Ever visited a website and wanted to type in your language but did not find transliteration feature there? Now you can use Google transliteration bookmarklets to type in your language on any website.

Transliteration bookmarklet is a small piece of code that you save in your browser. Once saved, you can type in your langauge in any input editor on any website of your choice. It works on Google websites as well as other websites. For example, you can use the Hindi bookmarklet to chat in Hindi in Gmail, Tamil bookmarklet to send messages in Tamil to your friends on social networking websites, or edit an Arabic Wikipedia article or search for Greek information on Google search.
Note that you do not need to use the bookmarklet to compose email in Gmail, write blog, write a knol or use in Labs page. Transliteration is built-in on these websites. A list of Google products which have transliteration available can be seen here.

Google Transliteration Bookmarklets are available in 19 different languages - Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Persian (Farsi), Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya and Urdu.

This page provides information on how to use the Transliteration Bookmarklets. For simplicity, Hindi Bookmarklet is used as an example at most places in this page.

Google Transliteration offers an option for converting English characters to the characters used in language of your choice. This lets you type words in your language phonetically in English script and then have them appear in the language script. This is not the same as translation - it is the sound of the words that are converted from one alphabet to the other, not their meaning. For example, typing "hamesha" transliterates into Hindi as .

If you know how to create a bookmarklet, bookmark the link for the language of your choice :

NOTE: This is NOT same as clicking on the link.

Amharic	[አ Type in Amharic]
Arabic	[ع Type in Arabic]
Bengali	[অ Type in Bengali]
Greek	[α Type in Greek]
Gujarati	[અ Type in Gujarati]
Hindi	[अ Type in Hindi]
Kannada	[ಅ Type in Kannada]
Malayalam	[അ Type in Malayalam]
Marathi	[अ Type in Marathi]
Nepali	[अ Type in Nepali]
Persian	[پ Type in Persian]
Punjabi	[ਅ Type in Punjabi]
Russian	[Б Type in Russian]
Sanskrit	[अ Type in Sanskrit]
Serbian	[Ћ Type in Serbian]
Tamil	[அ Type in Tamil]
Telugu	[అ Type in Telugu]
Tigrinya	[ት Type in Tigrinya]
Urdu	[آ Type in Urdu]

Done! Now whenever you visit a website and want to type in any of these languages, click on the bookmarklet you just created for that language. For more information, see Using the transliteration bookmarklet section.

For detailed steps on saving the bookmarklet, use the appropriate link below. These steps are to be followed only once.

•  Steps for Internet Explorer users.
•  Steps for Firefox users.
•  Steps for Chrome users.
•  Steps for Safari users.

Transliteration bookmarklet is supported on Internet Explorer version 6 and above. If you come across font issues, see Transliteration Font guide for possible solutions.

Perform the following steps:

1. Right-click this link: [अ Type in Hindi].
   
   
2. Select "Add to Favorites".
   
   
   
   
3. Click "Yes" for the security message shown by Internet Explorer.
   
   
   
   
4. Choose "Links" as the directory where the bookmarklet should be created.
   
   
   
   
5. Click "Add".

After following the above steps, a bookmark with name [अ Type in Hindi] should appear in the Internet Explorer Links toolbar as follows:

If you do not see the the bookmark, follow these additional steps:

1. Make sure that the Links toolbar is visible. Right-click on empty space in Internet Explorer toolbar area and confirm that the Links toolbar is checked:
   
   
   
   
2. Make sure that the toolbars are unlocked. To unlock toolbar, right-click on empty space in Internet Explorer toolbar area and uncheck the "Lock the Toolbars" option.
   
   
   
   
3. Drag the Links toolbar to left side. Your toolbar will now look like:
   
   

Done! You can now go to Using the transliteration bookmarklet section for details on how to use the bookmarklet.

Transliteration bookmarklet is supported on Firefox version 3 and above. If you come across font issues, see Transliteration Font Guide for possible solutions.

