I'm struggling for the 2nd time to add individual words on my own. I can't seem to do it. Here's an example of what I input but it never got validated. I've been thru the help files a couple of times.

Suggestions please...here's an example of what I wrote, copied and pasted from Skritter as invalid words.
"dian3-"spot"" is not a valid Chinese word! "zhen1-"true"" is not a valid Chinese word! ""zhen1"-"true"" is not a valid Chinese word! ""ming2"-"bright""

Just add the chinese characters.
If it hasn't been added to skritter then you will be asked for an english definition and pinyin after you click "validate".
Each line should be a new entry.

Oh!
To add the chinese characters you will need to have chinese input installed on your computer.
Alternatively, I guess you could look the word up in an online dictionary and copy it into skritter.

Ah yeah, it takes chinese characters, not pinyins. It says it's not a Chinese word because it detects English characters
where it's looking for Chinese characters. If that's not clear we can tweak the interface and the guide a bit to be more clear.

Adding words given the pinyin... that might be tricky to implement; I'd have to check with Nick on that. What would people find easier, validating words by character or by pinyin?

That's basically what most IMEs for Chinese do - you type in pinyin, they give you a list of characters to choose from.

No, I thought that Skritter actually accepts pinyin input for adding characters. It has a section 'How to add words' on the Queue menu that seems to say that pinyin with numbers for tones will work.

But I do need to get around to installing Traditional Chinese input. Any suggestions on that? Do you have a favorite 'free' program for Chinese input?

if it says that you can add pinyin I don't think it's true. I have only ever added characters.

I don't use Windows at home but I have heard Google's IME program/toolbar? is a good one... Microsoft has a few available through Windows that are ok...

I use google pinyin. I've set it up so its very discrete (shift+ctrl+S for no toolbar). Its better than Microsoft pinyin but the difference is not large.
Google pinyin is all in chinese, so if you are looking for your first input method I advise windows pinyin IME, its so easy to install.

SCIM, which is for linux is actually the best system that I have ever used. Much better than google pinyin.

Protips (pretty standard across all programs):
Tap SHIFT - change between typing english-chinese within the chinese language input.
PgUp/Dn - Scroll through choice of characters
CTRL+SPACE - change language
CTRL+[PERIOD] - change to chinese punctuation《。，’
SHIFT+SPACE - ｃｈａｎｇｅ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｉｓ（ｑｕａｎｊｉａｏ）
SHIFT+CTRL+T - change traditional/simplified (google only?)

Input is arranged like this:
English
-English
Chinese
-Pinyin
-English

Press ctrl+space to change languages, tap shift to change between pinyin/english within chinese.

http://www.newconcept.com/Reference/how_input_chinese.html

Ah, that part of the 'How to add words' is actually talking about the case when you try to add a word that we don't have but do have the characters for. Then it comes up with a window that asks you for the pinyin and definition and to choose the traditional form, if there are options for it. Then when you put that data in you can add the word to our database.

OK, I think I get it now. I really need to input pinyin using a Chinese input tool which will insert the character into Skritter. Sorry this is obvious to some, but not to a first year student like me.

I've downloaded from Windows and checked out the online tool referenced from the link at newconcept. It looks like it only works online. If it doesn't require tone numbers to be written or to select from a list of characters I might go with it.

Also pinyinput from the Chinese language forums is highly recommended there. http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=13005 Its not much use for me though cuz I need traditional characters.

If you have Windows, can't you just use the built-in IME? On mine, I go to the Control Panel, select Regional and Language Options, select the Languages tab, click Details... Then there's an Add button that lets me choose from dozens of different IMEs, including Simplified and Traditional Chinese.