Up and running in a minute
Dấu Việt has no installer. Download, extract, run — every setting can be changed afterwards in the Settings window.
Installation
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Download
DauViet.zip313 KB, with no VC++ Redistributable or .NET required.
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Extract
DauViet.exeRight-click the zip → “Extract All…”. It contains exactly one 685 KB executable.
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Verify the SHA-256 hash
Open PowerShell in that folder and run
Get-FileHash .\DauViet.exe -Algorithm SHA256. The result must match the hash on the security page. -
Run it
No “Run as administrator” needed — Dấu Việt deliberately does not run elevated. The V badge appears in the notification area.
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Close any other Vietnamese IME
UniKey, EVKey, GoTiengViet… running at the same time will corrupt your text, because both rewrite the same keys. Dấu Việt warns you if it detects one; quit the other input method completely.
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Type a test
Open Notepad and type
tieengs Vieetj→tiếng Việt. To start it with Windows, tick “Start with Windows” on the General tab.
Telex key table
Type the letters first; the tone key can come anywhere in the syllable.
| Type | Get | Example |
|---|---|---|
aa | â | caan → cân |
aw | ă | nawm → năm |
ee | ê | eem → êm |
oo | ô | coon → côn |
ow | ơ | mow → mơ |
uw | ư | tuw → tư |
dd | đ | ddi → đi |
| Tone | Key | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Acute (sắc) | s | as → á |
| Grave (huyền) | f | af → à |
| Hook (hỏi) | r | ar → ả |
| Tilde (ngã) | x | ax → ã |
| Dot below (nặng) | j | aj → ạ |
| Clear the tone | z | asz → a |
Pressing the same transformation key again undoes it: aa gives â,
but aaa gives back aa. Handy when you mistype.
VNI key table
| Key | Effect | Example |
|---|---|---|
1 | Acute (sắc) | a1 → á |
2 | Grave (huyền) | a2 → à |
3 | Hook (hỏi) | a3 → ả |
4 | Tilde (ngã) | a4 → ã |
5 | Dot below (nặng) | a5 → ạ |
6 | Circumflex (â ê ô) | a6 → â |
7 | Horn (ơ ư) | o7 → ơ |
8 | Breve (ă) | a8 → ă |
9 | The letter đ | d9 → đ |
0 | Clear the tone | a10 → a |
In VNI the digits are the tone keys. When you type Covid19 or
abc123 the word is transformed for a moment and then
restored exactly as typed when you press space or Enter — that is the
correct behaviour, not a bug. If you have a lot of digits to type, switch to
English for a moment with Alt+Z.
Hotkeys
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt+Z | Switch Vietnamese ↔ English |
| Ctrl+Alt+Space | Open the text tools palette |
| Ctrl+Alt+Q | Open the Quick Convert window |
| Ctrl+Alt+P | Cycle configuration profiles |
| Click the tray badge | Switch language |
| Double-click the tray badge | Open Settings |
Every hotkey can be changed on the Advanced tab. If a combination is already taken by another program, Dấu Việt tells you so instead of silently doing nothing.
Frequently asked questions
An English word turned into Vietnamese. What now?
Three ways, pick whichever suits your habit: press Alt+Z to switch to English for a moment; add the word on the Dictionary tab; or set that application to English on the Applications tab.
For words like car, cast and hair the
result (cả, cát, hải) is a valid Vietnamese
syllable, so the engine cannot tell them apart — that is an inherent limit of
Telex.
Why doesn't w produce ư?
The “standalone w becomes ư” option is off by default,
because it mangles the first character of we, web,
with, window and www. Turn it on under the
Typing tab if you prefer the classic behaviour. The pairs
uw, ow and aw always work.
My text comes out scrambled, with characters missing.
Almost certainly a second input method is running. Quit UniKey/EVKey completely and try again; if text still gets tone marks while Dấu Việt is closed, the other program is the culprit.
Does it work in applications running as administrator?
No, by design. Windows does not let a normal-privilege process send keys into a higher-privilege window. Dấu Việt deliberately avoids UIAccess and any other technique for crossing that boundary, so it stands aside in those windows.
Where are my settings stored?
In %LOCALAPPDATA%\DauViet\: settings.json,
dictionary.json, snippets.json and
profiles.json. In portable mode they live in a data
folder next to the executable. The “Open data folder” button on the Advanced tab
takes you straight there.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit Dấu Việt from the notification area menu, delete the executable and delete
%LOCALAPPDATA%\DauViet\. If you ever enabled “Start with Windows”,
switch that option off first so no registry entry is left behind.
Is there a macOS or Linux build?
Not yet. Dấu Việt is written against the plain Win32 API for 64-bit Windows, so it currently runs on Windows 10 and 11 only.
Still stuck somewhere?
Send an e-mail describing the keystrokes and the application you were typing in, and we will look into it.