www.azhagi.com

Related page: uniall.html

Topics covered in this page:
  1. Effecting Unicode Tamil Input in MS-Word and PowerPoint
  2. Enabling Unicode in Windows 7 or Vista
  3. How to enable Unicode fully in Windows XP
  4. Enabling Unicode in Win2K
  1. How to effect 'Direct Unicode Tamil Input' in ALL Windows applications?
  2. How to effect Unicode conversion?
  3. What are the immense benefits of Unicode?
  4. What is Unicode all about?
  5. How to effect Non-Unicode (Tscii) input in all Windows applications?
  6. Power tools - Auto transliterator, Reverse transliterator, Dual-screen transliterator, SAT transliterator - CLICK here

Typing in Unicode Tamil in MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint

 Click here for easy, step-by-step instructions.

Enabling Unicode in Windows 7/Vista

In Windows 7|Vista, Unicode support for Indian languages is enabled automatically upon installation and hence user does not need to enable any settings, as in the case of WinXP/2K

Enabling Unicode fully in Windows XP


I provide herebelow two methods (A & B) to enable Unicode fully in your Windows XP system(s). Please note that if the condition mentioned at 'Step 4 under Method B' is already met, then it means your system is already enabled for Unicode fully and hence you need not do anything further.

Method A
  1. This method has been suggested by blogger Mr.Anthony at http://tamilsoftwares.blogspot.com/2008/10/enable-unicode-in-your-computer.html.

  2. Kindly visit the abovementioned page, follow the simple instructions (in Tamil) and your computer will become fully Unicode-enabled within a few minutes.

Method B
  1. This method is the one suggested by Microsoft, worldwide. Please follow the simple instructions below and your computer will become fully Unicode-enabled within 5 minutes.

  2. Click on "Start->Control Panel->(Date, Time, Language and Regional Options)->Regional and Language Options"

  3. Click on 'Languages' tab (next to 'Regional Options') at the top

  4. In 'Supplemental language support', see whether "Install files for complex script and right to left languages (including thai)" is kept ticked.

  5. If ticked, leave it as it is. This means your computer is already fully enabled for Unicode. You need not do anything further and skip the steps below.

  6. If not ticked, tick it (but please read the 'Important Note' below before ticking). It will install the required files and ask you to reboot.

    Important Note: Windows XP operating system installation CD may be required for the above process. In case you have misplaced or lost your WinXP CD, contact your PC vendor (i.e. the company which supplied the computer to you) and they should be able to help you out. Also, if you had bought your PC from a reputed vendor, note that such vendors often leave a copy of the full XP CD on your hard drive (say as c:\i386, d:\winxpBack\i386 etc.). If you are able to spot such a directory in your hard drive, then when XP CD is sought by your OS during the above process, specify the location of the CD to this directory (say c:\1386). Also, once the above process is over, I suggest you to take a backup of this directory in a CD-ROM and keep the CD safe so that it can be used in the future, whenever the need arises to effect the above process.

  7. You will have to restart the machine for the new setting to take effect.

    See sample screen'snapshot below for better understanding.

    Enabling Unicode in Windows XP



Enabling Unicode fully in Windows 2000 (Windows 2000 operating system installation CD may be required for the same)

  • Click on 'Start->Settings->Control Panel->Regional Options'

  • Click on 'General' (from the list of tabs at the top)

  • You will see a list of languages under 'Language Settings for the system'. Scroll down the list. When you see 'Indic' see whether it is already ticked.

  • If ticked, leave it as it is. If not ticked, tick it. It will start installing some required files and Windows 2000 CD may be required to complete the process.

  • You will have to restart the machine for the new setting to take effect.



    1. How to effect 'Direct Unicode Tamil Input' in ALL Windows applications?


    Important Note: For MS-Word and Powerpoint alone, the procedure is different and also some extra settings may be required to be effected before you commence 'Direct Unicode Typing' in them. Click here to know the same. If it is for any other application, read the steps below.

  • Start Azhagi.

  • Right click on Azhagi's tray icon (you may find it at the right bottom of your screen, usually near the date/time indicator) and tick 'Unicode Input'. Alternatively, you can click on Azhagi's 'Preferences' menu and then tick on 'Unicode Input'.

  • Start your external application, say 'Outlook Express'. Press 'F10'. Azhagi's tray icon will change color to red.

