You know how when you read a kid’s book or textbook, sometimes the bopomofo is right next to the Chinese characters (vertically, and to the right)? Is there a way to get that set-up on your computer so that all Chinese characters will be displayed this way?
Thanks! If I could figure this out, it’d help me a lot.
Maybe, if you went into your system’s default settings or possibly themes and changed the default font. I’m all for BPMF, but I think seeing it on my computer all the time would give me a headache. Plus you’d often get the wrong BPMF because some characters have alternate pronunciations and the system doesn’t automatically choose the appropriate pronunciation.
Look through PinYinJoe’s site.
Download a ruby font, make sure the font uses traditional characters. (Google search it.)
If you’re serious about BPMF, but a font package from a store at Nova or an electronics mall.
There are fonts available with the bopomofo next to them. They’re known as “ruby fonts”.
Here’s a resource:
Theoretically it should be possible. Get a Zhuyin font here first. One is here:
wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Chines … ional.html
Install it.
Then edit the registry value for “Segoe UI” under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\FontsSubsitutes so that it points to your new font. The tutorial is here:
sevenforums.com/tutorials/11 … hange.html
You can also try editing the Control Panel settings, but this might not be enough.
Characters with multiple pronunciations will be displayed incorrectly sometimes. Also, probably it will look very ugly, so make a backup. Good luck! 
I have this HanWang Zhuyin fonts, but if I try to select vertical layout, I get only blank characters. Really sad. 
You can also try installing MDBG. It’s an interface for the (itself free) CC-CEDICT dictionary. It shows the pronunciation (in Hanyu Pinyin) and definition of any word pointed by the cursor, anywhere within Windows.
mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.p … ry_windows
So the result should be equivalent to what you’re trying to achieve with the font, if not better.
The Chinese version of MS Word already has a function to display BoPoMo next to the Chinese characters. Just copy and paste the Chinese text into a Word file. Then highlight the entire section of Chinese text, go to the 格式 menu, and select 亞洲方式配置 / 注音標示. The BoPoMo will be automatically inserted into the text next to the characters.
This looks extremely ugly and even displays the tones wrongly. It has absolutely no practical usage.
By the way, Non-Chinese versions of MS Word also have this feature.
I don’t know about it looking “extremely” ugly (I’ve never looked to any word processor to satisfy aesthetic longings of any description). The OP asked for a practical application, not a design tool.
What are you basing this on? Can you give us some examples of tones that it displays wrongly please? (Obviously, we can’t expect it to nail variant readings in context, but can you give any examples of where it wrongly displays the primary tones of any given individual characters?)
It has the practical usage of quickly letting you know how to pronounce an obscure character without first looking it up in a dictionary, which is pretty darn practical if you ask me (for example when a translator needs to know the pronunciation of characters in a name for simple purposes of romanizing it, or a chairman of a meeting needs to know how to pronounce a participant’s name containing an obscure character without the disruption involved in asking the person).
But even with a word processor, this just does not look right. A font with included readings just looks far more pleasing (in principle, I would prefer this ruby option, but right now, this is not useful. I wonder how Indesign handles this).
About the incorrect tones: It saves the correct tones, but the display will be incorrect. If you have ㄕˋ (e.g. 是), it will be displayed as ㄕˊ. Try it out for yourself. ˇ will be displayed like <. This is not just ugly, this is plain wrong.
And you cannot use this to quickly check for the reading. What do you do if a character has multiple readings? You cannot be sure that what Word generates, is correct. And if some translator relies on Word pronounciation guide, he is not worth the money (imho).
Zhuyin or Furigana are good for one thing: Providing the reader, who does not know the reading (yet), with the reading. This is often the case for school books, and in Japanese to some degree in adult books, too. In Chinese, you will leave it to the reader to look up an unknown character (this is why you don’t see Zhuyin in any Chinese book).
If you prepare a document with Ruby, it will be for the purpose of the reader, not of yourself. Usually the reader will not afterwards put Ruby in a text. There are better tools for that purpose.
Professionals who use annotated characters use font sets – that is, they have a font that has a main font and usually five subfonts. They apply the main font to the text and then when needed, will change the font to one of the subfonts so that the annotation (the pin yin or zhu yin) is accurate.
Many characters have alternate pronunciations, some where the tone changes and some where the entire pronunciation changes. The below examples were created using a font set (as illustrated above), where the first character is in the main font and the others are in the first subset to the fifth subset (if there is a fifth option).
You can’t trust the computer to choose the correct pronunciation. Word and any other program only uses what you give it, and if you tell the computer to use only one font it will do only that. InDesign is the same.
But word and Indesign have the function to generate Furigana (for Japanese). And for Japanese, a built in font is not possible: Sometimes there is a special reading for an entire word, consisting of two or more characters: E.g. 大人 is otona, even though none of the individual characters has a pronounciation like that. Also, for literary reasons, you can just add your own reading (e.g. write チャイニーズ (Chinese) on top of 中国人 (even though that would be pronounced chūgokujin).
I wonder, why nobody does this for Chinese. Of course, a Zhuyin syllable is harder to arrange, but they could do it like Korean: create a font with only the Bopomofo inside (nicely stacked and arranged), and generate them with ligatures. So if you write ㄑㄩㄥˊ, it will be automatically arranged to one syllable. Composition like this is also done in Tibetan, Indian scripts, Arabic etc, so I see no problem why this is not done with Bopomofo.
