HOW TO ENABLE FARSI INPUT ON WINDOWS XP
If you don't like my instructions, get them instead straight from the horse's mouth: http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/DrIntl/faqs/winxp.mspx

and

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/xpintlsupp.mspx#langsupp

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 & Language OptionsàLanguagesà(check box: Supplemental Languages Support: Install files for Complex Script & Right-to-left Languages àDetailsà  Settings àAddàFarsi à ApplyàOKàApply.

Tip from one of the users:  "If you don't see "Farsi" as one of the language options, check "install files for complex script and
right-to-left languages".

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 (Optional)

Well, there aren't very many characters in Persian so it shouldn't take too long to find them using the old "hunt and peck" method. However, the "on-screen keyboard" is so easy to fire up,  you may just want to try it:

go Start à Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > On-Screen Keyboard

OR

go Start àRun, then type in osk.exe

It first checks to see what language you're typing in so if you're in EN(glish) mode, obviously, you won't see the FA(rsi) keys so don't forget to swich over.

I think you'll find this Extremely Cool!

Note: if you're used to an older version of Windows, you'll find the arrangement slightly different with WinXP.

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.

Are you unable to change font size or unable to format in general?  Here's the trick from a helpful website visitor.

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

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