How to use Google Pinyin IME?

[PRFrommer]

I'm a beginning student of Zhongwen. I've purchased Hanping Chinese Pro 2.4.1, which looks like an excellent program, and I've downloaded Google Pinyin IME. But I don't know how to use the latter.

I can enter Pinyin easily. My problem is in looking up characters I'm not familiar with, where I don't know the pronunciation. I understand how to search by radical and stroke number in a hard-copy dictionary, but how do you do this with Google Pinyin IME? I have no idea how to use the keyboard.

Is there a user's manual available that explains these things in clear English for first-year students of Chinese who don't yet have a good reading knowledge of the language?

[hanping]

I'm not sure how Google Pinyin IME supports this, but I've read that it does. I've haven't tried using it myself since I always look up words using either pinyin or handwriting recognition.

Have you tried using a handwriting recognizer like gPen?

[PRFrommer]

Thanks very much for the prompt response. I took your advice and downloaded gPen. Wow! It's terrific, and just what I needed. I wish the help instructions weren't only in Chinese; I'll need to get some of my Chinese-speaking friends to help me understand the details. But in the meantime I can trace characters on the screen and have them recognized by the Hanping dictionary. Fantastic! Much appreciated. Thanks again, and Happy New Year!