Dear Shri Vimal, The Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available in the DVD distributed along with the computer magazine 'Digit' June 2008 issue. Enabling Malayalam is possible in Windows XP SP II or later versions. The most appropriate IME is the one recently created by Kerala IT Mission. To install it, please download the zip file at http://malayalam.kerala.gov.in/images/9/92/Win-inscript.zip and click the setup.exe file. Malayalam keyboard can then be enabled by, selecting malayalam from the options in the taskbar icon. If you are using IME from other sources, the creation of letters like n in rajan requires pressing of 5 keys. Instructions for Malayalam typing are given at http://malayalam.kerala.gov.in/index.php/InputMethods Rachana and Anjali Old Lipi are the commonly used fonts, even though Kartika is the default one in XP. Meera, is good, but smaller in size. This is a grey area and advice of people with more exposure will be of great help. Regards, K Rajasekharan ------------------------------ Original Message: Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 17:02:54 +0530 From: "Vimal Kumar" Subject: [LIS-Forum] Enabling Malayalam for Koha using SCIM Dear Friends, I write this from the inspiration of scanning earlier submissions made by Rajan (KILA) Sir about Koha for Malayalam catalogues. I tried to enable Malayalam in Windows XP machines for my professional colleagues. My attempt was failed due to most of PCs used Windows XP pirated version! It ask for XP service pack CD-ROM while enable Malayalam (any other Indic language). Nobody own XP service pack CD. My experiment with Linux (Debian and Ubuntu) was successful. Inputting Malayalam using SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) software seems very useful and easy. It offers various modes to enter languages. You can enter Malayalam in Phonetic mode. No need to learn the Malayalam key board format while enters data. You can use International Phonetic Alphabet (e.g. Manglish= English+Malayalam). Malayalam vowels can add from drop down list while data entry (No need to waste time for crawling vowels button). I found other Indian languages in SCIM, I have not tried data entry of other languages. I invite you to try other Indian languages with SCIM. And remember to post your feed back in Lis-Forum. Detailed description of enabling Malayalam in Debian and Ubuntu and the required software package available in the following link, http://malayalam.kerala.gov.in/index.php/EnableMalayalam Windows version of SCIM not available. You can also visit the SCIM project home page. www.scim-im.org -- Vimal Kumar V. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.