Sanskrit Taskbar for Microsoft Word

A Unicode Taskbar for Word

  In short, Unicode is today's de facto standard enabling almost all kinds of computers handle almost all kinds of scripts. The honourable task of developing this standard is taken up by the Unicode Consortium. The Unicode standard is now supported by Microsoft in the latest versions of it's Windows operating system, by MacIntosh in MacOS and by the latest versions of Linux.

To use Unicode for typing Sanskrit on your computer, first you will need a computer with an operating system that supports Unicode to some level, as most modern personal computers do. (1)

Secondly you will need a Unicode font which includes the Sanskrit roman or devanagari characters you want to use. (2)

Thirdly, you will need to read the help function of your operating system to find a description of how to use Unicode on your particular system, and the help function of your wordprocessing software for a description of how to use Unicode with your software. (3)

For the romanization of Sanskrit and Pali there is another standard, the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST, which was already established in 1894.

For Microsoft Word I have made a taskbar for easy entry of romanized Sanskrit on Windows and Mac computers. Download from the right column on this page and install it on your PC or Mac.

Download the taskbar for Word, for easy entry of romanized Sanskrit.

Arial Unicode font from Microsoft (Public Domain) including Devanagari and Roman characters for Sanskrit.

Unicode Font Gentium (no Devanagari letters)

Times Roman Ext Unicode font from the Bahá'í Computer & Communication Association (no devanagari)

List of romanized Sanskrit characters in Unicode.