HOW TO ENABLE FARSI INPUT ON WINDOWS 2000
 

If you don't like my instructions, get them instead straight from the horse's mouth:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/DrIntl/faqs/win2k.mspx

and

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/2kintlsupp.mspx

Downloads/Installation

Fonts

You will need to download and install some fonts.

Font Download and Installation

DOWNLOAD the Nazanin, Nazaninbold, Kamran, Kamranbold fonts to your desktop. (If you want more fonts, check out borna rayaneh. )

To INSTALL the fonts which are now on your desktop:

                 Do this: StartàSettingsàControl PanelàFonts. Click on Fonts. Now, drag each font, one by one into your open fonts  folder. (You can drag them onto any spot in the Fonts folder and let go, Windows will put them in their proper places for you.) After installing all the fonts, you can close all the open windows.      

In case you didn't catch that, here it is again in slow motion with lots of pictures.

Enabling Farsi Input

You will need to enable 2 things—Microsoft Office Language Settings and Input Language.

(But before you begin……

Take a look at your taskbar. (That’s the bar usually found at the bottom of your screen generally with Start on the left end and a clock on the right end.) To the left of the clock, you may see a small purple box with EN[glish] or you may depress it and see AR[abic] or JA[panese] or whatever other languages you may have already enabled. You will notice you do not yet see FA[rsi]. If you don’t see this purple box at all, that means you haven’t enabled input of any other languages so far and that's ok!)

 Microsoft Office Language Settings. (For different versions of Office, method may be slightly different. Here are the directions for Office XP)

     Do this: StartàProgramsàMicrosoft Office ToolsàMicrosoft Office Language Settings.  Now, in the box on the left which says “Show controls and enable editing for:” , click on “Farsi”, then ApplyàOK

 Input Language.

     Do this: StartàSettingsàControl PanelàRegional SettingsàInput LocalesàAdd.  Now click on “FA Farsi”, then ApplyàOK.

Didn't work for you? Is Input Language not cooperating on your computer? Here's some more detailed instructions.

 Did it work except that you are unable to change the font size or format in any way? Here's a tip Antonia in Switzerland emailed me.

At this point, check out the purple box next to your clock.  FA(rsi) is now an option!   Congratulations!  You now have the ability to type in Persian!!

Get a Map of the Keyboard (This is OPTIONAL)

Here’s something optional you can do:  download a map of the keyboard. Microsoft calls it a “virtual keyboard” and you can easily get it from:

        http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/viskeyboard.aspx

        They supply good enough instructions there but the gist of it is that in order to make it display, you need to go Start > Programs > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Visual Keyboard.  (If you don’t see any Persian letters on the keys, you need to go to the purple box next to the clock and press FA(rsi).

        If you press the virtual keyboard’s “Shift” button, it’ll show you more keys. There are no additional Persian keys on Ctrl or Alt.)

If you don’t feel like downloading the visual keyboard, you can just “hunt & peck” til you get used to it. It’s not too difficult! I’ve also made a picture of them (the regular keys and the shift keys) HERE for your convenience but make sure you have the above Nazanin font installed first or the picture will be inaccurate.

 The letter “yeh”.

       There are 2 “yeh”'s. One on the "d" key and one on  shift-x.  Note that the fonts above "hide" the "yeh" with the two dots underneath (which is used in Arabic.)

More on the letter "yeh" here.

Thanks for making it through my instructions. Hope they were reasonably clear?!  Please look at the Tips section to get started with Microsoft Word.

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