Ekushey Bengali Typing FAQ

13th November 2002

1.    About Ekushey
  1.1   What is Ekushey?
  1.1.1   Which languages/fonts does Ekushey support?
  1.1.2   Which keyboard layouts does Ekushey support?
  1.1.3   Which software does Ekushey support?
  1.1.4   Which operating systems does Ekushey support?
  1.2   What is the minimum specification for Ekushey?
  1.3   Who made Ekushey?   Why?
  1.4   How does Ekushey work?
  1.4.1   Can I see the source code to Ekushey?

2.   Using Ekushey
  2.1   Where do I get it? Which version is the latest?
  2.2   How do I install Ekushey?
  2.2.1   How can I tell if Ekushey is successfully installed?
  2.2.2   How do I turn it on?
  2.3   How do I type Bangla letters?
  2.3.1   Why do the full vowels and vowel forms have the same key?
  2.3.2   How do I type Hoshonto?
  2.4   How do I change the keyboard layout?
  2.4.1   How do I make a new keyboard layout?
  2.4.2   What is the difference between 'Link' and 'Join'?
  2.4.3   What do the different compose options do?
  2.4.4   What is the difference between 'Phonetic' and 'Graphic' input methods?
  2.4.5   Which is easier, 'Phonetic' or 'Graphic' input?
  2.4.6   Where is the keyboard layout stored?
  2.5   How do I configure Ekushey?
  2.6   What is 'Transliteration'?
  2.6.1   Is the transliteration customisable?
  2.7   What is 'Font Substitution'?

3.   Troubleshooting Ekushey
  3.1   When I start to use it, Ekushey takes a couple of seconds before it does anything. Is this normal?
  3.2   I get a Word 'Runtime Error'. Why?
  3.2.1   It says 'Cannot initialise Visual basic Environment' or 'Errors Occured During Load'. Why?
  3.2.2   The word cursor has turned into an eggtimer and I cannot get control back again. What to do?
  3.3   Ekushey does not work correctly when I am typing in a particular font. What can I do?
  3.3.1   Ekushey works correctly except for the Assamese letters. What can I do?
  3.3.2   Sometimes when I press 'join' the font changes into an English one. Why?
  3.3.3   I have problems with 'ST' and 'NT' conjuncts and a small number of others. Why?
  3.3.4   Some of the conjuncts don't behave as such for the purposes of phonic typing. Why?
  3.3.5   Not all the Ekushey fonts display correctly. Why do I get English characters of spaces?
  3.4   Most of the keys are not working correctly or at all. What can I do?
  3.4.1   Half of the keys are not working correctly. What's the problem?
  3.4.2   Some of the keys are not working correctly. What can I do?
  3.4.3   Word gives me a warning whenever I press a key. What can I do?
  3.5   Has 'Internet Update' stopped working? Why?
  3.6   "Do you want to save the changes you made to ekushey.dot?"
  3.7   Where has Ekushey gone?
  3.7.1   Where have the Ekushey buttons gone? Can I get them back?
  3.7.2   Can I disable Ekushey without uninstalling it?
  3.7.3   Can I use Word control key shortcuts as well as Ekushey?
  3.7.4   Can I use custom control key shortcuts as well as Ekushey?
  3.8   Why are some of the button icons and/or startup image not working correctly?
  3.9   How do I uninstall Ekushey?
  3.10   Why does Ekushey take longer under Japanese/Korean/Chinese Windows?
  3.10.1   Can I speed it up?
  3.10.2   Why do the vowels take longer to type than the consonants?
  3.11   Can I speed up Ekushey start up?
  3.12   Are there any 'known issues' with Ekushey?
  3.12.1   Is Ekushey affected by input locale?
  3.13   Why does the Default Bengali Font preview not display the word 'Bangla'?
  3.14   I have found another issue with Ekushey. What should I do?

4.    Legal Stuff
  4.1   What is the legal status of Ekushey?
  4.2   Is it free to use?
  4.2.1   Is it free to give/sell to my family/friend/colleague/customer/whoever?
  4.3   Can I put it on my website/BBS/whatever?
  4.3.1   Can I include it on a coverdisk/training package/whatever?
  4.4   What about modifying it?
  4.5   Can I get more fonts for Ekushey?

