FAQ: MS Word Phonetic Guide Producing Zhuyin Instead of Pinyin Ruby Text

Getting Chinese to Work in Windows Shouldn't Be This Hard...

I am trying to use MS Word's Phonetic Guide to place Pinyin ruby text over Chinese characters, but Word is automatically generating Zhuyin (bopomofo) instead? Can I force it to convert the sounds to Pinyin instead?

This problem usually arises when the Chinese characters were inputted using the Traditional (Taiwan) IME. The underlying character encoding makes the system assume you want Zhuyin instead of Pinyin.

Suggestion #1: Use the PRC IME

The easiest solution is to switch to the PRC IME, which since the MSPY 2007 and 2010 updates can be used to input traditional characters.

In addition to the few traditional fonts included with Windows that will work with the PRC IME, you can also use a font like 漢鼎繁中楷 from the University of Heidelberg, now available free from Abacus Chinese Translation. This is because it is a traditional character font but the underlying encoding is GB, so Windows will see this as a font that is tied to the PRC IME and Phonetic Guide will give you Pinyin instead of Zhuyin. (Many thanks to Li-Ling Cheng of the Caitlin Gabel School for experimenting with those fonts and letting me know!) Elsewhere on this website I list many third-party Chinese fonts.

Suggestion #2: change the encoding

If you want to keep using the Taiwan IME or if you simply want to make use of existing text you've already typed, there is a solution but it can be a bit difficult: change the encoding after the fact, without changing the Chinese characters.

To change the encoding of Chinese characters you have already typed, in Word 2003 or earlier, find "Reveal formatting" in the Format menu. In Word 2007, use Word Options to add the "Reveal formatting" button to the Quick Access Toolbar, then click on the button. Then click on Languages, and change from traditional to simplified or vice-versa. Word should automatically and invisibly change the underlying character encoding for you.

The characters won't change (you need an Office Language Pack's Proofing Tools for simplified/traditional character conversion) but the underlying code points will change and that's all you need to do for this problem. Then try Phonetic Guide again.

Next time I do I will grab some screen shots for this page. I really don't like the Phonetic Guide feature - I prefer fonts with ruby text included - and you may encounter some conversion problems when making this formatting change, but it's worth a try.

Other Phonetic Guide FAQs

Pinyin or Zhuyin not appearing in Word's Phonetic Guide

How do I find Phonetic Guide in Word 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010?

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