Pali-Sanskrit custom keyboard for Windows 7

Dear Pali Study Group,

if you use Windows 7, and if you would like to use an optional custom
keyboard set up with shortcut keystrokes for Pali and Sanskrit diacritical
characters, an installer has been uploaded to the 'Files' section of the
Pali Study Group's homepage.  Because the installer sits in a folder with
other files and folders, the whole folder has been compressed to a .zip
file and also to a .rar file (they are identical in content).  There is
also a Word document with brief instructions and a table of the keystrokes
and characters.

The keyboard was created with Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4 and
utilises the unicode Times New Roman font that comes with Windows 7 (so no
other special font is needed).  It appears as an optional extra keyboard in
the language bar and can be selected or de-selected at will.  It does not
replace any other keyboard, and can easily be removed at any time.

The keyboard is especially useful for typing diacritical characters outside
of Word documents (e.g., in email messages and search engines).  But it can
also be used in Word (though creating specific shortcuts within Word itself
is more useful).

Of course, as Ven. Yuttadhammo pointed out in his recent post, with
Digitial Pali Reader installed, you can type text in Velthuis, highlight
the text, right click, and select DPR > Convert > to Unicode.  I'm an avid
proponent and fan of DPR: the world would be a different place without it.
The only minor advantage of using the custom keyboard is that it cuts down
the number of steps required to type diacritical text to one step: e.g.,
for the character ā, just type Ctr + Alt + A.  For Ā, type Ctr + Shift +
Alt + A (not difficult to do).

With metta,
Kh.


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