1.   About Ekushey

1.1.2   Which keyboard layouts does Ekushey support?
New users are recommended to use the UNICODE (Bangladesh) keyboard layout, but the installer package offers a choice of several other popular keyboards such as TopType, National, Munir (Godrez), Inscript, Gitanjali, Satyajit, Bengali Typewriter etc. Ekushey is very easily set up to support any keyboard layout, either by loading it in from file or by creating a custom one of your own using the keyboard editor.

1.1.3   Which software does Ekushey support?
Ekushey is intended for the English language version of Microsoft 97/2000/XP. Several users have reported incompatibility with foreign langauge versions - this problem is being worked on. To use Ekushey within Microsoft Outlook, check the box marked Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages on the Mail Format pane of the on the Tools/Options dialog box. If webpage authors have correctly set up their webpages to support Bengali input, you can likewise use Ekushey when Microsoft Word is running inside Internet Explorer. Corel Draw features some sort of VBA, but unfortunately it is intended primarily for scripting of drawing, not typing, so as of version 10.0 it had no support for Ekushey. If you wish to use Ekushey with Corel Draw, please contact Corel Corporation and suggest they expand the VBA support to include typing text in version 11:). Technical reasons mean that it would currently be very difficult to port Ekushey to this or to any other program and there are no current plans to do so.

1.1.4   Which operating systems does Ekushey support?
Ekushey was designed for Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP. Currently it is not supported by MAC-OS (although that could change if you are an Apple user with Word on your machine and have some knowledge of VBA - please get in touch about porting it to the Apple environment). It is not supported by any other platforms (e.g. Linux), since MSWord is not available. The popular office clone, Open Office, does not yet support it sufficiently.

1.2   What is the minimum specification for Ekushey?
The lowest specification software environment to run Ekushey is Windows 95, Word 97, although you are recommended to use Windows 2000 or better if possible. Depending upon your typing speed, you may be able to out-type Ekushey on a 486 or early Pentium; for best performance you are recommended to use a processor running at around 350 MHz or more.

1.3   Who made Ekushey?   Why?
The project was carried out under the auspices of Altruists International. Ekushey was conceived, developed and documented by Robin Upton. Technical advice was given by Robert Anderson. The Ekushey fonts were created by Robin Upton, using glyphs from a font originally produced by Sayed Rasel. Internet-based publicity was carried out by Robin Upon. Kevin Towell was responsible for hardware support. Omi Azad is chief output analyst and also produced the graphics. Angela Robinson is chief advisor for non-internet-based publicity. Testing for DBCS computers was by Kosaku Sasada. Subsidiary testing was by Borun Nafak and Matahar Hussain. Anomitra Das provided some of the Indian keyboard layouts and helped test the compatability of the the Indian fonts. By offering easier access to typing Bangla on computer, we hope to promote Bangla and the development of Bengali culture.

1.4   How does Ekushey work?
Microsoft Word is equipped with VBA, a powerful programming language for writing macros (stored commands resident within the program), and also allows users to set up key bindings. Ekushey binds each key to a macro so that every keystroke you make is intercepted and instead of just typing a letter, it runs a short VBA macro instead. If you are typing in an English font, it does not alter what you typed, if you are typing in Bengali, it adjusts what you typed, according to your choice of font and keyboard layout. When you press 'join', it examines the previous characters, deletes them and works out the correct conjunct to type instead.

1.4.1   Can I see the source code to Ekushey?
Yes. You cannot see it when running Ekushey normally however. Just find the Word template file 'ekush23.dot', copy it to a folder outside of its location in the MS-Word start up folder and double click on it. To enter the VBA editor, press ALT+F11. In the VBA editor, press CTRL+R to see the project explorer. Then click on the project 'Ekushey'.

2.   Using Ekushey

2.2   How do I install Ekushey?
Shut down Word and start the installer program, 'ekush23.exe'. This will guide you through the installation process. When you restart Word for the first time after installation, Ekushey will examine the fonts installed on your system and set itself up with a set of defaults that are likely to suit you. Changing these options is done through the Ekushey configuration screen.

