Editing Wubi method (section)

== How it works ==

Essentially, a character is broken down into components, which are usually (but not always) the same as [[Radical (Chinese character)|radicals]]. These are [[Stroke (CJKV character)|typed in the order in which they would be written by hand]]. In order to ensure that extremely complex characters do not require an inordinate number of keystrokes, any character containing more than 4 components is entered by typing the first 3 components written, followed by the last. In this way, each character's data can be entered with no more than 4 keystrokes.

Wubi distributes its characters very evenly and as such the vast majority of characters are uniquely defined by the 4 keystrokes discussed above. One then types a space to move the character from the input buffer onto the screen.  In the event that the 4 letter representation of the character is ''not'' unique, one would type a digit to select the relevant character (for example, if two characters have the same representation, typing 1 would select the first, and 2 the second). In most implementations, a space can always be typed and simply means 1 in an ambiguous setting. Intelligent software will try to make sure that the character in the default position is the one desired.

Many characters have more than one representation. This sometimes is for ease of use, in case there is more than one obvious way to break down a character. More often though, it is because certain characters have a short representation that is less than 4 letters, as well as a "full" representation.

For characters with fewer than 4 components that do not have a short form representation, one types each component and then "fills up" the representation (that is, types enough extra keystrokes to make the representation 4 keystrokes) by manually typing the strokes of the last component, in the order they would be written. If there are too many strokes, one should write as many as possible, but put the last stroke last (this mirrors the component rule for characters with more than 4 components outlined above).

Once the algorithm is understood, one can type almost any character with a little practice, even if one has not typed it before. [[Muscle memory]] ensures that frequent typists using this method do not have to think about how the characters are actually constructed, just as the vast majority of English typists do not think very much about the spelling of words when they write.