Then, one would not need to use these built-in fonts.
Also, much more important: If you have this built-in font, you cannot create your own readings. Usually they only offer Taiwanese pronounciations, right? So 期 would only be ㄑㄧˊ, instead of ㄑㄧ. This is not really best, I think.
[quote=“Hellstorm”]But even with a word processor, this just does not look right. A font with included readings just looks far more pleasing (in principle, I would prefer this ruby option, but right now, this is not useful. I wonder how Indesign handles this).
About the incorrect tones: It saves the correct tones, but the display will be incorrect. If you have ㄕˋ (e.g. 是), it will be displayed as ㄕˊ. Try it out for yourself. ˇ will be displayed like <. This is not just ugly, this is plain wrong.[/quote]
I’m using Chinese Word for windows and my version does not have this problem. I just entered a sample paragraph, and the tones are all correctly identified, and correctly displayed (including ㄕˋ). I do agree that because it doesn’t recognize variant tones, its use is quite limited.
This is a silly generalization. Of course, when translating names, a good translator will first check available resources to see whether a person’s name has a standard English rendering, as is the case with many public figures. In the case of legal documents we will try to determine whether an official or authoritiative English spelling of their name exists, for example on a passport or birth certificate. When appropriate, we will also try to identify whether a person has a preferred English spelling of their name.
But there have been plenty of times when I’ve also used the Word function as a down-and-dirty way to quickly confirm the pronunciation of obscure characters in names when translating long list of names of non-public figures (for example translating a list of names of hundreds of shareholders in a company for purely formality purposes, where this aspect of the translation does not bear directly on any rights or interests at stake). I would do this in cases where I am around 90 percent sure of the pronounciation of a character already and just want to reconfirm it (which happens a lot with given names). If I’ve never seen a character before, on the other hand, I’ll look it up in the online MOE dictionary.
I get away with four main fonts. The trouble is, only one is public domain. The other three are paid. There are really only two or three variations that you need for words like “one” “no” based on the pronunciation of the word before it. Some words that are written the same change indicate change of meaning by changing the pronunciation. the noun “seed” becomes the verb"plant".
I’m learning the differences by practicing touch typing elementary school text books and posting them in PDF format for feedback from my friends.
thefrustratedstudent.blogspot.com
Does anyone have a definitive list of public domain fonts?
Is there a quicker method of selecting the font by a keyboard command? I would love to temporarily lock out all my other font except the ones I need during my Chinese typing session.
By the way, I’ve tried the ruby text option on many computers here. I would copy and paste a paragraph into MS word. It would only “ruby” text part of it. I could never get one full paragraph “translated.” What am I doing wrong?
I can’t imagine the automatic feature know what pronunciation I’d need for subtle variations like seed and plant.
You’re talking about inputting characters, not about changing the default font of a computer system.
That said, I’m not sure what you mean. There should be no translation involved. If you paste a paragraph into Word and change the font to a font that displays the PBMF or PinYin, and only half the paragraph shows up, then most likely there’s a problem with your font. You could also be using a simplified font with a paragraph in traditional Chinese (or vice versa).
Hope that helps.
Sorry… I should be more clear.
For normal typing such as copying elementary school textbooks, I manually change the font to the desired main font or subfont that matches my requirements.
To do a search on my Portable dictionary or GPS, I just paste the mystery word from the web into word and use the main font to get the desired ㄅㄆㄇ needed to enter my search.
Both work for me fine but…
Sometimes I’d like to learn a song I’m not sure of the pronunciation.
a. I find the song lyrics. I copy them and paste them into Microsoft Word.
b. I select the whole text {CTRL A} or use the mouse.
c. From the menu bar, choose “Asian Formating”, “Show Ruby Text”
From there I get all kinds of strange results.
Sometimes: The first few lines have been converted. Sometimes there are gaps where some characters have ruby text but for no reason, others have not been “converted” Sometimes, nothing happens.
The results are unpredictable. If the feature is not designed to work well, it should not be there. Therefore I conclude, I’m doing something wrong.
PS: Point to some of them Pinyin fonts. I’d like to give it a try. I really need some public domain ㄅㄆㄇㄈ fonts so I could make them available on the web for some friends abroad in order that we may collaborate. I need a set with all the major variations. My fonts are bought and could not be shared.
wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Chines … ional.html
Try downloading the HanWangKaiMediumChuIn fonts here. They are Opensource (GPL), and thus you can use them for whatever you want
Which version of Word are you talking about?
I have 2007, so 格式 is part of 常用 ribbon. However, I was unable to locate 亞洲方式配置 anywhere there.
A search for 亞洲方式配置 didn’t return any results, either.
You can use CSS-Ruby to do this. If there’s interest, I’ll write an article on how to it on my site. Vertical writing is still not properly supported by all browsers, though. If your goal is to render properly in one browser and then make a PDF from that, then no problem.
[quote=“Xiaoma”]You can use CSS-Ruby to do this. If there’s interest, I’ll write an article on how to it on my site. Vertical writing is still not properly supported by all browsers, though. If your goal is to render properly in one browser and then make a PDF from that, then no problem.
[/quote]
please do. I use CSS-Ruby too, but could never find a browser that displays vertical Zhuyin in horizontal hanzi text well.
As for generating ruby, moedict has a tool
moedict.tw/lab/ruby/
The best way to generate ruby is actually IME integration. The FHL Taigi ME has that functionality. However, to my knowledge, no Huayu IME has it.