2.2.1   How can I tell if Ekushey is successfully installed?
If Ekushey is successfully installed, you should see a splash screen welcoming you to Ekushey the next time you start up Microsoft Word. To check Ekushey is running, press the 'Control' and '/' keys simultaneously. An 'About Ekushey' message should appear.

2.2.2   How do I turn it on?
Ekushey starts working as soon as you start up Microsoft Word. Just select a Bengali font and start typing. The quickest way to change between English and Bengali typing is to press the 'F6' key.

2.3   How do I type Bangla letters?
Change the font to a Bangla font (such as Ekushey) by pressing F6 or clicking the font toggle icon. Then press the key that corresponds to the Bangla letter you wish to type (this will vary, depending upon which keyboard layout you have chosen). If you are typing in an old fashioned, typewriter based layout such as Munir, you use the normal method of building the characters - for some you will need to build the character from its constituent parts (e.g. type the base letter and add a dot, an overscore character or whatever).

2.3.1   Why do the full vowels and vowel forms have the same key?
The phonetic input method allows you to type both with the same key, depending upon the context. If you type not in the order that you write, but in the order that you speak, Ekushey will do the rest. (See the ReadMe file for more explanation of this).

2.3.2   How do I type Hoshonto?
As well as having a key of its own in some layouts, there are two other ways to type Hoshonto. Either press 'space' and then 'Join' or if you prefer to use link, press 'Link' and then space.

2.4   How do I change the keyboard layout?
Select the 'Keyboard' tab of the Ekushey 'Options' pane. The drop down list will contain all the keyboard layout files currently installed on your system. Just choose the one you require and click 'OK'. This contains the most popular keyboards.

2.4.1   How do I make a new keyboard layout?
Select the 'Keyboard' tab of the Ekushey 'Options' pane, and click on 'Edit' to start the keyboard editor. It is easy to change the layout by just using 'drag and drop' (i.e. press the mouse button on a letter and keep it held down, to 'carry' the letter over to where you would like it). To assign a new binding, just click once on the key and select the action you would like.

2.4.2   What is the difference between 'Link' and 'Join'?
This is explained in the ReadMe file. 'Link' is the old style (typing the compose character between the consonants you type - (Letter, Link, Letter). 'Join' is the option to use for composing by typing after the consonants (Letter, Letter, Join).

2.4.3   What do the different compose options do?
Join is the operator for building conjunct consonants. It adds together the basic letters you have just typed. If you press join after a conjunct, where no further letters can be added, it splits up the conjunct into its constituent letters. Join Only only performs the first part of the 'Join' function (no splitting). Join2 just does 'Join' twice (for building three letter conjuncts). Link is an old-fashioned 'join' method explained above.

2.4.4   What is the difference between 'Phonetic' and 'Graphic' input methods?
'Phonetic' is the order of the sounds, 'Graphic' is the order of the writing. English is always written (left to right) in the order it is spoken, so these are the same. Most Bengali typing systems only offer graphic (left to right) input. At the time of writing, Ekushey is the only Bengali typing system that offers full phonetic input.

2.4.5   Which is easier, 'Phonetic' or 'Graphic' input?
You are recommended to use the 'Phonetic' input method. 'Graphic' is offered for backwards compatability, and for non-readers of Bengali who have no desire or need to learn to read it.

2.4.6   Where is the keyboard layout stored?
The active keyboard is stored in the windows registry. The keyboard layout editor comes with a facility to import/export this to file, allowing you to easily switch between layouts, or to quickly apply a layout you have created to a lot of machines. Ekushey stores the Bengali layout in files with the extension '.21B', while Ekushey English layout files have a '.21E' extension. These are in an easily understood text form, so if you are careful with spelling, and remember that they are case sensitive, you can even edit them by hand if you prefer.

2.5   How do I configure Ekushey?
If the default options do not suit you, then they are easily changed through the configuration dialogue box. This is found from the 'Ekushey' option of the 'Tools' menu. There are five categories of options, each with a separate tab: 'Keyboard', 'Fonts', 'Features', 'General' and 'Advanced'. You should not need to modify any of the 'Advanced' options in normal use.

