How to write in Gujarati on your Windows computer

Homepage	How to write in Gujarati on your Windows computer
	I get lot of mails asking me how to start typing in Gujarati on computer. Here I will show you, step by step, how to start writing in Gujarati on your computer. Actually, it is very easy to start writing in Gujarati on your computer. Only about 10 minutes worth of setup and you are ready to start writing in Gujarati. I am going to presume that you use Windows XP. If you have older version of Windows than I strongly advice you to upgrade to XP for its language capabilities. So lets get started. Here is what you will need to have: Windows XP installation disk Download Gujarati Indic IME from Bhashaindia.com ( IME or Input Method Editor is a piece of software that lets you input, ie write, different languages.) FIRST STEP: Enable support for Indian languages (Indic) on your computer. Windows XP has inbuilt support for Indian languages.( Bill Gates is doing something right ! ) But the indian language support is not activated by default. You need to activate it by installing additional componets of Windows from the installation disk. Here is how to do it: Go to Control Panel (from the "Start" button) Go to Regional and Language Options. Click the Languages tab. Check (click) the box marked Install files for complex scripts and right to left languages (including Thai). When you check this line, a new window will appear. It will 'warn' you that you need at least 10 MB of hard disk space and it will prompt you to put Windows XP install disk in your CD drive. Winodows will install additional componets from the disk. You will be asked to restart your computer. SECOND STEP: Download and Install the Indic IME: Next, you need to download Gujarati Indic IME from Bhashaindia.com. Unzip the downloaded file and install it on your computer. The installation is simple and the details are in the text file that comes with it. THIRD STEP: Enable the language and, keyboard: Again go to Control Panel and open Regional and Language Options. Click the same Languages tab Now click Details under "Text Services and Input Languages". A new dialogue box named "Text Services and Input Languages" would open. Click Add under "Installed Services", and then choose the the language you want to add (in you case "Gujarati" and the keyboard layout ( in your case "Gujarati Indic IME 1') you want to use for that language. On the same page, click the Language Bar under "Preferences" and check mark the box to "show the language bar on the desktop" and click ok to close the box. On the same page, click "advanced" tab on the top which wold open another box. Make sure that check box against "extend advanced text services to all programs" is checked. Close everything. FINAL STEP: Start typing using the language bar: Now you will have language bar on the desktop. It looks like a small blue strip on the Desktop, usually in the upper right corner. Lets try using the language bar. Open any program like Wordpad, Internet Explorer or Outlook express. Clicking on "EN" on the language bar will let you switch the language to Gujarati. (You can do the same by pressing Alt-Shift also) Changing language to Gujarati would open another bar - IME bar on the lower right corner of the screen with big "G" on it. ( I know that there are far too many bars to deal with but you will soon get familiar with it !) Indic IME gives you an option of typing in several ways, one I like is called 'transliteration', which means you type phonetically in English. ( like 'gujaratee' etc. ) You can choose the 'transliteration' from the list by pressing on the little keyboard like icon on the IME bar. (See picture) IME Bar I would also advise you to turn the on-the-fly help from the IME bar by pressing the box with little table icon, which would constantly advise you regarding which keys to press. The phonetic or 'transliteration' method is very intuitive and easy. On the fly help box shows you possible phonetic combinations Type in Gujarati to your heart's content - write mails, create documents, name files in Gujarati or start a Gujarati blog. Anytime you want to write Gujarati, choose it from the language bar and you can start typing. Here is table of key combinations you can use to write all the letters of Gujarati અ a આ aa ઇ i /I ઈ ee ઉ u /U ઊ oo એ e /E ઐ ai ઓ o ઔ au અં a^ અઃ aH અઁ aM ઋ Ra ઍ A ક ka ખ kh ગ ga ઘ gha ઙ Nga ચ cha/Caa છ Cha જ ja ઝ jha ટ Ta ઠ Tha ડ Da ઢ Dha ણ Na ત ta થ tha દ da ધ dha ન na ત્ર tra પ pa ફ pha બ ba ભ bha મ ma ય ya ર ra લ la વ va શ sha ષ Sha સ sa હ ha જ્ઞ jNja ક્ષ kSha ક ka કા kaa કિ ki કી kee કુ ku કૂ koo કે ke કૈ kai કો ko કૌ kau કં k^ કઃ kH કઁ kM કૃ kRa ક્ર kra કૉ kO Also, there is more advice available on the Bhashaindia.com page for Gujrati IME setup ( Gujrati version) and Gujarati lexicon help page on the setting up IME and keyboard. If you have questions feel free to write to me - in Gujarati ! Homepage