FAQs about Pinyin Input

 

How do I enter the letter "u" with an umlaut (the two dots above the letter)?

When using a pinyin IME or my pinyin macros for Word and Excel, type the letter "v" to get "u" with an umlaut:

 

Is there an English-language user guide for these Chinese input methods?

 

 

FAQs About MS Word's Phonetic Guide

 

MS Word's Phonetic Guide, which adds ruby characters above selected text, should automatically offer pinyin for any Chinese character. But the pinyin is not appearing in the dialog box. Am I doing something wrong?

No, you're not doing anything wrong! I have heard from people all over the world wondering why this does not work for them. There is an easy way to fix this. Read on...

 

Word is automatically generating zhuyin (bopomofo) instead of pinyin in the Phonetic Guide. 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. But there is a way to convert this after the fact. Read on...

 

I can't find MS Word's Phonetic Guide. What menu or button is it?

Phonetic Guide was previously listed under Asian Layout in the Word menus, while in Office 2007 it has its own separate location. Read on...

 

FAQs About the Pinyin Macros for Word and Excel

 

I'm getting error messages when I try to run your pinyin macro, how can I fix this?

Usually when someone tells me they can't get one of these macros to run I just ask them to delete and recreate the macros and that usually solves the problem. For details and exceptions, see "If it won't run" under "Troubleshooting" on the Pinyin Macro FAQ and Technical Notes page.

 

When I run your Excel macro, it converts variables like "a1" into pinyin (for example "=a1+b1") ruining those cells. Is there any way to skip those and only convert pinyin text?

We're working on a version that checks for formulas. For now, if you have formulas in a spreadsheet please use the "selected cells" version of the macro and be very careful not to select any cells with a formula. Please check back regularly on the macro page for version 2.

 

Click here for more pinyin macro FAQs and technical notes.

 

More to Come!

Many people just need help finding the help files, so please take a look at my instructions on learning to use the IMEs if you're at that stage. For all other topics, I'll keep adding any question that needs to be here as fast as I can. As I said above, there is no such thing as a dumb question. Feel free to contact me anytime, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

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