2.6   What is "Transliteration"?
Transliteration is converting a word from the English alphabet to the Bengali alphabet, or vice versa. This is useful, for example, to produce a phoneticisized version of Bengali text, for non-Bengali speakers, or to send as a simple text E-mail.

2.6.1   Is the transliteration customisable?
Yes. Advanced users may wish to change the transliteration mapping file ("phonetic.21m") and create their own mapping. Remember to choose the mappings carefully if you wish to ensure that when you reconvert from English to Bangla the translation is unambiguous.

2.7   What is 'Font Substitution'?
If you open a document in a font that you don't have installed on your system, Word displays it in a different font (usually Times New Roman) so that you can read it. Unfortunately, this means that Bangla is unreadable. Ekushey knows which fonts are Bengali and substitutes them with an appropriate alternative, so they are readable.

3.   Troubleshooting Ekushey

3.5   Has 'Internet Update' stopped working? Why?
Internet Update downloads a file of font definitions from the Altruists International Internet site. If your update does not appear to change the font definitions, you may have the most recent fontlist currently available. If http://www.altruists.org/downloads/fonts shows that a more recent list of fonts is available but your Internet Update button does not download it, this can be caused by your internet cache. Remove the page from the internet cache and retry.

3.6   "Do you want to save the changes you made to ekush23.dot?"
This message may occur if interference from another application forces you to rebuild the key bindings, or if you are rebinding them to set up Custom shortcut keys. If you see it, just click 'Yes' and continue. Please inform the author of this software of the details of the suspected application so that a work around can be included in the next version of this FAQ.

3.7   Where has Ekushey gone?
Ekushey runs as a template (.dot) file which is resident in the Word Startup folder (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Startup). If this file is deleted or damaged, you can either reinstall Ekushey or replace it with a backup copy of the template from the folder in which you installed Ekushey (typically C:\Program Files\Altruists International\Ekushey). Under certain circumstances it is possible for Word to fail to load it, even if it is working correctly. In this case, select 'Templates and Add-Ins ...' from the 'Tools' menu and check that Ekushey is on the list of templates and add-ins. It may have been disabled as described below.

3.7.1   Where have the Ekushey buttons gone? Can I get them back?
It is possible to manually turn off the Ekushey toolbar (via the 'General' option on the Ekushey Options dialogue box), and it may be unloaded by other software. To reinstate the toolbar, go to the the 'Toolbars' sub-menu of the Word 'View' menu and make sure that 'Ekushey' is ticked.

3.7.2   Can I disable Ekushey without uninstalling it? Yes. The easiest way to do this is from the 'Options' sub-pane of the 'Advanced' tab of Ekushey Options. You can choose between disabling it until you re-start Word, or disabling it until you re-enable it yourself.

3.7.3   Can I use Word control key shortcuts as well as Ekushey?
Not with this version. This facility was available in versions up to 2.2a. It was discontinued in order to avoid reliability problems caused by excessive macro size. If you require an older version, contact the author.

3.7.4   Can I use custom control key shortcuts as well as Ekushey?
This facility has been withdrawn. See answer to the previous question.

3.8   Why are some of the button icons and/or startup image not working correctly?
If the images are just black, this is usually due to a lack of windows memory, and is fixed just by shutting down some other programs. Alternatively, it may be due to a badly configured graphics card - decrease the amount of hardware acceleration.

3.9   How do I uninstall Ekushey?
Click on the Windows Start button and choose the 'Control Panel' option from the 'Settings' menu. Double click the 'Add/Remove Programs' icon to bring up a list of software installed on your machine. Then select Ekushey and choose 'Automatic Uninstall'. If you have performed multiple installs of different versions without uninstalling, it may be necessary to remove it by hand. The program file is 'ekush23.dot', and the installer copies it to your MS Word startup folder (Typically c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Startup). Removing this file will uninstall the program.

3.10   Why does Ekushey take longer under Japanese/Korean/Chinese Windows?
Far Eastern languages use a Dual Byte Character Set (DBCS), which means that they display standard text differently from normal Windows computers. To accommodate this, Ekushey uses a special DBCS format to display Bengali. However, it saves in standard Bengali format, so that files can be interchanged without a problem between between DBCS and normal windows computers. Converting between these formats is what takes extra time when saving and loading files.

