Installing IWrite32

• First, get some freeware fonts for your language.
  • A good collection of Bengali fonts is available from Bengali Adda. The map file Bengali.map will work with this font set. You may want to customize the map file to suit your own style.
  • Following is a list of freeware Hindi fonts.
    • Jagran - from Dainik Jagran
    • Patrika - from Rajasthan Patrika
    • Yogeshweb - from Nava Bharat
    • Bhaskar - from Dainik Bhaskar
    The map file Jagran.map will work with all these fonts. You should customize this map file before using as my knowledge of Hindi is very limited. This file should be treated as a starting point only.

    If your are familiar with the ITRANS notation scheme, you could use the file Samachar.map contributed by Yashwant K. Malaiya.

  • For other fonts, you can use a standard search engine and find out for yourself.

• Now install the application components.
  • Execute IWrite32Arc.exe to extract the necessary files in a directory tree under one directory. Following is the structure of the directory tree:

    
              <Extract Directory>     [Program file, Registry file]
                      |
                      |--- Docs       [This HTML help file]
                      |
                      |--- Samples    [Sample files]
           

    Samples will contain further subdirectories each of which will have Maps and Docs for Bengali, Hindi and Marathi languages.
• Execute IWrite32.exe. You will be prompted to choose a map file. Choose an existing map file or create one and then choose it. You must select a map file before you can convert any text (and complete the setup).
• Type your name in the editor and press F4. You will see some strange characters on a new window. Don't worry, it's very normal. Select the entire text and set the correct font (using Edit - Select font ... menu option). You should see your name, probably misspelled. If it is misspelled, retype your name as per the map file you are using and convert again using F4. Read on for more information.

If you create a new map file and/or modify an existing one, I would appreciate if you send it to me so that I can include it in the package. This will make others' lives considerably simpler.

This help file is available in the Docs subdirectory for future reference.

Defining transliteration map

• Which character to replace and by what
• How to handle multiple consonant characters without vowels in between (yuktakshar)
• How to apply a vowel to a consonant/a collection of consonants

<English characters><wsp><stand alone characters><wsp><applied as><wsp><type><wsp><sides>

Description of each component in the format :

A note on <English characters>, <stand alone characters> and <applied as>

These three sets of characters are the most important part of the transliteration map. They decide what is converted into what. So for each sound in your language, you have to find the proper character(s) in your font (use Character Map in Accessories) and note down their ASCII or extended ASCII codes.

These characters can be plain ASCII characters or a combination of ASCII and extended ASCII. Plain ASCII characters are written as is. Extended ASCII characters can be written as hex or decimal or octal numbers. The prefix shows the number used : \x for hex, \d for decimal and \o for octal numbers. Extended ASCII characters MUST be separated from each other and from ASCII characters by a '+' character.

If any of these sets has no characters, use a '-' chatacter. Please remember that the <English characters> set cannot have '-' (nothing) as the data (although \- is a valid pattern).

With this information, let's look at some sample transliteration maps:
 

aa	B	\xA1	Vowel	PostFix
au	A	-	Vowel	None
i	C	\xA2	Vowel	PreFix
r	l	\d209+\xCB	Consonant	AroundPost
tr	\x9c	-	Consonant	None

So, now if my input text contains "aar", output will be "Bl" which, when viewed in your font, will represent something. Similarly, if the input text contains "raa", the output will be "l\xA1" (where \xA1 is the character having ASCII code 0xA1).

If you think you are still confused, drop me a line stating your problem and I will try to help you out.

Creating documents using IWrite32

Please remember that if you change style or font of any text, and want to see the change later, you must save it. IWrite32 does not save font information for individual parts of text. So, next time you start a new file, it will start editing in the last English font you used. And when you convert the text, it will use the last Indian font you used. So, if you change the style of any part of a converted text and close the sheet without saving, you can convert the text once again, but you will have to re-do all style changes once again.

You can also embed English text in your document. If you want a section of your text passed through unconverted, wrap it between <Eng> and </Eng> tags. The text will be passed through unconverted and displayed in the English font you are currently using.

Note that the <Eng> and </Eng> are case-sensitive. So, if you use <ENG> </ENG> or <eng> </eng>, IWrite32 will convert the tags along with embedded text.

If you need on-line reference to the transliteration map you are currently using, press F5. This will display a dialog with a table containing sounds in your language and corresponding character sets in English. Press the Escape key to close the dialog.

Please note that IWrite32 is guided by the transliteration map that you define. If you define a sound with small letter(s), use the same small letter(s) in your text too. Do not use capital letters or a mix of smalls and capitals unless your transliteration map takes care of such text. IWrite32 will pass-through any character(s) not defined in the transliteration map as is and the output might look strange.

Do not insist on writing the first character of a sentence in capital letter.

Printing a document

Before printing a document you can preview it and make sure that the format of the print-out is as expected. You can Preview and Print both the English and the converted documents.

Mailing a document

Faxing a document

To fax a document, follow these steps:

• Choose File - Print ... menu.
• In the dialog that opens, choose the fax driver as the printer.
• Hit OK

Please note that IWrite32 as such has no faxing capability. It depends on regular faxing softwares to send faxes. So, you have to have a modem, a telephone connection and a compatible faxing software to send faxes from IWrite32.

Known bugs/issues

However, following is a list of issues that I came up with and still don't have a solution for.

• The conversion is not yet quite perfect. Although, it has worked correctly so far with all the data that I fed in, I still have this uneasy feeling that there could be some silly bugs hiding somewhere. If you find any, please send me your map file and data file and I will try to fix it.
• IWrite32 does not use any proprietory format for saving files. Instead it saves files in standard text or rich text formats. So, there is no way for IWrite32 to tell a converted document from an English document. It is upto you to use the tool properly.

Support etc.

I wrote this tool for myself and later realised that it could be useful to you too and therefore I let you use it. I am not liable for any kind of support although I promise that I will try my best. I too have my regular work and I am not left with much time to spare at the end of a day. So, I will try to provide support as best I can but don't let your expectations be too high.

However, I am always open to new ideas, bug reports, suggestions, etc. (even questions). So, keep those mails coming. You can always reach me at subhabrata.biswas@usa.net.

I will keep my website posted with the latest version of IWrite32. So visit https://members.tripod.com/sbiswas/IWrite32/IWrite32.html often and get the current version of IWrite32.