What's new
New lessons, series and features as they ship. Subscribe to follow along.
Subscribe (Atom)New game, Cangjie Minesweeper: sweep mines by decomposing characters, in a retro window look
The games area has a new puzzle, Cangjie Minesweeper, dressed in a classic Windows 95 window: every tile is a character, and you open it by typing its Cangjie code (then space, like a real input method). Deduce where the mines are from the numbers; click a tile to see its code hint (which costs score), right-click or long-press to flag. Step on a mine and you have a few seconds to retype it and defuse, or it explodes. Boards are no-guess, so you never have to gamble. Beginner is free to play (the 50 most common characters); subscribe to unlock Intermediate and Expert and hundreds more characters.
Open →New game, Radical Rain: drill the Cangjie radical keys by playing
A new games area is live, starting with Radical Rain: as each Cangjie radical appears, press its key before time runs out, and the 24 radical positions settle into your fingers. There is selectable difficulty and combo scoring, a practice focus you can set to target your weak keys or draw at random, and the correct key is shown whenever you miss. A Memory mode presents the radicals as flip cards with no falling motion, friendlier for players sensitive to movement or with accessibility needs. Completely free, no account, and it plays on computer and phone.
Open →Dictionary pages: add a character to your practice list in one tap
Every character page in the dictionary now lets you add that character (and its easily-confused same-code siblings) to your practice list in one tap, then drill it in favorites practice. The list is stored locally, free, and needs no account; sign in to save it across devices and track your progress, so every lookup can turn into practice.
Open →Lesson pages now explain each stage and link the reference guides
Each lesson-area page (basic radicals, auxiliary shapes, character division, common characters) now explains what that stage drills and why it matters, and links to the related guides: the radical table, radical mnemonics, the first-code and code-count rules, the tricky character list, and the "Cangjie practice: from zero to fluent" path. Lessons, guides, and practice now connect to each other so the next step is easy to find.
Open →Sentence decoder: paste any text and get every character's Cangjie code at once
The dictionary's sentence tool is now a full batch decoder: paste a whole sentence or article and instantly get the Cangjie code and step-by-step breakdown for every character, copy all the codes at once, and tap any character for its full breakdown. Great for typing practice and proofreading, completely free and no account needed.
Open →Dictionary pages now link to the lessons that teach each character
Character pages in the dictionary now have a "Taught in" section that links straight to the lessons which teach that character (common characters, basic radicals, auxiliary shapes, and Cantonese), taking you to that lesson's intro instead of making you hunt through a series. Premium lessons are marked with a lock and open a preview of the lesson.
Open →New lessons: hard-to-differentiate auxiliary shapes
A new set of lessons at the end of the Auxiliary Shapes track helps you tell apart auxiliary shapes that look similar but belong to different keys (for example 丨 中 vs 亅 弓). Each prompt highlights one confusable shape inside a real character, greys out the rest, and asks you to recognise and type just that key. Grouped by stroke class (verticals, throws and slants, dots and presses, corners, and curved hooks), plus a comprehensive test.
Open →New classical text: Hundred Family Surnames
The classic primer 百家姓 (Hundred Family Surnames) is now available: over five hundred surnames, including compound surnames, split into twelve chapters of forty-seven characters each, plus a full-text challenge.
Open →New series: Colloquial Cantonese
A new series for Cantonese speakers covering the colloquial Cantonese characters you use every day (嘅, 喺, 咗, 唔, 佢, 哋, 啲, 嗰, 嘢, 乜 and more), ordered by how common they are in everyday written Cantonese: five lessons of ten characters plus a fifty-character test.
Open →Cangjie version 3 support
Settings now has a Cangjie version option: choose version 3 or version 5 (v5 is the default), and practice and tests check your answers against the version you pick. Dictionary character pages show both the v3 and v5 codes by default, labeled separately when they differ, and annotated characters show both step-by-step breakdowns; you can also narrow the display to one version in Settings.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 901–1000
The most-common-characters track now reaches rank 1000, with ten lessons plus a 100-character test.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 801–900
The most-common-characters track now reaches rank 900, with ten lessons plus a 100-character test.
