Writing Chinese words on a computer

I did a test on Rocket Chinese, where I should listen to a Chinese word and then should type in the correct Chinese Word (not Pinyin) in the answering box. I heard ní (also the correct tone). So I used the Windows included pinyin typing module (which has a small icon on the lower right side of the computer screen) and typed ni. Several possibilities showed up, among other these ones: 你 泥 ..... How do I know which one is the right one? I think that I can't see the tones here, right? The same happened with the small virtual keyboard, which you offer here as an input possibility. I would like to understand how these kind of issues are handled best. Thanks for you help.

You just have to memorize and be able to select the correct choice. The writing lessons do a pretty good job of introducing the reasoning behind how the characters are constructed. For the simple characters (radicals), you just have to learn them.

你们好！ As Robert said, you just have to memorize the tones that go with each word. Note that I said word and not character because there are many characters that can have two different tones depending on their meaning and context or they may even have completely different pinyin depending on meaning and context. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut when learning the tones but hard work early on does make things easier later on. Keep up the good work - 加油！ - Lin Ping