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Mail@Chat

· Compose Mail

· Chat (Instant Messaging)

· Help on Mailing and Chatting

Compose Mail

You can compose your Tamil emails in two different encodings:

(a) Unicode

If you are using Win XP or Win 2000/2003 or Win Vista or above, you can type in Unicode Tamil (the universal standard for now and future) in Outlook Express, MSN, Gmail etc. wherein Microsoft's Unicode font 'Latha' will be automatically used instead of SaiIndira (which is of Tscii encoding).

To know how you can type in Unicode Tamil (in general, in any application), click here. To know what simple settings your recipients have to effect in their email cleints to read your Unicode Tamil texts properly, click here. If you are using Win98/ME, Unicode input/mailing is still possible (from within Azhagi, not in external applications). For details, click here.

If you are using Win 98/Me (without any Unicode fonts)

If you do not want to type in Unicode Tamil

If your application does not support Unicode

then, your only option is to send email using Tscii which is explained below.

(b) Tscii

Method-1 for sending email:

1. Start Azhagi.

2. Open a 'New message' window in your email application (say 'Outlook Express').

3. Change font to SaiIndira (see Note below).

4. Press F10 (default hotkey). Azhagi's tray icon will (should) change color to red.

5. Start typing in English and see that appearing in Tamil.

6. Press F10 again and you can start typing in English as usual.

7. If you wish to change your typing mode from 'Phonetic' to 'Tamil Typewriter' or 'Tamilnet99', right click on Azhagi's icon in the system tray, move your mouse to 'Typing mode' and select the preferred layout.

8. Once you have finished composing your Tamil mail, you may send it to your recipients as usual - much the same way as you send a mail in English.

Method-2 for sending email (from within Azhagi):

1. Start Azhagi.

2. Start generating your Tamil text using either 'Dual Screen' or 'Single Screen' transliteration mode.

3. Once you have finished typing your text,

a) If you use email clients like Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlooketc.

· Click on Azhagi's menu item 'Mail@Chat->Compose Mail' (Alternate way of invoking 'Compose Mail' is to click on the 'MAIL' button/icon [adjacent to the 'Help' icon] in the top toolbar of Azhagi).

· Some explanatory messages (please do read and understand them without fail) will be shown.

· After you click 'OK' for these messages,

· Outlook Express (or any other similar email client set up in your system) will automatically open with a 'New Message' window. Your Tamil text will be carried as an attachment automatically. You may then place your cursor in the message area of the mail and click on 'Edit->Paste' to paste your Tamil text therein too. You may have to select and apply 'SaiIndira' font for the pasted text. Once you are finished with the message, send it as usual (just as you send an English mail)

b) If you use email clients like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail etc.

Just copy the Tamil text (generated by you in Azhagi) and paste it in the message area of your email client (like MSN, Yahoo!, Gmail etc.). Once you are finished with the message, send it as usual (just as you send an English mail)

Note on Tamil font requirement at recipients' end: When you send a Tamil email in a "non-unicode" font like SaiIndira, for your recipients to read your mail in Tamil itself, they should install SaiIndira font in their system. This is a one-time installation and SaiIndira font is FREE. You can freely pass it on to all your contacts or ask them to install the same from http://azhagi.com/free.html. For more details on this and on "Unicode", click here.

Note on Outlook Express:

To avoid changing the font to SaiIndira every time you want to type in Tamil, set your default composing font to SaiIndira. You do that by clicking 'Tools->Options-Compose-FontSettings' and choosing 'SaiIndira' in the font list and pressing 'OK'.

Note on Yahoo!, Hotmail etc.:

1. There might be cases where the application window does not allow you to set the default font to SaiIndra. For ex: Hotmail's or Yahoo's email message area. In such cases, open a Tamil document in SaiIndra font in MS-Word. Just copy a single Tamil letter or Tamil word from that MS-Word document on to Hotmail's or Yahoo's message area and the font will be set to SaiIndra. Thereafter, you can press 'F10' and start typing your Tamil text as usual.

2. If you are unable to set the font to SaiIndra in the message area, whatever way you try, then type your Tamil text in Azhagi or Ms-Word, copy and paste it in the message area and just send it (even if it appears as odd characters). The recipient, after receiving the message, can always select the message text, apply SaiIndra font for it, to see and read it in Tamil.

Chat (Instant Messaging) (Hotkey - F10)

If you are using Win XP or Win 2000/2003 or Win Vista and above, you can type in Unicode Tamil (the universal standard for now and future) wherein Microsoft's Unicode font 'Latha' will be automatically used instead of SaiIndira (which is of Tscii encoding).

To know how to type in Unicode, click here. If you do not want to type in Unicode Tamil or if you are using Win 9x/Me or if your chat application (e.g. older versions of Yahoo! Messenger) does not support unicode, then you may proceed to read the following. Otherwise, you need not read further.

The first thing to remember while chatting is that you should choose 'SaiIndira' font as your message font. You have options in Messengers to set the default font to SaiIndira permanently. Do the same if you find it convenient. Then,

1. Start Azhagi.

2. Open a 'Conversation' or 'Instant message' window .

3. Change font to SaiIndira.

4. Press F10 (default hotkey). Azhagi's tray icon will (should) change color to red.

5. Start typing in English and see that appearing in Tamil.

6. Press F10 again and you can start typing in English as usual.

Document version 6.6