Perform the following steps:

1. Right-click this link: [अ Type in Hindi].
   
   
2. Click on "Bookmark This Link".
   
   
   
   
3. Choose "Bookmarks Toolbar" in the "Folder" option.
   
   
   
   
4. Click "Done".

After following the above steps, a bookmark with name [अ Type in Hindi] should appear in the Firefox Bookmark toolbar as follows:

If you do not see the the bookmark, follow this additional step:

Make sure that the Bookmarks toolbar is enabled. Right-click on the empty space next to "Help" menu and click on the "Bookmarks Toolbar" option:

Done! You can now go to Using the transliteration bookmarklet section for details on how to use the bookmarklet.

Transliteration bookmarklet is supported on Chrome 2. If you come across font issues, see Transliteration Font guide for possible solutions.

Perform the following steps:

1. Press Ctrl+B so that the Bookmarks toolbar is always visible.
   
   
   
   
2. Drag this link: [अ Type in Hindi] to the Bookmarks toolbar.

After following the above steps, a bookmark with name [अ Type in Hindi] should appear in the Chrome Bookmark toolbar as follows:

Done! You can now go to Using the transliteration bookmarklet section for details on how to use the bookmarklet.

To type in Hindi on any website, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on the [अ Type in Hindi] button in Bookmarks toolbar. Wait till the message "Transliteration is enabled ..." is displayed. The message informs us that transliteration is ready to use.
   
   
2. Click on the input editor where you want to type in Hindi. You will see a icon in the editor. Now start typing in English and words will be transliterated to Hindi.
   
   
3. To switch off typing in Hindi (i.e. to type in English), click on the [अ Type in Hindi] button in Bookmarks toolbar again.

Here are some places where you can try out Bookmarklets:

Chatting in Tamil in Gmail:

Editing an Arabic Wikipedia article:

1. What is a Transliteration bookmarklet ?
   
   Transliteration bookmarklet is a tool that helps you type in your language on any website. The tool uses the Google transliteration service in the background.
   
   
2. Can I use this tool on websites other than Google's ?
   
   Yes. These bookmarklets can enable Typing in your language on any website.
   
   
3. How do I use this tool ?
   
   See the Saving the transliteration bookmarklet and the Using the transliteration bookmarklet sections for detailed information.
   
   
4. Does my system support the bookmarklet tool?
   
   The bookmarklet tool is supported on Internet Explorer 6 and above, Firefox 3 and above, Chrome 2 and Safari.
   
   
5. I created the bookmark but I cannot see it. Why?
   
   Please see the instructions in the Saving the transliteration bookmarklet for steps on creating the bookmarklet and making sure that it is visible.
   
   
6. How do I switch ON transliteration or switch OFF transliteration?
   
   You can switch ON transliteration by clicking on the bookmark link in the Bookmarks toolbar. You can switch OFF transliteration by clicking the same link again.
   For example, to switch ON typing in Amharic, click on [አ Type in Amharic] link in the Bookmarks toolbar. Click on the same link again to switch it OFF.
   To type in your language, you must switch ON transliteration and then click on the input editor where you want to type.
   
   
7. How do I know if transliteration is enabled ?
   
   When transliteration is enabled, you will see an enabled icon, like (for Punjabi), when you click on the input editor. If instead you see a disabled icon, like , in the editor, then transliteration is disabled.
   
   You can enable and disable transliteration by clicking on bookmarklet link, like [ਅ Type in Punjabi] bookmarklet in the toolbar.
   
   
8. I cannot see text in supported language, but see empty boxes like ☐ instead - why ?
   
   This usually means that you browser or system does not have font support for your language. See Transliteration Font Guide for more details.
   
   
9. Will transliteration work even without internet connectivity?
   
   Transliteration requires a live internet connection, as all the transliteration is done on Google's servers and sent back to your browser while you continue typing. If you find that the English words you type are not getting converted to your language, make sure that transliteration is ON and then check your internet connection.
   
   
10. I created the bookmarklet. How can I delete it?
    
    To delete the bookmarklet, right-click on it and select "Delete".

To share your thoughts with us, please send them to transliteration-support+bookmarklets@google.com.

This software is provided under the Apache 2.0 Licence. Please see the COPYING file for details.