How do Chinese themselves enter characters into computer?
Chinese Input Methods Introduction:
Pinyin methods.

Bing

Out-of-box on windows in Chinese language. Very elegant. Pure typing.

Sougou

Most users. Most powerful word source. Most ADs. It provides anything you want and don't want.

QQ

Powerful than Bing, less useless functions than Sogou. I use QQ 精简 edition on windows.

Google

Only if you are a geek.
双拼(Double Type) Pinyin methods
Almost all these pinyin methods support this function to turn on in settings. I'd tried to learn it, but I found I can spend my time on TVs, so I still use pinyin.
五笔 methods
Sougou support this, just like I said, it provide anything.
Another choice is 极点五笔.
五笔 is very hard to learn, I had used this method for several years but switched to Pinyin methods many years ago. It is based on the form of character other than pronunciation, but it doesn't fit the nature of character-writing.
Common usages of Chinese input method:
Choosing word: Space
prev page: - or ,(comma)
next page: + or .(period)
some methods also support number keys.
switch to English: shift key.
Insert English: just type english ,then press Enter
Special content: press key v ( some methods allow you to input emojis, radicals, even running custom scripts. i.e. google method)