Editing Wubi method (section)

== Subdivision of the keyboard ==

The Wubi keyboard assumes a [[QWERTY]]-like layout, so users of keyboards implementing a nationalized or alternative layout (such as [[Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak]] or the French [[AZERTY]]) will probably have to do some remapping to make the system sane.  Wubi does not position its components arbitrarily: there are far too many of them, and it is only with the introduction of a logical methodology that the system becomes easy to learn.

Basically, the keyboard is divided into 5 zones, each representing a stroke.  Those five strokes are falling left, falling right, horizontal, vertical, and hook, and the zones that represent them are QWERT, YUIOP, ASDFG, HJKLM, and
XCVBN, respectively.  These zones are all laid out horizontally, with the exception of M, which is not in line with the rest of the letters in its zone.

In a general way, the keyboard can be thought of as divided down the center, between T and Y, G and H, and N and M.  The keys in each zone are numbered moving away from this dividing line: so we should actually say that in zone QWERT, T is the first letter, R is the second, and E the third; in zone YUIOP, Y is the first, U is the second, I the third, etc.  For XCVBN, N is the first, and so on.  In HJKLM, consider M to be the last in the series, even though it does not lie on the line.

This is important because components in the first position will have one repetition of the stroke in question (the stroke assigned to the zone in which they belong), those in the second, two, those in the third, three.  Those components which are not easily classifiable using this paradigm will be placed on the last letter.

Therefore, one would expect 一 to be located on G, and 二 on F, and 三 on D, and indeed, this is the case.  Similarly, one would expect 丨 to be located on H, 刂 to be on J, and 川 to be on K.  This pattern holds for all the zones.  Furthermore, it extends to most radicals that look as though they are made up of three such strokes, even if in fact they might not be at all.  An example of this is 中 on K: while it does not have three downward strokes (two only), it appears to have three.  Furthermore, it is written by hand by first writing a mouth radical, 口, and then bisecting it with a vertical downward stroke.  The mouth radical lies on 'K', so this makes the assignment doubly logical.  And the pinyin romanization of 口, kou3, begins with k, another memory aid encoded into the Wubi keyboard.

Furthermore, each letter of each zone has one component associated with it, its "main component".  These are usually a complete character (with the exception of X) in their own right.  One can always type this main component by typing the letter it is situated on four times.  So, for example, the main component of H is 目, and so one would type it by typing "hhhh".

Each letter also has a shortcut character associated with it.  In some cases, this character is the same as the component associated with the key in question, and sometimes not.  This shortcut character is the character produced when one types just the letter and nothing else; these are all extremely common characters used when typing Chinese.

''It is entirely possible that there are a number of components not listed below, either because of oversight, because they are rarely used, or because no simple Unicode representation for the component exists.''

=== QWERT zone (falling left) ===

The Q key's main component is 金 and its shortcut character is 我.  It is associated with the following components: 金, 钅, 勹, 儿, 夕, as well as the hook at the top of 饣 and 角, the radical 犭 ''without the lower left-falling stroke'' (so characters with that radical start with "qt", not just "q"), the criss-cross (such as in the center of 区), the top of 鱼 (i.e., without the horizontal stroke at the bottom), and the three (nearly vertical) "feet" in the bottom right corner of 流.

The W key's main component and shortcut character are both 人.  It is associated with the following components: 人, 亻, 八, and the top of 癸.  While 人 means person, it is often used by Wubi to construct a roof radical, such as in 会, "wfc".  入 is not governed by W, despite looking similar, and while 餐 has a top that looks vaguely like the top of 癸, the two are not the same (indeed, to type 餐, one must physically type out each component on the top).

The E key's main component is 月, and its shortcut character is 有.  It is associated with the following components: 月, 用, 彡, 乃, the bottom of 衣 (i.e., without 亠), the top of 孚 (i.e., without 子), 豕 (hog), the bottom of 良 (i.e., without the 白), and the bottom of 舟 (i.e., without the little dot on the top). In this case, E's shortcut character does not even begin with a left-falling stroke, but merely prominently figures a component belonging to E. 彡 is featured on this character, as it is the third character in the zone (counting from T, see above).  A particular distortion that comes up often is the use of E in 且 and in characters containing it: Wubi thinks of this component as 月 + 一.