  • Start typing in English and you will see it appearing in Unicode Tamil.
    [Note: Latha is the font automatically chosen by Windows, whenever you type in Unicode. If you find a font by name 'Arial Unicode MS' in your system, you might use that too but it is advisable to use Latha itself as content remains undisturbed across all machines. Apart from these, there are 100s of other free Unicode fonts. For samples, details and download links, see http://azhagi.com/freefonts.html

  • Press F10 again, to continue to type in English.
    (See sample screen'snapshot below for better understanding)



  • If you wish to change your typing mode from 'Phonetic' to 'Tamil Typewriter' or 'Tamilnet99', click on 'Preferences->Keyboard Layout' and choose your preferred layout. Alternately, you can right click on the Azhagi icon in the system tray, move your mouse to 'Typing mode' and select the preferred layout.

    Note: For MS-Word and Powerpoint, the procedure is different and also some extra settings may be required to be effected before you commence 'Direct Unicode Typing' in them. Click here to know the same.


    2. How to effect Unicode conversion in Azhagi?

    Important Note: There are various ways by which you can effect Unicode conversion in Azhagi. Only one of them is explained below. For advanced modes and full details, click on 'Help->Unicode Help' menu item from the main opening screen of Azhagi and read the corresponding topic(s).

  • Type* out your Tamil text in Tscii using Azhagi.

  • Click on 'File' menu of Azhagi.

  • Click on 'Convert to Unicode' and then on 'Choose conversion mode before converting'
    (Note: If you click on 'Convert to Unicode->Convert immediately', your text will get converted to Unicode immediately and get displayed in your browser as an html page).

  • In the 'Unicode Converter' screen that opens, click on the button 'Plain Text' and follow the instructions - as such, you will have to just press 'OK', 'Yes' and 'OK' in the three screens which follow one after the other.

  • Your Tamil text (in Tscii) will get converted to Unicode and show up in your browser as an html page.

  • You can copy/paste this Unicode text to wherever you wish to - say your Blog or Email client or Word processor.

    (*) Instead of typing, you can also paste Tamil text (in Tscii encoding) from an external source on to the Tamil text area of Azhagi.

    Please note:
    With the utilities available in Azhagi' unicode converter, you can convert not only Tamil text typed in Azhagi but also external Html/Text/JavaScript files (containing Tscii Tamil text). For achieving reverse conversion (i.e. Unicode to Tscii), you can click on 'File->Fonts converter' and make use of the options available therein. You can ofcourse do 'Tscii->Unicode' coversion also using this 'Fonts converter' tool.


    3. What are the immense benefits of Unicode?

    Apart from the facility to straightaway start typing in any application window without setting/changing font to any Tamil font (i.e. even if your current application font is set to an English font like Arial, you can still straightaway start typing in Unicode Tamil. The font for your Tamil text is automatically chosen and set by your Windows operating system. There is no need for you to select/set it in advance), there are other very powerful features of Unicode like 'Find & Replace in Tamil', 'Sorting in Tamil', 'File names in Tamil', 'Search in Tamil in google, yahoo!, ...' etc. Click here to get to know them in detail.


    4. What is Unicode all about?

    If you want FULL and comprehensive details on what is Unicode, why Unicode, what are its powerful advantages, what are the current issues with it etc., then click here.


    5. How to effect Non-Unicode (Tscii) Input in all Windows applications?

    To get to know how to effect Non-Unicode input in all Windows applications, click here.


    6. Power tools of Azhagi

    To know all about Auto transliterator, Reverse transliterator, Dual-screen transliterator and SAT transliterator, click here.



    Effecting 'Unicode' Tamil Input in MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint

    If you are using Windows 7 / Vista:

    1. Ensure that 'Unicode input' is kept ticked under 'Preferences' menu of Azhagi.
    2. Open MS-Word or MS-Powerpoint.
    3. Press 'F10' and start transliterating/typing in Unicode Tamil. That is all to it.

