how can I show pinyin tone marks

[Leonardus]

I have found a program that allows me to input a pinyin tone number after the
vowel and that results in the corresponding tone mark to be put on top of the
preceding vowel. However when I copy and paste the result into Word (or
Excel) tone marks 1 and 3 (straight line and little v) disappear.

Is there a way that these can be retained?

Ideally, of course, Word should allow these tone marks to be input directly
but I suppose, that is a bridge too far? I daresay I could copy and paste the
special character sets but that would be awfully tedious.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Leonardus,

If you're using an outside program you may want to check with the folks that there if using Paste Special in Word doesn't help.

You didn't mention the version of Word you're using but you may want to check but there are several macro solutions available on the
web such as the one from the macro link on
http://pinyinjoe.com/pinyin/pinyin_setup.htm
if working with the Windows Chinese IME within Word set for 'Input with Tone' won't work for your situation.

There's also visual keyboard methods such as the one at
http://pinyin.info/news/2006/typing-in-pinyin-on-a-windows-2000xp-system

You may also want to check with the folks in the Word International features group as well.

==========
I have found a program that allows me to input a pinyin tone number after the
vowel and that results in the corresponding tone mark to be put on top of the
preceding vowel. However when I copy and paste the result into Word (or
Excel) tone marks 1 and 3 (straight line and little v) disappear.

Is there a way that these can be retained?

Ideally, of course, Word should allow these tone marks to be input directly
but I suppose, that is a bridge too far? I daresay I could copy and paste the
special character sets but that would be awfully tedious. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[grammatim]

The "line above" is called a macron, and Unicode-ready fonts include
all the vowels with macrons. You'll find them in your Insert Symbol
pane, in the group of characters called "Latin Extended A." When
you're in Insert Symbol, you can assign keyboard shortcutsto any
symbol; for the macrons, I use Ctrl-Alt-Hyphen, then the letter
(usually a vowel) that needs it.

Unfortunately, the PRC chose the hachek or caron (the v-shaped accent)
as a pinyin symbol, and most fonts don't have vowels with hachek on
them. (Hachek is elsewhere used on consonants, for instance in Czech,
where it originated.) For that you need to locate it in the "combining
diacritics" section of a Unicode-ready font. Type the vowel first,
then the hachek, and Word might or might not align it properly.
(You;ll find the vowels with breves -- the u-shaped accent -- and most
readers won't be able to tell the difference at small sizes, but it
won't be correct.) (My keyboard shortcuts for hachek and breve start
with Ctrl-Alt-v and Ctrl-Alt-u.)

You'll probably get better results using the Overstrike Field (which
is listed among the Equation fields in the Insert Field panel); in
this case you need to find the non-combining hachek character.