The R key's main component is 白, and its shortcut character is 的.  It is associated with the following components: 白, 手, 扌, 斤 (both with and without the T), 牛 (''without'' the vertical downward stroke), and of course the two left-falling strokes 𰀪 that one would expect from the second key in the zone (see above for an explanation).  Watch out for varieties of 手 where the central downward hook is replaced by a left-falling stroke, such as in
看.

The T key's main component is 禾, and its shortcut character is 和.  It is associated with the following components: 禾, 竹, 夂,  攵, 彳, and the top of 乞 (i.e., without the 乙). 竹 may also be found in its smaller form (⺮). 丿 is also found on this key, because T is the first key in the zone (see above).  This means that if one is typing a component or character stroke by stroke, they would (generally) use T to represent a left-falling stroke.  See the section on [[Wubi method#Disambiguation strokes|disambiguation strokes]] for more information on exceptions to this rule.

=== YUIOP zone (falling right) ===

This zone might also be called the dot zone, because its pattern of Y: 讠 U: 冫 I: 氵 and O: 灬 is not actually necessarily built up of right falling strokes.  In fact, one could argue that the first stroke in 灬 actually falls ''left''.  It is called the falling right zone because the keys in this zone, when used to construct a character by stroke (rather than component), all represent right falling strokes for some character configuration (see the section on [[Wubi method#Disambiguation strokes|disambiguation strokes]] for more information).

The Y key's main component is 言, and its shortcut character is 主.  It is associated with the following components: 言, 讠, 亠, 亠 with a 口 beneath it, 广, 文, 方, and 丶. These components all start with a right-falling stroke.  Generally, dots in Chinese characters are actually ''left'' falling strokes, and so most of the time, the use of T is more appropriate than Y.  Of course, if one can write Chinese characters by hand, they should be able to tell which to choose by recalling how it is written.

The U key's main component is 立, and its shortcut character is 产.  It is associated with the following components: 立, 六, 辛, 门, 疒, 丬, 冫, the "antennae" on the top of 单 (just two strokes: 丷), and the antennae plus a horizontal stroke, as found on the top of 兹.  Most of these all feature two short diagonal strokes (门 being the obvious exception).  This is consistent with U's place as the second letter in the zone (see above for an explanation).

The I key's main component is 水, and its shortcut character is 不.  It is associated with the following components: 水, 氵, 小, the three strokes on the top of 学, and the three strokes on the top of 当.  Additionally, a component which might be described as two 冫, back to back, is associated with this character.

The O key's main component is 火, and its shortcut character is 为. It is associated with the following components: 火, 米, 灬, and 业 ''without'' the bottom horizontal stroke — this allows construction of characters such as 严.  This is the 4th key in the falling right zone: hence the inclusion of 灬.

The P key's main component is 之, and its shortcut character is 这.  It is associated with the following components: 之, 辶, 廴, 冖, 宀, and 礻. As Wubi components are typed in the order that they would need to be written were one writing by hand, the 辶 and 廴 components are typically typed ''last''.

=== ASDFG zone (horizontal) ===
* The A key's shortcut character is 工.
* The S key's main component is 木, and its shortcut character is 要.
* The D key's main component is 大, and its shortcut character is 在.
* The F key's main component is 土, and its shortcut character is 地. The main component's name (earth) correlates to the shortcut character which means earth.
* The G key's main component is 王, and its shortcut character is 一.

=== HJKLM zone (vertical) ===
* The H key's main component is 目, and its shortcut character is 上.
* The J key's main component is 日, and its shortcut character is 是.
* The K key's main component is 口, and its shortcut character is 中.
* The L key's main component is 田, and its shortcut character is 国.
* The M key's main component is 山, and its shortcut character is 同.

=== XCVBN zone (hook) ===
* The X key's main component is 纟, and its shortcut character is 经.
* The C key's main component is 又, and its shortcut character is 以.
* The V key's main component is 女, and its shortcut character is 发.
* The B key's main component is 子, and its shortcut character is 了.
* The N key's main component is 已, and its shortcut character is 民.