Translate a Word document into Simplified Chinese

What changes when a .docx goes into Chinese

Simplified Chinese is written in hanzi, left to right, with no spaces between words. A 4,000-word English or French document becomes two to three times shorter in character count, yet each character is wider, so the area it fills on the page changes little. Tables, columns and text boxes rarely need resizing.

Three things do need care:

• Fonts. Latin fonts such as Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman contain no Chinese characters. Word then displays the hanzi in a fallback font, which may differ from one computer to the next. Each Word style holds a separate font for Latin text and for East Asian text; it is the East Asian one you should set (Microsoft YaHei, SimSun, DengXian or Noto Sans CJK SC, for instance).
• Line spacing. Chinese fonts sit taller. Spacing fixed at an "exactly" value (say 12 pt for 11 pt text) can clip the tops of characters; "multiple" or "at least" spacing avoids this.
• Italics. Chinese has no true italic. Word slants the characters artificially and they become harder to read. Emphasis is usually given with bold or with “ ” quotation marks instead.

Written Chinese conventions inside a document

Chinese punctuation is full-width: comma ，, full stop 。, colon ：, semicolon ；. Short lists use the enumeration comma 、 (苹果、梨、桃). Titles of books, laws or agreements go inside 《》: 《劳动合同法》. Mainland usage takes “ ” as quotation marks; corner brackets 「」 belong mostly to Traditional usage.

• Dates run from largest unit to smallest: 2025年3月14日 for 14 March 2025.
• Numbers group by 万 (10,000) and 亿 (100 million): "150,000 residents" becomes 15万人 in running text, while figure-heavy tables often keep Arabic numerals.
• Plurals: a single form (CLDR category "other"). "1 folder" and "3 folders" are 1个文件夹 and 3个文件夹; the measure word (个, 份, 页) changes with the noun, not the number. In a template, {n} pages becomes {n} 页 with no variants.
• Names and addresses: family name first; addresses run from country down to street number.
• Register: reports and letters use a formal written style, more compact than English; 您 rather than 你 addresses the reader politely.

Manuce treats Simplified Chinese (mainland China, Singapore) and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, Hong Kong) as separate languages, so pick the one your readers use.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce translates paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, and text boxes. A merged cell is translated and charged only once. The .docx is rebuilt run by run: fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italic, styles, numbering and table widths remain those of the original.

The direct consequence for Chinese: if your source is set in Calibri, so is the translation, and the hanzi appear in whichever East Asian font your styles define, or a fallback font if none is set. Manuce does not swap fonts or turn italics into bold; those decisions stay with you.

An automatic check compares the form of the translated document with the original and flags any difference. You receive the file in its original format with the text replaced in place, plus a Word version, a PDF and plain text.

Automatic fields (table of contents, cross-references) keep working: after translation, updating fields in Word recalculates the page numbers.

Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. If a certificate, diploma or contract must be filed with an authority that requires a certified translation, use an accredited translator.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Before uploading:

• Set an East Asian font in the main styles (Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2, table styles); otherwise each computer will choose its own.
• Remove manual line breaks used to split sentences: Chinese can break a line between almost any two characters, and forced breaks will land in the wrong place.
• Change "exactly" line spacing to "multiple".
• Note any diagrams whose labels are part of an image: to Word, that is not text.

After delivery:

• Update fields to refresh the table of contents and cross-references.
• Look for empty boxes (□): they mean a font without Chinese glyphs is in use.
• Check acronyms and brand names: some stay in Latin script (ISO, PDF), others have an established Chinese name.
• Before external release, have a Chinese reader review it. The free one-paragraph sample already lets you judge tone before paying.

In practice

1. Upload your .docx: the quote appears immediately, based on the exact word count.
2. Select Simplified Chinese and a level, then read the free one-paragraph sample.
3. Pay and receive, within minutes, the translated .docx, a Word version, a PDF and plain text.
4. Open the file in Word, update fields and check the East Asian font in your styles.