Swarachakra Team, IDC, IIT Bombay Apps
Swarachakra Malayalam Keyboard 2.01
“ഓമനത്തിങ്കള്ക്കിടാവോ നല്ല കോമളത്താമരപ്പൂവോ പൂവില് നിറഞ്ഞമധുവോപരി പൂര്ണ്ണേന്ദു തന്റെ നിലാവോ? –ഇരയിമ്മൻ തമ്പി” If yourdevicecan display this sentence in Malayalam perfectly, then yourdevicesupports Malayalam and Swarachakra should also work well. Ifyou donot see any text, or if some of the words are incorrect, itmay notwork well. Swarachakra Malayalam (സ്വരചക്ര മലയാളം) isatouch-screen keyboard for inputting text in Malayalam. (Itisavailable in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi,Gujarati,Odia, Punjabi, Bengali and Konkani). It uses a logicallyordereddesign based on the structure of Malayalam. It displaystheconsonants sequenced according to the logical structureofMalayalam, phonetically grouped and arranged in a grid similartothose found in most school textbooks. How to type In Malayalam,wefrequently need to type a combination of a consonant(ക) and avowel(േ) like ക + േ = കേ. When you touch a consonant, a chakrawithcombination of consonants and 10 frequent vowels pops up (കാ,കി,കീ, കു, കൂ, കെ, കേ, കൈ, കൗ, ക്). The chakra gives a preview ofthepossible character combinations. To select a combination, youslidethe stylus or finger towards it. Typing conjuncts like ക്രി,സ്ഥ,ച്യ is particularly hard for most people. Swarachakra makesiteasy. First tap on the first part of the combination and selectthechandrakala from the chakra (സ + ്). Swarachakra then showsapreview of all possible conjuncts that begin with that consonant(സ+ ് + ഥ = സ്ഥ). If you need to add a vowel sign, select it fromthenew chakra like earlier (സ്ഥാ, സ്ഥി, സ്ഥീ, സ്ഥു, സ്ഥൂ,സ്ഥെ,സ്ഥേ,…). To type ശ്ര, കൃ, select the corresponding key ്ര, ൃfromthe right-most bottom keys, and then type as usual. To typechillu(ൺ, ൻ, ർ, ൽ, ൾ), select the corresponding key S from thebottom ofthe keyboard. The less used vowels and modifiers are nextto it(ഌ,ൄ, ൌ, ം, ഃ ) Complete vowels (അ, ആ, ഇ, ഈ, ഉ, ഊ, ഋ, എ, ഐ, ഒ,ഔ)appear in a separate chakra on the bottom right. Numerals,symbolsand rarely used characters appear on a shift. You could alsoswitchto the QWERTY keypad temporarily to input English characters.Howto install First, install Swarachakra Malayalam by clickingthe“Install” button above. Next, you need to “enable” the keyboard.Toenable, open “Settings”, select “Language and Input” and checkthebox in front of സ്വരചക്ര മലയാളം(Swarachakra Malayalam) inthe“Keyboard and input methods” section. Finally, click onthe“Default” option in the “Keyboard and input methods” section,andselect സ്വരചക്ര മലയാളം (Swarachakra Malayalam) as thedefaultkeyboard. (Sorry, but that’s how Android works) NOTE: Thisapp isdesigned for Android 4.0 (ICS) onwards. It does not workright nowon older versions because they do not have Unicodesupport.