Open →New reference article: the 24 Cangjie radicals and their four groups
We wrote a new reference article on the Cangjie radicals. Our view is that you learn their radicals by practicing their positions on the keyboard. This introduces the 24 keys and the four groups (philosophy, strokes, body, shapes).
Open →New Cangjie practice guide
We wrote a new Cangjie practice guide lays out a path from zero to fluent: learn the radicals, understand the code rules, drill with the lessons, and look up any character in the dictionary, with a link at every step.
Open →New reference article: how many Cangjie codes do you need
We wrote a new reference article that explains how many codes a character needs. You split it into a head and a body, then type the head's first and last and the body's first, second and last, for at most five codes in all. A connected character that cannot be split needs its first three plus its last.
Open →New reference article: tricky Cangjie characters
We wrote a new reference article about difficult Cangjie characters. There are three kinds: hard to split characters that use the 難 code, exceptions that have fixed Cangjie codes, and connected characters that are hard to split. We made tables for each with its Cangjie code and a short explanation.
Open →New reference article: Cangjie vs Sucheng
A new reference article explains how Sucheng derives its codes (keeping only the first and last code of the full Cangjie code), how it compares to Cangjie, and why it makes you choose from a candidate list more often, with worked examples using common characters.
Open →Redesigned lessons page: organized by area, with faster navigation
The lessons page is now split into four area pages (basic radicals, auxiliary shapes, character division, and common characters), each with its own URL. A Continue Learning shortcut at the top leads back to where you left off, the Lessons menu in the header jumps straight to main Lessons hub, a drop down takes you to a lesson area, and leaving a lesson now returns you to that lesson's area page rather than the top of the list.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 701–800
The most-common-characters track now reaches rank 800, with ten lessons plus a 100-character test.
Open →Sign in with a Microsoft account
The sign-in and sign-up pages now offer Continue with Microsoft, supporting both personal Microsoft accounts and work or school (Entra ID) accounts.
New article: Hong Kong's eighteen districts
A new modern article practice piece about Hong Kong's eighteen districts, split into three chapters.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 601–700
The most-common-characters track now reaches rank 700, with ten lessons plus a 100-character test.
Open →Small updates to the header and footer
We reorganized the navigation bar layout: the site name and logo sit on the left, Settings and Sign In on the right, and the rest of the links are centered. The language switch (中/EN) has moved to the footer.
A dedicated page for every radical
The reference section now has a dedicated page for each of the 24 Cangjie keys, covering that radical's auxiliary shapes and example characters. Reach them from any radical in the radical table, or from the reference index.
Open →Results review now shows your slowest characters
Now while you work through lessons, articles and tests, the system records how long it takes you to type each character. The review section displays the characters that took you the longest to type.
Color-blind palettes reordered so adjacent positions stand out
The red-green and blue-yellow radical color palettes have been reordered so consecutive code positions are more distinct, avoiding two similar colors landing next to each other. You can pick them in Settings.
Open →Custom text practice: results review when you finish
After finishing a custom text, you now review your accuracy, typing speed and time spent. This matches behavior for lessons and articles.
Open →Article practice: Cangjie hints on any character
When hints are on in article practice, show hints when hovering completed or skipped characters.
Open →More practice in two auxiliary-shape lessons
Two auxiliary-shape lessons, for the 人 and 心 keys, had fewer practice items than the others. They now match the standard amount, so every character gets enough repetition.
Open →New beginner's guide: How to Learn Cangjie
A new reference article, How to Learn Cangjie: A Complete Beginner's Guide, explains the input method from scratch: how Cangjie decomposes characters, the radicals, the order to learn them, a practice routine and common pitfalls, with links into the lessons, radical table, first-code page and dictionary.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the tenth lesson of 千字文, completing all 1,000 characters
All 100 characters in the final lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown. With this, every one of the 1,000 characters in the whole text is fully annotated, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the ninth lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the ninth lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the eighth lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the eighth lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the seventh lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the seventh lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →New series: Word Games (character-composition poems)
A new Word Games series collects classic character-composition poems. Each line spells out the parts that build a character, for example 山 plus 高 makes 嵩, and 中 plus 心 makes 忠, which mirrors the way Cangjie itself breaks characters into radicals. It includes works by Qingyuan Zhenyou, Liu Yizhi, the Four Talents of Jiangnan, Kong Rong, and Bai Juyi.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the sixth lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the sixth lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the fifth lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the fifth lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the fourth lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the fourth lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Free lessons, no account needed
You can now try a set of lessons for free, with no account or subscription, right here on the site. The separate demo at demo.cangjieworkbook.com has been merged in and now redirects to www.cangjieworkbook.com, so the free content lives here.
