement and to correct spelling.Users can type the marks anywhere in the syllable of a Vietnamese word and WinVNKey can figure out if the word is Vietnamese and will position them accordingly. If adding a new character to an existing Vietnamese word makes it non Vietnamese, WinVNKey can automatically undo all the marks that were typed for that word if desired.This feature is very useful when typing text in mixed languages such as Vietnamese and English.In addition, WinVNKey can correct spelling on the fly (while typing) for single, double, and triple words based on a combination of grammar rules and databases. Users can also turn on HánNôm mode where typing Vietnamese or Pinyin pronunciations, or some other numerical codes, will result in Hán and Nôm characters. WinVNKey maintains a very large database of HánNôm characters based on the Unicode standard. It provides an interface for users to update the HánNôm database with files from the latest Unicode standard without waiting for the next release of WinVNKey. Users can also define their own characters and how to type them. Support for conversion of character sets in plain text or rich text (RTF) is very powerful. About a hundred character sets are supported, which allow users to convert from any character set to any other character set. Users can also add new character sets simply by providing a file that contains the mapping of that character set to Unicode. WinVNKey is unique in the market regarding support for converting Vietnamese documents in MS Word that contain fonts from different character sets. For example, an old Word document can contain ABC fonts, VNI fonts, Microsoft fonts, etc. This means it contain characters from at least three character sets: TCVN, VNI, and Unicode. To convert this document to Unicode, users simply save the file as an RTF document, then run the converter in WinVNKey. The converter will list the names of all the fonts used in the document and ask the users to specify the new fonts, one for each old font. The key strength of WinVNKey is its powerful support for macro processing and setting customization that can meet the need of the most demanding users.WinVNKey exposes hundreds of settings to users.The product is shipped with a number of predefined sets of settings stored in text files.Users can modify these files directly, or via the user interface, to define their own typing methods and macros. There are no limits on the number of macros users can define and load. Many users have reported using hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese macros in WinVNKey without degrading its performance.This is a good testament to the extremely fast and efficient algorithm in WinVNKey that handles both macros and HánNôm typing.Note that if HánNôm typing is enabled, WinVNKey will have to handle hundreds of thousands of HánNôm entries.Thus, even if a user thinks he does not use any Vietnamese macros, WinVNKey actually works hard behind his back if he turns on HánNôm but he would not see any slowdown in performance.
View screenshots of WinVNKey. WinVNKey Highlights -Support user interfaces in English and Vietnamese -Support most, if not all, Vietnamese character sets and 45 other national character sets details -Support many Vietnamese typing methods: VNI, Telex, VIQR, Microsoft, etc. details -Support smart typing of Vietnamese accent marks -Correct spelling for single words and compound words -Support typing many languages simultaneously (more than 30 countries) details -Support typing HánNôm by Vietnamese and Pinyin pronunciations, or by the four corner index method or Canjiedetails -Convert character case for text selected by mouse in all applications, not just MS Word details -Recover email from wrong UTF-8 transformation details -Provide Hỏi/Ngã (the Falling and Rising accent marks) look-up for Vietnamese words details -Provide a Unicode typepad similar to Microsoft Characters Map details -Retype documents details -Convert Vietnamese character sets in plain text documents details -Convert character sets and fonts for RTF documents (only need source font and destination font) details -Provide fast macros to type Vietnamese syllables or word suffixes -Provide a variety of macros appropriate for many use cases details -Support hundreds if user-defined hot keys, which are designed to avoid collision with other applications -Support Vietnamese typing in games (e.g., Audition) details -Support fast typing method Tubinhtrandetails The long listing above still does not do justice to WinVNKey. It simply has too many functionalities to describe here.Users can find them out by clicking the blue text (hyperlinks) in the WinVNKey user interface to see the detailed explanation, or see the articles about WinVNKeyin Manual of WinVNKey or the next section.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ Articles about WinVNKey -Express Manual for WinVNKey -Download WinVNKey & Type Vietnamese -Multilingual support in WinVNKey -Understanding special features of WinVNKey -Typing HánNôm with WinVNKey(written in Vietnamese) -Typing Vietnamese in Audition games _____________________________________________________________________________________________ News • Date 2009-05-06: WinVNKey 5.5.456, released in two separate categories: - WinVNKey 5.5.456 for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7.
This 32-bit version supports 32-bit applications such as MS Office, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, pidgin, etc. It can run on Vista or Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 (both 32-bit or 64-bit) without turning off UAC (User Account Control) or Protected Mode.
- WinVNKey 5.5.456 for Windows NT/2K/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7.
This 32-bit version is almost identical to (a) but is compiled to run on earlier versions of Windows. Although it can run on Windows 7, Windows 7 users should install (a) to get the most benefits. You can see detailed information in Vietnamese or English. • Date 2008-01-28: released WinVNKey 5.5 444, with features: -Convert character case or character set for text selected by mouse in any application -Typing method: allow other key to provide letter d -Macro: support new functions. Add tail macro type, process the Lazy Syllable macro in smarter way -Viet Option Page: add function to change syllables, add some options 'Automatically change' and 'Edit syllable”. -Support fast typing method Tubinhtran ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Older news • Date 2007-08-09: released WinVNKey 5.5.431, with features: -Support smart typing of syllables: ie => iê, ue => uê, uye => uyê, ye => yê. -Support ÂuViệt Macintosh encoding (support typing method and conversion of RTF and plain text.) -Update database of Nôm (single word) by Mr. LêSơnThanh (KhúcThần), provided on 8/6/2007. -Support Hán databases of Buddhism, including 27,364 single words and compound words. Typing by Vietnamese pronunciations (select menu: Hán). • Date 2007-08-01: released WinVNKey 5.5.429, with features: -Strengthen the ability to define the ^ sign for each letter: a, e, o, and the hook for each letter: o and u. -For the first time, this version supports typing Hán by Pinyin pronunciations with accent marks: 1, 2, 3, 4. • Date 2006-08-06: released WinVNKey 5.5.424. • Date 2006-07-14: released WinVNKey 5.5.420 • Date 2006-03-10: released WinVNKey 5.2.390 • Date 2006-02-10: released WinVNKey 5.2.383 • Date 2005-10-27: released WinVNKey 5.2.373 • Date 2005-10-06: released WinVNKey 5.2.372 • Date 2005-03-08: released WinVNKey 5.0 for Windows NT/2K/XP • Date 2003-01-14: released WinVNKey 4.0 beta 3 for NT/95/98/ME oOo | 