3.10.1   Can I speed it up?
Yes. To speed up loading and saving of files for a DBCS computer, uncheck the 'Auto-Convert Files' check box on the 'Advanced' tab of Ekushey Options screen suppresses this conversion, which means that DBCS files load and save at normal speed. If the file is for your own use only then this will present no problem, since it will still display and print correctly. To save it in standard Bangla format, either re-enable the 'Auto-Convert Files' option or use the 'Convert' commands on the 'Ekushey' sub-menu of the Word 'Tools' menu.

3.10.2   Why do the vowels take longer to type than the consonants?
This is quite normal. It is simply because they do more work - Ekushey has to analyse the previous character(s) to determine the correct form. Unless you are running several background processes, this effect should be barely detectable on a Pentium 2 machine or faster.

3.11   Can I speed up Ekushey start up?
By default, Ekushey checks for new Bengali fonts on start-up. If you have a lot of fonts on your system, this may take a couple of seconds, so you may wish to disable it from the 'General' tab of Ekushey Options screen.

3.12   Are there any 'known issues' with Ekushey?
This is an alpha version for testing. Please report any bugs to 21@altruists.org
(0) CDAC font support is under development - expect irregularities in this area!!.
(1) The 'Envelopes & Labels' Option accessible via the 'Tools' menu does not work. (Workaround: Suspend Ekushey if you need to you use this feature).
(2) Assamese Characters are not supported in Lekhani fonts. (Workaround: Use a different font group to type them.).
(3) Ekushey doesn't work to edit the text in the Search/Replace box or Word Art (Workaround: First type the text, then either select it and choose the option you request or paste in it to the dialog box).
(4) Running Word within Outlook, sometimes letters get misplaced when typing the Email header (e.g. Subject/Address lines). (Workaround: Buy a faster machine or don't type quite so fast!).
(5) Editing the template file, if Adobe Acrobat writer 5.0 is installed, Word gives the message 'Run-time error '5828' Requested object is not available' on shutdown if the Ekushey options dialogue has been opened. (Workaround: Don't edit the template file).

3.12.1   Is Ekushey affected by input locale?
The 'Respect Input Locale' option integrates Ekushey with the locale system. However, this requires a very fast machine (e.g. Pentium 4 or better). Users of slower machines are recommended to run Ekushey under the UK or US locale. Other locales may result in slight differences from the documented behaviour, particularly as regards punctuation characters. If you do run it successfully with one or more foreign key locales installed, do let us know so that we can update the documentation and/or keyboard layout files.

3.13   Why does the Default Bengali Font preview not display the word 'Bangla'? This indicates that Ekushey does not recognise the font you have chosen as the default font as a supported Bengali font. Check the 'Definitions' section of the 'Fonts' tab of the configuration screen.

3.14   I have found another issue with Ekushey. What should I do?
Please feedback any issues you have with the whole Ekushey package, from the installer script, subsidiary documentation to the program itself. Any suggestions and ideas are welcome. Bugs reports however should be as specific as possible, so that the bug can be reproduced.

4. Legal Stuff

4.2   Is it free to use?
Yes.

4.2.1   Is it free to give/sell to my family/friend/colleague/customer/whoever?
Yes.

4.3   Can I put it on my website/BBS/whatever?
Yes, you may make Ekushey available for redistribution in a public forum (e.g. the Internet). As a courtesy a link to the Altruists International website (www.altruists.org) would be appreciated.

4.3.1   Can I include it on a coverdisk/training package/whatever?
Yes. Again, a mention of the Altruists International website (www.altruists.org) would be appreciated.

4.4   What about modifying it?
You may do so only in accordance with the GPL. You may NOT, for example, password protect it, since this would be denying users access to the source code.

4.5   Can I get more fonts for Ekushey?
Although Ekushey supports well over 300 of the most popular fonts, we regret that legal reasons prevent the distribution of any more of these with the Ekushey package. If you require more, we recommend that you either look for the public domain ones on the Internet or contact commercial font vendors. If you have produced a Bengali TTF and would like it included in the Ekushey install, we should of course be very pleased to hear from you.

Corrections, comments, updates and feedback regarding this FAQ should be directed to the author.

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