Thai Keyboard Layout

[Drew345]

Hello,

I can read and write Thai at an intermediate level, so I have started to type in Thai and doing some reading and posting on some Thai language forums.

Although I can write Thai pretty fast, typing is going painfully slow.

Is there some order or pattern to the position of the letters on the Thai keyboard that I am missing? Sometimes I spend more than a minute searching for a character. I mean, early I was searching for ใ and found the ไ in the upper right. I figure ใ should be near the ไ since they are so similar in sound and usage, but no, ใ was no where near to be found. After about 30 more seconds I found it on the bottom right side.

I have the Thai characters on my keyboard of course. But still, sometimes it takes time to look at every key and each key has two separate letters.

If anyone has noticed any pattern that could help me to find the characters more easily, please let me know.

I know that the English "qwerty" keyboard is a senseless layout that was actually designed to slow down fast typist (to keep the letter keys from jamming). So I am not comparing to "our great" keyboard or anything like that. I just want to get faster at finding these Thai letters and if there is some pattern, I appreciate to know it.

If you have any other recommendations for improving speed in typing in Thai, I appreciate it.

Drew

[kokesaat]

Hello,

I can read and write Thai at an intermediate level, so I have started to type in Thai and doing some reading and posting on some Thai language forums.

Although I can write Thai pretty fast, typing is going painfully slow.

Is there some order or pattern to the position of the letters on the Thai keyboard that I am missing? Sometimes I spend more than a minute searching for a character. I mean, early I was searching for ใ and found the ไ in the upper right. I figure ใ should be near the ไ since they are so similar in sound and usage, but no, ใ was no where near to be found. After about 30 more seconds I found it on the bottom right side.

I have the Thai characters on my keyboard of course. But still, sometimes it takes time to look at every key and each key has two separate letters.

If anyone has noticed any pattern that could help me to find the characters more easily, please let me know.

I know that the English "qwerty" keyboard is a senseless layout that was actually designed to slow down fast typist (to keep the letter keys from jamming). So I am not comparing to "our great" keyboard or anything like that. I just want to get faster at finding these Thai letters and if there is some pattern, I appreciate to know it.

If you have any other recommendations for improving speed in typing in Thai, I appreciate it.

Drew

If you can type properly in English (e.g. proper hand position), try the free Thai typing tutor program at http://www.users.bigpond.com/gurce/thai/type/ I downloaded the small program, practiced 10-15 minutes per day for perhaps 2 weeks, and I can now type in Thai at about half my English speed (probably 20 words/minute in Thai). Any other way is pure torture. If you're going to be doing a lot of Thai typing, this is the only way to go!

[Lithobid]

Hello,

I can read and write Thai at an intermediate level, so I have started to type in Thai and doing some reading and posting on some Thai language forums.

Although I can write Thai pretty fast, typing is going painfully slow.

Is there some order or pattern to the position of the letters on the Thai keyboard that I am missing? Sometimes I spend more than a minute searching for a character. I mean, early I was searching for ใ and found the ไ in the upper right. I figure ใ should be near the ไ since they are so similar in sound and usage, but no, ใ was no where near to be found. After about 30 more seconds I found it on the bottom right side.

I have the Thai characters on my keyboard of course. But still, sometimes it takes time to look at every key and each key has two separate letters.

If anyone has noticed any pattern that could help me to find the characters more easily, please let me know.

I know that the English "qwerty" keyboard is a senseless layout that was actually designed to slow down fast typist (to keep the letter keys from jamming). So I am not comparing to "our great" keyboard or anything like that. I just want to get faster at finding these Thai letters and if there is some pattern, I appreciate to know it.

If you have any other recommendations for improving speed in typing in Thai, I appreciate it.

Drew

If you can type properly in English (e.g. proper hand position), try the free Thai typing tutor program at http://www.users.bigpond.com/gurce/thai/type/ I downloaded the small program, practiced 10-15 minutes per day for perhaps 2 weeks, and I can now type in Thai at about half my English speed (probably 20 words/minute in Thai). Any other way is pure torture. If you're going to be doing a lot of Thai typing, this is the only way to go!

