Format Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text in a Pages document

You can enter text in many different languages, including several different writing systems for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, using the international keyboards available on your device. When you enable any of the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean keyboards on your mobile device, Pages provides some language-specific text-formatting features, including emphasis styles, list styles, and phonetic guides.

Important: The instructions below assume you’ve enabled at least one Chinese, Japanese, or Korean keyboard on your device. To enable international keyboards, open Settings on your device, then go to General > International > Keyboards.

Add Chinese, Japanese, or Korean emphasis marks

You can add emphasis marks that are commonly used with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text. For example, using a Chinese keyboard, you can apply Boten dots below or above the text, or a wavy underline. With Japanese text you can add plain dots or sesame dots.

Switch your keyboard to a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean keyboard.
Select Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text (one or more characters), then tap in the toolbar.
Tap Style, then tap a button.
The formatting options that are available depend on the current keyboard.

Use a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean list style

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean list styles can be applied to a list written in any language. Only the bullet stye or the numbering system is affected.

Do one of the following:
- For a list with English text: Type the first bullet or number in the list (for example, 1 or A), then double-click.
- For a list with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text: Switch your keyboard to the language you want, then type the first item in the list (for example, 가).
Enter a period or parenthesis, then double-click.
Enter the first list item, then tap Return.
Pages automatically detects that you’re typing a list. You can continue using a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean keyboard to finish your list.
If you’re entering a list with English text but a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean list style, tap List, then tap a list style.
You may need to scroll to see all of the list styles. The styles available depend on which keyboards are enabled.

Provide a phonetic guide alongside text

If you have a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean keyboard enabled for your Mac or iOS device, you can apply phonetic guides to words written in any language even if you don’t use any of these keyboards.

Select the text (one or more characters).
Don’t include any trailing paragraph breaks or punctuation in your selected text.
Tap Phonetics.
You may need to tap until you see the Phonetics button.
A phonetic guide appears with the selected text.
To change the phonetic guide text, tap Guide in the Phonetic Guide list, then select other guide text, or type your own in the field at the top.
Tap anywhere outside the phonetic guide to apply the text and close the guide.

Change or remove phonetic guide text

You can change the language of phonetic guide text or remove the text.

Select the word with phonetic guide text, then tap it.
Do one of the following:
- Change the guide text: In the Guide Text list, select guide text in the language you prefer.
  The phonetic options presented depend on which keyboards are enabled.
- Remove the guide text: Tap Remove Guide.