Blogging Beyond English
by:
Amit Gupta
www.a mitgupta .in

What are we looking at?
 Is it possible to do it in languages besides English ?
 What about the font problems ?
 How will others be able to read ?
 How can I write in a language other than English
the easy way?
 Which Blog Platform ?

Is it possible to do it in
languages besides English ?
 Yes , its definitely possible . जी हाँ यह ििलकल सं भ व है ।
ु
 Hundreds of thousands are already doing it .
 Three Big Guns on Internet – MSN, Yahoo &
Google – already have their portals in languages
other than English .
 What do ya think ? I blog in Hindi as well!
 http :/ / hindi.am itgupta .in /
 Currently more than 7200 Hindi Blogs
 600+ Hindi Blog posts being written every day

What about the font problems ?
 Say what ? Font problems ?
 Its time to wa ke up !! :)
 Say Hello to Unicode .
 It supports characters from ma ny langua ges and
supports both Left -to-Right and Right -to-Left scripts .
 Many free Unicode fonts available on internet .
 For Hindi, Mangal is a popula r Unicode font .
Arial Unicode MS is a massive 22 MB font but has support
for ma ny scripts , and its rendering is bea utiful a s well. :)
 Most major operating systems are Unicode enabled by default .
Eg. Microsoft Windows XP and Vista

How will others be able to read ?
 If they are using Unicode enabled operating system and if their
browser supports Unicode and if they have the character set
installed .
 Microsoft Windows XP a nd Vista support Unicode by default .
 Browsers (on Windows ) –
Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera
 For help on Hindi --
http://snipurl.com/read_hindi

Writing non-English the easy
way!!
 Its very very easy, really!!
 Lets see how:
 On windows , you just need to setup an IME – an Input
Method Editor.
 Options –
Indic IME - www.bhashaindia.com
Bara ha IME - www.baraha.com/BarahaIME.htm
 More info on Hindi typing -- http://snipurl.com/type_hindi
 Negligible learning curve – many input schemes available .
 InScript – developed by C-DAC, endorsed by Govt . of India
 Remington , Typewriter
 Phonetic

Writing non-English the easy
way!!
 Phonetic is very easy & recommended for people with
no prior experience in Hindi Typing.
a + m + i + t = अिित
g + u + p + t + A = गुपा
a + m + i + t = ಅಮತ
g + u + p + t + A = ಗುಪಾಾ

Which Blog Platform ?
 WordPress and Blogger – both work !
 WordPress software – www.wordpress .org
 WordPress .com service – www.wordpress .com
 Blogger.com service – www.blogger.com
 Its your choice !

End Notes
 Softwares :
 Options for windows –
Indic IME - www.bhashaindia.com (13 Languages)
Bara ha IME - www.baraha.com/BarahaIME.htm (11 Languages)
More on Hindi -- http://snipurl.com/hindi_tools
 Help on the Web for Hindi :
 Setup Help -- http://devanaagarii.net/
 Wiki -- www.akshargram.com/sarvagya
 Discussions -- http://groups.google.com/group/Chithakar/
 Major Hindi Blog Aggregators :
 Narad -- http://narad.akshargram.com/
 Hindi Blogs -- http://www.hindiblogs.com/
 Chitthajagat -- http://www.chitthajagat.in/
 Blogvani -- http://www.blogvani.com/

Questions ?
कोई पश ? ?