Open →New FAQ page
A new FAQ page answers common questions about Cangjie Workbook and the Cangjie input method: how hard it is to learn, how long it takes, what it costs, which platforms it works on, and how Cangjie compares to pinyin and Quick. Available in both English and Chinese.
Open →Dictionary pages now show readings, meaning, radical and strokes
Every character page (for example 看) now shows the Mandarin reading (zhuyin and pinyin), an English definition, the radical and the stroke count alongside the Cangjie code and step-by-step breakdown, so a code lookup also tells you about the character. The data comes from Unicode's Unihan database.
Open →New Reference section, with a first deep dive on the opening code
A new evergreen Reference section collects Cangjie topics that stay valid over time. The first article is a deep dive on the opening code: the scan order, why a stroke at the top is usually taken as 竹, why a leading hook counts as 弓, and look-alike characters whose first codes differ, each with a step-by-step breakdown.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the third lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the third lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the second lesson of 千字文
All 100 characters in the second lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Customize the stroke-annotation colors
Settings now lets you customize the stroke-annotation colors: apply a preset (red-green and blue-yellow colorblind options, plus high-contrast), or fine-tune each Cangjie code position, then preview the change on common characters before saving, with a warning when two positions look too similar to tell apart.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the whole opening of 千字文
All 100 characters in the opening lesson of 千字文 now show a step-by-step breakdown, coloring which strokes each Cangjie code covers.
Open →Added the 弟子規 (Dizigui) series
Li Yuxiu's classic 弟子規 is now a practice text: work through it line by line while drilling Cangjie codes.
Open →More essays about Taiwan and Hong Kong
The practice-article library grows with more short essays on everyday Taiwan and Hong Kong topics.
Open →Open dictionary, per-character pages, and bilingual pages
The Cangjie dictionary and a dedicated code page for every character are now open to everyone, in both Chinese and English.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 501–600
The most-common-characters track now reaches rank 600, every character annotated.
Open →New lessons: most-common characters 301–500
Two more hundreds added to the most-common-characters track, fully annotated.
Open →Localized subscription pricing (JPY, TWD, HKD)
Subscription prices now show in your local currency (Japanese yen, New Taiwan dollar, Hong Kong dollar) for a clearer checkout.
Added the 三字經 (Three Character Classic) series
Wang Yinglin's 三字經 joins the practice texts: a natural way to build up common characters.
Open →Step-by-step stroke breakdowns for the top 300 characters
The 300 most-common characters now show an hkcards-style breakdown, coloring which strokes each code covers.
Most-common characters 201–300, ranked by Tsai's frequency list
The common-character track is now ordered by Chih-Hao Tsai's Traditional-Chinese frequency list, with ranks 201–300 added.
Open →Added 千字文 (Thousand Character Classic) and Cangjie typing input
Zhou Xingsi's 千字文 joins the practice texts, and the dictionary now accepts Cangjie-code input for lookups.
Open →Added About, Privacy, and Terms pages
A new About page explaining what the site is for, plus a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Open →New lessons on Cangjie code selection (取碼)
New lessons walk through the Cangjie code-selection rules: how to pick the right codes for a character.
Open →New character-decomposition (漢字分割) lessons
A new set of lessons teaches how to split characters into parts (head, body, and so on): the foundation of Cangjie code-taking.
Open →Color-coded radical annotations on the first 100 characters
The first 100 characters now show color-coded annotations, so it's easy to see which radical each Cangjie code maps to.
Open →Added a Cangjie code & auxiliary-shape reference
A reference panel you can open from any screen to look up Cangjie radicals and their auxiliary shapes.
Practice with your own custom texts
Subscribers can paste in their own text and practice typing it with Cangjie.
Accounts and cross-device progress sync
Sign in with an account and your progress is saved to the cloud, so you can pick up where you left off on any device.
In-header English / Chinese language toggle
Switch the interface between Chinese and English right from the header: the whole site is bilingual.