The phonetic function in Excel only works if you type in the sentence or words using your keyboard, not if you copy kanji or sentences from other places. It simply remembers the spelling you used before hitting enter. Not quite as sophisticated as you'd think. Sounds like Anki does a better job.

Or if you mix them, you'd get the best of both worlds.

Last edited by woelpad (2008 April 03, 10:49 pm)

Another method to convert a copied text to kana is to copy it into Word, select the text and hit 'Shift+Space' (in kanji mode). It will slice up the sentence and allow to convert any part to other kanji readings or kana, as if you'd have typed it in yourself. Pressing Esc twice will convert the whole thing to hiragana. Pressing Esc a third time will cancel the operation; you need to press Enter for the conversion to take effect.

It will only offer one kana reading, so if you selected '今日', it will only show 'きょう' and its alternatives, not 'こんにち'. (But like in Excel, if you typed it in yourself, it will remember your spelling.) It also limits the range of the selection, the length depending on a number of factors, so converting a whole text may take a while, but should still be faster than typing it in manually.