Chinese Language Features in
Apple Mac OS

I'm often asked why I don't offer more Chinese Mac support here, especially since I once worked for Apple in China, I have everyone else in my family except me on Macs, and I've been involved with IMUG (the International Multilingual User Group formerly known as Macintosh) since forever and a day.

The easy, more-stylish-and-black-turtleneck-than-thou answer would be that "Macs don't need as much support". Well, maybe. But actually it's because there has been excellent English-language help out there for many years:

• [chinese mac] at Yale.edu
• Chinese Mac Google Group

I do offer free Pinyin macros for Word and Excel that work in Mac Office 98, 2001, v.X, 2004 and 2011. They do not work with Mac Office 2008, because 2008 only supported AppleScript, but as of 2011 VBA macros are back. Please see my Pinyin macro page for more info.

I'm also often asked if it is possible produce Pinyin with tone marks directy from the Mac keyboard, and yes you can do that. Here's a random but very good article about that topic, on someone else's blog:

• Times New Rohan: Typing Proper Pinyin on Mac

OK? I do try to help with Mac topics if I can. Please take a look at those other resources and then contact me if you still need help.