When students are in Mandarin class, you may be required to get phonetic guide for Chinese characters. 

Important: Phonetic Guide required desktop version of Office 365. The Microsoft Word online (web version) does not have this feature. Click here to see how to download and install Office365.

Phonetic Guide on Windows 10/11 Devices

1. Install Simplified Chinese input

In Settings > Time & Language

Go to Language sub-menu

2. Add a language

3. Type in "Chinese" to search, and then select Chinese (Simplified)

4. When press Next, untick all options. Especially, don't tick Set as Windows display language.  

• Language pack is optional
• Basic typing will add Pinyin input

5. Confirm you have the Chinese input in the taskbar.

6. In Microsoft Word, the Phonetic Guide option will be available under Home in Font ribbon area.

Phonetic Guide on Mac devices

The requirements to have Phonetic guide for Chinese language on a Mac are:

• Office 365 desktop apps installed
• English (US) is the system default language
• Enabled Asian language in Microsoft Word

Note: also available on Microsoft official support site: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-on-east-asian-language-features-in-office-for-mac-40db0d4f-4bad-47d3-9eeb-bf80f9c3b5b1

1. Change your system language to US English. You may already have English as your system primary language, but it needs to be English (US). Go to System Preferences, Language & Region

2. You will need to restart computer after add English (US) to primary language.

3. Open Microsoft Word, a blank document. Click on Word in the top menu, then select Preferences.

4. Click on East Asian Languages in the options. 

5. Make sure you select "Simplified Chinese" in the drop-down options.

6. You are ready to add phonetic guide to highlighted Chinese characters.