If you ever wanted to read and write in an Indian language in your computer, and haven't been able to do so, you can now learn to do so. Following the instructions here will get you the ability to read and write in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Marathi, Gurmukhi, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and Oriya!

Reading Indian Languages in Windows:

Microsoft Windows Vista has Indian languages enabled by default. You should be able to see (and read, if you know) Indian scripts without doing anything special. However, to type in Indian languages, you need to read the section below.

However, if you are using Windows XP, you will need to enable it by yourself, unless you are reading this in one of the latest versions of Internet Explorer. Follow the instructions below to be able to read Indian languages, including Kannada in ALL applications on your computer:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options
2. In the Languages tab, under "Supplemental language support", check the item "Install files for complex scripts and right-to-left languages (including Thai)"
3. You may be asked to insert the Windows XP installation CD
4. Allow the system to copy necessary files from Windows XP CD
5. Reboot the System

Go to Control Panel

Regional Settings Icon

Regional and Language Option in WIndows XP

You will now be able to read Indian languages! If you have done this, try these languages now! If the languages on the left hand side, in their own respective scripts, appear similar to the list on the right side, you CAN read Indic languages on your PC!

• ????? (Kannada)
  
• ??????? (Sanskrit)
• ????? (Hindi)
• ?????? (Telugu)
• ????? (Tamil)
• ?????? (Malayalam)
• ????? (Marathi)
• ??????? (Bengali)
• ????? (Oriya)

• ?????? (Punjabi)

Typing in Indian Languages in Windows:

There are three options -

1. Both Windows XP and Vista have an inbuilt Indian language keyboard too, but it is pretty difficult to use. It's not intuitive. I do not recommend using it yet.
   
2. Use Google Transliteration.  This supports Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. On the same page, there is also a link to instructions on how to use it. So, type there in a language of your choice and then copy>paste it into the application of your choice!
3. Use Baraha. The details for this are below:

Just get to http://www.baraha.com and download the software. Save the .zip file in your PC, extract and then run the setup.exe and install the software with its default settings. Now open Baraha Direct 7.0 (this is the version as of writing this) by going to Start > Programs > Baraha > Baraha Direct. Now this utility sits in your system tray at the right hand side bottom of the screen.

Left click on that icon and select Language >  Kannada > Unicode.

Enabling Baraha Direct to use a language

You should now be able to type in Kannada (If you want to type in another language, just select that language). You can toggle between English and Kannada by pressing the F11 key. 

Now, experiment with some typing. It is very intuitive. Just type as you would in English. For example, by typing this - kannaDadalli bareyabahudu - you will get this - . More examples:

• ka > ?
• kA or kaa > ??
• ki > ??
• kI > ??...

In fact, you can use Baraha to type in the language of your choice (from amongst Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Oriya) in any application on your PC, including web forms!

Whether an internet page like this can display that Indic script or not depends on whether that site has support for Unicode fonts. This site has Indic languages enabled and you can type a comment here, in any language. So, go ahead and test it out!

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