Persian Unicode keyboard layout for US keyboards

IMPORTANT Before continuing, please make sure that you do indeed have a US (rather than a British or other) keyboard. If your keyboard is not a US one you should delete the .zip file and any expanded files and download the correct version for your keyboard.

CONTENTS

  1. Installation
  2. Using the keyboard
  3. Examples
  4. Uninstalling US Persian layout
  5. Feedback

  1. Installation

    1. Copy the new keyboard file:

      kbdfa_us.kbd

      to your Windows/System folder.

    2. Double-click on the Registry update file:

      addfa_us.reg

      in Windows Explorer. This will ensure that the system recognizes the new keyboard.

    3. Close all running programs.
    4. Reboot your machine (Start|Shut Down|Restart).
    5. Start|Settings|Control
    6. Panel|Keyboard|Language|Add|Faeroe Islands, then click OK.

        (We have chosen this layout because it is rarely used -- and it begins with F for Farsi!)
    7. Make sure that you can see "Persian (US)" in the dialog box.
    8. Select a suitable method of Switching Languages (the simplest is Left Alt-Shift), and check the "Enable Indicator on Taskbar" option.
    9. Click OK. You are now ready to type with the new keyboard layout.

  2. Using the keyboard


    To type in Persian (eg in NotePad), ensure that you can see the Fo indicator in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. We suggest that you use the demo file Persian_test.htm while you are learning the new keyboard layout (select View/Source to edit the source code). Note that you must indicate that you are using UTF-8 Unicode encoding with this statement in the <HEAD> section of the HTML file:

    <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

    You can switch back to the English keyboard at any time by pressing Left Alt-Shift (you will then see the En [English] indicator).

    Refer to the transliteration table for the correct keys for each Persian letter. Most letters are typed phonetically, followed by the corresponding capital letter: eg bB for Beh ب and pP for Peh پ.

    When you have finished typing, switch back to En[glish], save your .htm file and view it in your browser.

    NB Do not type your text in Word: if you do you will almost certainly encounter problems when saving the file.

  3. Examples

    To type "Emruz panjshambeh ast" (امروز پنجشنبه است = Today is Thursday), press the following keys:

    aAmMrRuUzZ pPnNjJwWnNbBeE aAsStT

    (W -- just above S on the keyboard -- is used for Shin.)

    "Sal e 1985 e miladi" (سال ١٩٨٥ ميلادی = The year 1985 AD):

    sSaAlL =1=9=8=5 mMyYlLaAdDiI

    (Yeh ی is typed using Y except at the end of a word, when you must type I [otherwise you will get the Arabic final Yeh with two dots underneath].)

    You will see a string of meaningless symbols on the screen, but the Persian script will appear correctly when viewed in your browser.

  4. Uninstalling US Persian layout

    1. Close all running programs.
    2. Double-click on the registry update file:

      uninstal_us.reg

      in Windows Explorer. This will restore the original Faeroe Islands layout.

    3. Reboot your machine.

  5. Feedback

    Please send us your comments or suggestions for improvement.

    For details of PerScribe please visit our website.


N Greenwood Software

Last updated 21.10.2001