Lipikaar - Help with Indic Text and Unicode Display Problems

Help with Indic Text and Unicode Display Problems

Select your Windows Operating System:

Typing in Indian Languages in Windows Vista

Windows Vista supports Devanagari, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Arabic, Urdu, Oriya, Sinhala, Tibetan.
Complex(Indic) text support is automatically enabled.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options
Select the Keyboard and Languages Tab. Now click on the Change Keyboards button. Refer to Fig. 1

Fig. 1 - Regional and Language Options Dialog Box in Windows VISTA
Select the General Tab and click on the Add button. Refer to Fig. 2

Fig. 2 - Input Language Dialog Box in Windows VISTA
Select the required languages. Refer to Fig. 3

Fig. 3 - Add Language Dialog Box in Windows VISTA
Click OK to save the changes and close the Regional Options panel.
You should now see a language indicator in the System Tray (located at bottom right hand corner of the desktop by default). Refer to Fig. 4

Fig. 4 - Language Bar in System Tray in Windows VISTA
You can switch between different languages by clicking on the language bar and changing the language or by pressing the left ALT+SHIFT keys.

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Typing in Indian Languages in Windows XP & Server 2003

Windows XP and Server 2003 support Devanagari, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Arabic, Urdu.
Windows XP - Service Pack 2 supports Bengali, Malayalam. Complex(Indic) text support needs to be enabled manually.

Go to Start > Control Panel
If you are in Category View select the icon that says Date, Time, Language and Regional Options and then select Regional and Language Options.
If you are in Classic View select the icon that says Regional and Language Options.
Click on the Languages Tab. Under Supplemental Language Support select the option Install files for Complex Script and right-to-left languages (including Thai). Refer to Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 - Regional and Language Options Dialog Box in Windows XP
Click Ok. The system may prompt you to copy the appropriate files from the Windows CD
Insert the disc when prompted and proceed. Restart the computer after files have been copied.

Select the Languages Tab. Click on Details button. Refer to Fig. 5
Click the Add button to add a keyboard for your desired language. Refer to Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 - Add Languages Dialog Box in Windows XP
Select the required language. Refer to Fig. 7

Fig. 7 - Add Language Dialog Box in Windows XP
Repeat the above steps to add other Indian languages that you require for typing.
Click OK to save the changes and close the Regional Options panel.
You should now see a language indicator in the System Tray (located at bottom right hand corner of the desktop by default). Refer to Fig. 8.

Fig. 8 - Language Bar in System Tray in Windows XP
You can switch between different languages by clicking on the language bar and changing the language or by pressing the left ALT+SHIFT keys.

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Typing in Indian Languages in Windows 2000

Windows 2000 supports Devanagari, Kannada and Tamil. Complex(Indic) text support needs to be enabled manually.

Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Options > General Tab. Refer to Fig. 9

Fig. 9 - Regional Options Dialog Box in Windows 2000
Under Language Settings, check the box next to Indic
Click Ok. The system may prompt you to copy the appropriate files from the Windows 2000 CD
Insert the disc when prompted and proceed. Restart the computer after files have been copied.
If you don't have the Windows CD, you can download the files from here.
Extract its contents into a folder. When prompted for Windows CD, simply point to this folder using 'Browse' option of the prompt window.

Select the Input Locales Tab
This will show you the Add Input Locale Dialog Box Refer to Fig. 10

Fig. 10 - Add Input Locale Dialog Box in Windows 2000
Click on the Add button located under Input Language Display Box.
This will take you to Add Input Language Dialog Box Refer to Fig. 11

Fig. 11 - Add Input Language Dialog Box in Windows 2000
Repeat the above steps to add other Indian languages that you require for typing.
Click OK to close the Regional Options panel.
You should now see a language indicator in the System Tray (located at bottom right hand corner of the desktop by default). Refer to Fig. 12

Fig. 12 - Language Bar in System Tray in Windows 2000
You can switch between different languages by clicking on the language bar and changing the language or by pressing the left ALT+SHIFT keys.

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Configuring your Browser to display Indic Languages correctly

Listed below are some basic steps required to ensure that your browser displays Unicode characters correctly.

Make sure that the appropriate fonts are installed on your system
Click here to know more about Fonts.
Configure your browser to use these fonts
- Internet Explorer (IE): Go to Tools > Internet Options.
  Click on the Fonts button at the lowered end of the dialog window.
  Select the appropriate font.
- Mozilla Firefox (FF): Go to Tools > Options.
  Click on the Content Tab. In the Fonts & Colors section click on Advanced button. Configure the appropraite fonts for the desired languages.

Solutions for Common Browser Problems

What is the problem?	How to fix it?
Unicode fonts are not available. The characters appear as boxes or question marks.	Please install a Unicode font for the language. Click here to know more.
Matras are placed incorrectly. Left side matras are placed on the right of the associated character. Or matras are rendered wrongly.	Unicode font rendering is broken on your browser. Click here to know more.
The unicode characters appear separated. The matras do not attach themselves to the adjoining characters. This occurs on Firefox 2.0.*	This occurs if word-spacing, letter-spacing, and text-align:justified properties are used in the css. Firefox 3 has resolved this issue.

Unicode Fonts

Click on the fonts to view details for the same.

Bengali Fonts

Gujarati Fonts

Devanagari Fonts

Telugu Fonts

Tamil Fonts

Punjabi Fonts

Malayalam Fonts

Kannada Fonts

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