अक्षरान्तरः
Akṣarāntara Keyboard Layout for Mac
Rolf Noyer, University of Pennsylvania
rnoyer AT ling.upenn.edu
The Devanāgarī QWERTY keyboard layout shipped with Max OS X is designed to permit users who are familiar with the ordinary QWERTY keyboard layout to type in devanāgarī without having to learn the standard devanāgarī keyboard layout. But especially for typing Sanskrit, Devanāgarī QWERTY has a number of significant drawbacks that make it both complicated for beginning students as well as cumbersome for relatively experienced users.
To address some of these deficiencies I created an alternative keyboard, Akṣarāntara (lit. ‘another syllable; transliteration’), with three specific goals in mind:
(1) The keystrokes used should as closely as possible resemble those for Romanized devanāgarī.
(2) The required use of modifier keys (shift and option) should be reduced to minimum.
(3) Numerous alternative keystrokes should be available automatically so that users can choose a style which corresponds to their typing preferences. For example, some users may prefer to minimize number of keystrokes while others may prefer to further reduce the use of shift and option keys.
With the Akṣarāntara layout, you simply type the romanized form, using a period after Roman letters which have an underdot, and devanāgarī appears on the screen. Although long vowels and syllabic [r̥] do still require the shift key, the option key is not needed for most applications.
Users can also choose to use among a number of variants to best suit their typing preferences:
1. In the first style (“simple style”) the input most closely resembles romanized devanāgarī.
2. The second style reduces the use of opt and shift modifier keys to an absolute minimum. This style works best for me.
3. The third style reduces the total number of keystrokes.
Example
The advantages offered are best seen by comparing the keystrokes needed with Devanāgarī QWERTY versus those needed with the Akṣarāntara keyboard layout.
☞ “o/” = pressing the opt key at the same time as the key denoted by the letter that follows.
समुद्रज्येष्ठाः सलिलस्य मध्यात्
samudrajyeṣṭhāḥ salilasya madhyāt (RV 7.49.1)
1. Akṣarāntara (simple style)
samudrajyes.t.hAh. salilasya madhyAt
2. Akṣarāntara (minimize opt/shift style)
samudrajyes.t.h;h. salilasya madhy;t
3. Akṣarāntara (minimal style)
samudrajyeo/ShAH saliyasya maDyAt
Devanāgarī QWERTY
smudfrjfyexfo/TaH slilsfy mDfyAtf
No more typing F for conjuncts. No more option key and option-shift combinations. Type all the vowels you actually pronounce.
It really is incredibly easy!
Download
To download and install the keyboard layout:
1. Option-click on the link below (or use control-click and select Save Link As ... or Save Linked File As ... from the pop-up menu).
2. Drag the layout file from wherever it ended up on your computer to the folder Library/Keyboard Layouts. (You may then be asked to authenticate yourself as a user entitled to change the system on your machine.)
3. Open Language & Text Preferences, and check the box to activate Akṣarāntara.
4. Select the keyboard from the keyboard menu when you want to type devanāgari.
You will need to restart any applications before using the keyboard in them.
To view the user’s guide simply click on the link below.
To download a .pdf of the file to your machine, use option-click.
Caveat: Akṣarāntara works only in applications which are capable of performing proper text-rendering for devanāgarī. This does not include Microsoft Word for Mac!
In my experience Libre Office (or Text Edit), along with the font Devanagari Sangam (included with Max OS X) will give acceptable results.