MS Word 2007 - Cannot get Pinyin with Phonetic Guide

[poor_dad]

With my Word XP (English Version) with Windows XP (English Version), using the Asian Layout feature I was able to generate Pinyin above Chinese characters. However, I can not do this with Word 2007 (English Version) with Windows Vista (English Version). I was able to find the Phonetic Guide that led me to the same screen, but no Pinyin output. I would appreciate any guidance.

[Luobot]

poor_dad,

I'm amazed that you got it to work in Word XP in the first place. I gave up on it in Word 2003, as using it a few characters at a time, and having to reset the fonts, font size, and the like each time was totally frustrating me. I've noticed that each new version of Word is worse than the last. So now I have yet another reason to think about downgrading instead of upgrading. Thanks for that.

[Lugubert]

Thanks, Luobot,

I'm running a Word XP = 2002, and here it works. The tiring thing is that it can only handle some nine or ten characters at a time. Recording a macro doesn't work, because of the "intelligent" feature that looks at results, not keys pressed. So when I run the recorded macro, thinking it will take care of a newly highlighted string, it plays back the string for which I recorded the macro...

I sure will wait for confirmation of better Word behaviour before upgrading.

ETA: I sure have the fonts etc. problem. So I convert the lot to Pinyin, using the standard settings. Then I switch to code view mode, and make some search-and-replace, like SimSun to Times New Roman, and variables normally to hps17, oad, up 17, jc0 which work fine for my eyes at 150% zoom. When returning to normal view, I mark the complete document and set it to Times New Roman. I then don't get the script-type 'a' officially required by Pinyin, but the 1 and 3 vowels don't have the obnoxious extra space that follows them in my default setup. A bit tedious, but AFAIK it's the only way to get the result I want.

[atitarev]

你(ni)

 好(hao)

[Kristyx]

Is there any update on this issue? I'm also using Word 2007 now. I know Word 2003 took some patience to add pinyin but I can't even find the right tab to do that in Word 2007? Anybody know how to do it??? Cheers

[Sebastien]

An easy way to get the Phonetic Guide in Word 2007:

At the very top left, click the Office Button, click Word Options then select Customize. Drop-down Choose commands from: and select All Commands. Select Phonetic Guide... from the list and click Add > >. Click OK.

The new button is now available from the Quick Access Toolbar next to the Office Button.

Thought if you have the same bug as me, you might not get the pinyin when selecting a chinese character... I'm working at it.

[Kristyx]

Yes, I'm having the same problem--it's just blank where the pinyin should be. I've been searching for a fix for this for a while now and still haven't found one.

Is anybody here using Word 2007 and able to use the phonetic guide to add pinyin to their text? If so, how did you manage to add this function? Like I said, I have the phonetic guide available, but when I try to use it it's just blank, awaiting me to add it myself. There must be a way around this, but I've yet to find it. Things were much easier with Word 2003

[stephanhodges]

Google-ing for "Phonetic Guide doesn't work in Word 2007" I found this on the first page:

http://www.pinyinjoe.com/faq/word-phonetic-guide-missing-pinyin.htm

Some of the site is outdated (2005), but this article seems current.

He has several items to check. If you install MSPY 2007, be careful to download the version for your office (2003 or 2007). The download page is in Chinese, but if you put your mouse over the download buttons and look at the STATUS bar (turn it on from the VIEW menu in IE if needed), then you will see which is the Mspy.msi and the MspyExpress.msi packages.

The full download was about 82 mb. After installing it, my phonetic guide now works correctly.

A second trick that works on my system (Vista + Word 2007) is to highlight the phonetic phrase and right click. I have a menu option that says "Toggle Field Codes", which will let you modify the internals of the ruby code. You can apply all the normal Word formatting here, including font selection, coloring, sizes, etc.

For the item [ADSO]取消[/ADSO] (qǔxiāo), I have this text in the field:

{EQ * jc2 * "Font: Times New Roman" * hps14 oad(sup 15(qǔxiāo),取消)}

You can change the "SimSum" manually to "Times New Roman", or do it from the control panel, and that I also changed the spacing to "up 15"(you can do this manually or from the phonetic guide control panel). The color can be changed with the standard tool bar functions in Word. The blue color is because I also had this set as a "Heading 1" format in the document.

You could also write a macro to expose all field codes, and then apply formatting (font change, colorize, etc) after applying phonetics.

Edited October 11, 2008 at 11:22 AM by stephanhodges
Correct mistake about needing manual font change.

[xianu]

I did another search and found this site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939398 that gives direct instructions on how to get the ruby text over the characters once you have the phonetic guide installed. Apparently Vista's registry was incomplete and this little bit was not written in. This solved the problem.