    If you are using Windows XP:

    Method A
    1. Ensure that 'Unicode input' is kept ticked under 'Preferences' menu of Azhagi.
    2. Open MS-Word or MS-Powerpoint.
    3. Select/set font to Tscu_Comic.
      Note: If you do not find Tscu_Comic font in the 'fonts' list, you can quickly download it from one of the following links: Link1, Link2 [To extract files from '.tgz' archives, use Winzip or 7zip application], Link3, Link4/Link5 [To extract files from '.deb' archives, use 7zip application]
    4. Press 'F10' and start transliterating in Unicode Tamil. That is all to it.
      Note: If you have the fonts Tscu_Paranar or Tscu_Veeravel or aAvarangal, then you can use them too, in much the same way as explained above for Tscu_Comic.
    Method B
    1. Look whether 'Arial Unicode MS' font is installed in your system. To do the same, open an application like MS-Word and click on the 'fonts' list and scroll down to see whether a font named 'Arial Unicode MS' is listed. If listed, then it means 'Arial Unicode MS' is installed in your system.

    2. If 'Arial Unicode MS' is indeed installed in your system, then
      • Ensure that 'Unicode input' is kept ticked under 'Preferences' menu of Azhagi.
      • Open MS-Word or MS-Powerpoint.
      • Select/set font to 'Arial Unicode MS'.
      • Press 'F10' and start transliterating in Unicode Tamil. That is all to it.

    3. If 'Arial Unicode MS' is NOT installed in your system, then,
      • Reinstall your existing MS Office suite in FULL (i.e. while reinstalling, choose the 'complete' or 'full' installation option). This will install 'Arial Unicode MS' automatically. Once installed, open MS-Word or MS-Powerpoint, select/set font to 'Arial Unicode MS', press 'F10' and start transliterating in Tamil easily and freely.
      • If you feel the above would be difficult and would wish to install the font alone, then see this simple procedure explained here, with screen snapshots.
      • If you have misplaced your MS-Office installation CD and hence unable to install 'Arial Unicode MS', then read the steps under 'Method A' above or 'Method C' below and you can for sure type in MS-Word and MS-Powerpoint in Unicode Tamil.
    Method C

    If you are using Windows 2000:

    Step 1:
  • If you have not yet enabled Unicode in your computer, enable it first by reading the instructions for the same at the very top of this page. Only thereafter, read the steps below.

    Step 2:
  • Click on 'Start->Settings->Control Panel->Regional Options'
  • Click on 'Input locales' (from the list of tabs at the top)
  • Under 'Installed input locales' you will find your default language/keyboard layout selected - most often it will be EN and US
  • Now, click on 'Add' button
  • Click on the listbox titled 'Input locale'. A list will appear. Scroll down or up the list to select 'Tamil'.
  • Click on the listbox below it titled 'Keyboard layout/IME'. Scroll down or up the list to select 'US'.
  • Click 'OK'.
  • Under 'Installed input locales' you will now find two entries EN and TA. Under 'Keyboard layout/IME' for 'TN', it should be showing 'US'.

    Step 3:
  • Tick the checkbox titled 'Enable indicator on taskbar'
  • Under 'Hotkeys for input locales', you will find 'Left Alt + Shift' being the default hotkey to change keyboard layout from one language to another. If you wish, you can click on 'Change key Sequence' to set/change these hotkeys to suit your convenience. I assume for the purpose of this document that you left the default hotkey as it is.
  • Click OK.

    Step 4:
  • Start Azhagi. Right click the azhagi tray icon (at the right bottom corner of the screen) and keep 'Unicode Input' ticked.
  • Open Ms-Word (Powerpoint)
  • See what's the language chosen in the language bar (a small bar floating on your desktop or stationed in your taskbar). It will be most probably EN, meaning English language. You can see 'English (U.S)' in the status bar of MS-Word (Powerpoint) too.
  • Press 'Left Alt + Shift' and you will see the language in the language bar changing to TA (Tamil). You can see this change in the status bar of MS-Word (Powerpoint) too. The status bar will(SHOULD) show 'Tamil' now, in place of 'English (U.S)'. By 'status bar', I mean the bottom-most part of the MS-Word(Powerpoint) window.
  • Press 'F10' and azhagi's tray icon (at right bottom corner of screen) will turn red, to indicate you are in 'Direct Typing' mode.
  • Start typing in English in MS-Word (Powerpoint) and you will see it appearing in Unicode Tamil seamlessly. If it does not, then it means that you have not followed one of the steps above properly. Nothing else could be a reason.
  • If you wish to change your typing mode from 'Phonetic' to 'Tamil Typewriter' or 'Tamilnet99', right click on Azhagi's tray icon, move your mouse to 'Typing mode' and select the preferred layout.


    Final note: When using Azhagi to type in Unicode, 'MS Office 2000' and earlier versions may not support Unicode typing.