haha, dude, they have a keyboard just like you do with letters from a-z. The most popular input system in "pinyin" which uses the English alphabet system to create characters. For e.g. 你好 is pronounced "nihao" so you type in "n-i" and it will give you a selection of characters that are pronounced "ni" which you select the correct one from and then you do the same with "h-a-o". Sounds slow but once you get used to it its quite fast. I personally type faster in Chinese than English! There is also another system based on stroke order. All the chinese characters are written in a rule-based way, left to right, up to down (mostly), and by pushing keys with designated strokes on them, you can create any Chinese character. This is mostly used by natives though. It's difficult for people like me to use this system, though not impossible!!! Hope you understand.

if you wanna to type pinyin with tone please read A if you wanna to type Chinese character please read B A: The software is called "sou gou pin yin",find it and setup(open www.baidu.com , type "sou gou pin yin"and search) . you can see a Panel list when you want to type Chinese by it. you can find a small keyboard icon on the list,and kick right botton on it,and chose the No5 item,then you can see a small soft-keyboard. the all pinyin is on it. Note:this sofeware can be used on the Chinese version windows system,I dont know whether it does work on the other version. B: This sofeware also can type Chinese character by pinyin,if it doesnot work.you can try this way. Control panel ---- Regions Languages----Language item ----- Detail info --- Add choose Chinese on the top item choose "Microsoft Pinyin 2003" or"智能ABC" on the lower item. this way usually can work on any version system , because it supply with microsoft.

there are many ways to type Chnese. you can use Bopomofo. it's easier.

by the way thanx for ur answer.

well we call it phonetic notation. We have it on keyboards. just like phonics in English. hope i can help u a little~