ｎｏｔ　ａ　ｓｋｒｉｔｔｅｒ　ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍ　，　ｂｕｔ　Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｓｅｅｎ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈａｐｐｅｎ　ｔｏ　ｏｔｈｅｒｓ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｆｏｒｕｍ　ｔｏｏ，　ｗｈｅｎ　ｍｙ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｔｕｒｎｓ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ＇ｔ　ｄｏ　ａｎｙｔｈｉｎｇ　ｂｕｔ　ｌｏｇ　ｏｕｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｒｏｇｒａｍ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｉｔ　ｂａｃｋ　ｔｏ　ｍｏｒｍａｌ．　ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｄｏ　ｗｉｔｈ　ＣＨｉｎｅｓｅ　ＩＭＥ　ｉｎｐｕｔ．．．

Ｄｏｅｓ　ａｎｙｏｎｅ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｗｈｙ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈａｐｐｅｎｓ　ａｎｄ　ａｎ　ｅａｓｉｅｒ　ｗａｙ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｒｉｄ　ｏｆ　ｉｔ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｔｈａｎ　ｌｏｇｇｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　－　ｉｆ　ｉｔ　ｈａｐｐｅｎｓ　ｉｎ　Ｓｋｒｉｔｔｅｒ　ｔｈｅｎ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｉｎｙｉｎ　ｉｎ　ｄｏｅｓｎｔ　ｇｅｔ　ｒｅｃｏｇｎｉｓｅｄ　ｐｒｏｐｅｒｌｙ．．．

ｃｈｅｅｒｓ，
ｄｏｎｎａ

Using Windows, right? The most popular pinyin IMEs that come with Windows have a mode where they will let you type full-width letters instead of normal ASCII text, which is what is happening now. I'm not at my Windows machine right now, so I forget the shortcut, but it might just be shift, or it might be listed in your IME key shortcut settings. Some more info might be findable on Pinyin Joe:
http://pinyinjoe.com/windows-7/win7-pinyin-setup-p3-language-bar.htm

Yeah, like Nick said, you'll probably wanna go to the language bar and change it there. There are two options, one changes between languages and is always there, the other is only there with foreign languages and changes between those weird English characters and pinyin/romaji input.

The default keyboard shortcut to change the language is Alt+Shift, the default to change between pinyin/romaji input and full-width English is Shift+CapsLock. Hope this helps.

Happens to me all the time when my language bar is set to Chinese but I type in English. I can't figure it out. Sometimes I'll type an entire paragraph no problem, everything looks normal, and then it just switches to that nasty looking font in the middle of a sentence for no apparent reason (I must be doing SOMETHING but I just can't tell what). I usually just resort to switching the language bar to English.

most poignant message yet seen on Skritter forums :-)

I'm using Chinese New Experience Pinyin IME (the one Pinyin Joe recommends) and here is what I have found.

Ctrl + space toggles between English and Chinese on the language bar, as you no doubt know.

When you're in the Chinese IME, pressing Shift toggles between Chinese and Western.

BUT if you happen to press Shift + space bar, you get that weird ugly spaced font we see above. Pressing shift + space makes it toggle back.

It took me weeks of frustration, googling, and trial and error before realizing this was the issue. Before that I was shutting down and restarting Windows and all kinds of other annoying things to deal with it.　Ｉ　ｈｏｐｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈｅｌｐｓ！　（Ugh, just happened to me again!)

I can't stand Chinese input on Windows. Apart from the above, it's laggy flicking between modes, and you can barely customise the keys you use to change. Also it wont let you write Chinese in some places.

It's worth trying OSX out if you haven't. The implementation's much slicker and without the frustration (although, I do wish the default one was better at guessing what I want to write).

I use 搜狗拼音输入法 for windows. Works well and looks very nice. http://pinyin.sogou.com/

Sogou is very good, I just heard about Baidu 百度输入法 from a chinese friend so I tried it on my android tablet and seems the integration of english is better. Just google 百度输入法， I guess they have it for laptops and phones too

Download Google pinyin，谷歌拼音输入法。
It's what all my Chinese mates use.

Thanks everyone,

Been camping so not checked here for a few days, thanks for all replies and glad it is not just a 'me' thing!

Thanks for sharing your hard worked out shift key solution peanut butter!

Cheers!!
Donna

Wow, @Nick and @Lawnmower16, I actually did not know that shortcut. Thanks a lot, it was something I should have looked into, but have just been suffering instead.