A software that enables people to input Chinese characters using a mouse instead of a keyboard has recently been developed in this capital of northwest China's Gansu Province.

The software was developed by Liu Jianping with the Lanzhou- based Yibowen Software Service and has been confirmed to be the first of its kind across China.

With this software, users can input any Chinese character by merely pressing mouse at most four times.

When inputting, people should choose the first letter of the phonetic form of the character, then its first and last stroke, and finally select the character you want from a small window.

The software proves to be highly convenient and efficient, with the fastest input speed reaching 30 characters a minute.

The software is very helpful to beginners surfing online and has great potential to become very popular, experts say.