Screenshots

• easy alphabetic input
• speed-typing shortcuts (abbreviations for common words and endings—and also participial forms)

Alphabetic input

Almost all Russian letters are typed using intuitive alphabetic Latin keys. Some relatively rare letters are not allocated their own keys: instead, you simply type the key for a more common related letter twice:

Key	Press once for	Press twice for	Examples
			You type	You see
C	ч	ц	ocen;, otecc	очень, отец
W	ш	щ	west;, veww;	шесть, вещь
;	ь	ъ	ves;, s;;ezd	весь, съезд

The Y key: both ы and й
RusScript determines which of these two letters is appropriate in each context. This means that the common ending -ый is simply typed -yy. What's more, words like тройка and чай can be typed phonetically (troyka and cay).

Help from spelling rules
RusScript exploits the rules of Russian orthography to simplify input of some common endings. For example, after guttural or "swish" consonants you can type the ending -ий as -yy (eg russkyy for русский and svejyy for свежий). The same rule enables RusScript to determine the correct ending when you use the speed-typing code -Y for the instrumental plural ending: eg you would type tqjelY for тяжёлыми and xorowY for хорошими.

"Это" гораздо легче ...
The letter э is normally typed e\: for example poe\t for поэт. But in its commonest occurrence—the initial letter of этот, этого and similar forms—it can simply be typed e: eg etot, etogo.

Repeated letters for faster typing
It is usually faster to press the same key twice rather than hunt for a different key. For this reason several frequently-occurring letter combinations can be typed with repeated keystrokes, as shown in the table below. Note in particular that you can type a мягкий знак (ь) by doubling the preceding consonant.

For	Type	Examples
		You type	You see
-ая	aa	pervaa	первая
-ой [final]	-oo	moo, vesnoo	мой, весной
-ую	uu	krasivuu	красивую
-ь	[double consonant]	pissmo	письмо

All these spellings are optional: you can type pervaq, moy, vesnoy, krasivuh and pis;mo if you prefer.

Next, please!
The word следующий is a good example of a word combining several of RusScript's easy-typing features: the easiest way of typing it is simply sleduuwwyy, rather than the more laborious sleduhwwiy. And Большой can be typed Bollwoo—though it does look more like Indian cinema than Russian theatre—rather than bol;woy.

Streamlined participles
Typing these lengthy verbal forms is a lot easier using RusScript codes. For example, писавшей is typed pisaVy and занимающимся is zanimaHii—the doubling of the instrumental/dative code -i indicates that this is a reflexive participle ending in -ся.

Using this feature, the word следующий can be further simplified, reducing the typing to sleduH, since the default masculine nominative ending -ий is added automatically if no other code is typed.

Phonetic options
A number of Russian letters have alternative phonetic Latin spellings which you may sometimes prefer to use:

Russian letter	Key	Alternative	Examples
			You type	You see
ж	j	zh	Jivago or Zhivago	Живаго
х	x	kh	Cexov or Cekhov	Чехов
ю	h	yu	shda or syuda	сюда
я	q	ya	menq or menya	меня

Shortcuts

• Abbreviations for about thirty of the commonest words: eg d for для and oc for очень.

• Individual shortcuts for the different cases and genders/tenses of words such as который and быть (eg kmi for которыми and ba for была).

• Automatic soft sign in second-person forms (eg ponimaew for понимаешь and bejiw for бежишь).

• Single-letter codes for case-endings and other word elements: eg russkG, russkM for русского, русскому and pqtN;, pqtiDi for пятнадцать, пятидесяти. There are also special codes for participles.

Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup | Multilanguage Support | Details | Cyrillic

Do not apply the Windows Russian keyboard settings: RusScript assumes that a standard European/American keyboard is being used.