Great post! I've been searching for something like this! Thanks a million kokesaat and drew!

[5tash]

I know this wont apply to many of you but I learned to type Thai by using MSN Instant Messenger. Very infuriating at first (for me and no doubt the person on the other end of the line!) but after a few weeks I soon picked it up.

I also find MSN useful for my reading and spelling skills. If there is a word I don't understand I 'll quickly copy and paste it onto www.thai2english.com.

[Drew345]

I installed that Thai Typing Tutor.

When I start it I get the message

“FAILED TO REGISGTER THAI FONT”

and no Thai characters appear.

From the Help dialog box, I go to :

http://www.into-asia.com/thai_language/thaifont/

but all links on that page for Thai Fonts are dead links.

I installed a Thai font named “Garuda” from the University of Hawaii webpage,

But still I get the error

“FAILED TO REGISGTER THAI FONT”

Does anyone know a link to a Thai font that can be used with the Thai Typing Tutor.

Thank you very much,

Drew

[thithi]

u may go to download it from this website :

http://www.thaiware.com/main/info.php?id=3768

[CSS]

I installed that Thai Typing Tutor.

When I start it I get the message

“FAILED TO REGISGTER THAI FONT”

and no Thai characters appear.

From the Help dialog box, I go to :

http://www.into-asia.com/thai_language/thaifont/

but all links on that page for Thai Fonts are dead links.

I installed a Thai font named “Garuda” from the University of Hawaii webpage,

But still I get the error

“FAILED TO REGISGTER THAI FONT”

Does anyone know a link to a Thai font that can be used with the Thai Typing Tutor.

Thank you very much,

Drew

If you don't get a font to work or decide you don't like that program I bought a typing program from Pantip about five years ago called พิมพ์ 2001: Type Fast 2001. I thought it was a good little program with lessons teaching each letter, exercises and tests, and games for practice.

[Drew345]

I downloaded the Thiatype.exe again from the link that Thithi gave. This is another link to the Thaitype program. I think what I need is a link to a Thai Font. Even after reinstalling the Thaitype program from that new link, the program has no Thai characters.

There is a row of characters that you are supposed to type, but it shows only weird ascii characters such as "a with circle over it" and "O with two dots"

I think part of the problem way be that I am running Vista. I find I can usually blame everything on Vista.

If anyone knows any links to a Thai Font that can be recognized and used with the ThaiType program, I appreciate it.

Thanks, Drew

[thithi]

There are always problems with Vista ...

why don't you go to look for the program at Pantip Plaza?

[ozsamurai]

some fonts here also

http://www.fedu.uec.ac.jp/zzzthai/fonts.html

and

ftp://linux.thai.net/pub/thailinux/software/thai-ttf/

[kriswillems]

I downloaded the Thiatype.exe again from the link that Thithi gave. This is another link to the Thaitype program. I think what I need is a link to a Thai Font. Even after reinstalling the Thaitype program from that new link, the program has no Thai characters.

There is a row of characters that you are supposed to type, but it shows only weird ascii characters such as "a with circle over it" and "O with two dots"

I think part of the problem way be that I am running Vista. I find I can usually blame everything on Vista.

If anyone knows any links to a Thai Font that can be recognized and used with the ThaiType program, I appreciate it.

Thanks, Drew

Did you install support for Asian languages on your windows? See:

http://rikker.blogspot.com/2008/06/setting...in-windows.html

Please also set the language for non-unicode programs to Thai (see remark below the blog).

[siamesekitty]

Is there some order or pattern to the position of the letters on the Thai keyboard that I am missing?

NECTEC's history of the Thai keyboard: http://www.nectec.or.th/it-standards/keybo...ut/thai-key.htm

A Thai community college's page on the history of the Thai keyboard (in Thai): http://www.terasuk.th.gs/web-t/erasuk/type1.htm

...โดยวางตัวอักษรที่มีสถิติใช้บ่อยในตำแหน่งที่พิมพ์ได้ง่าย ซึ่งพิจารณาจากหนังสือต่างๆ จำนวน 38 เล่ม รวม 167 , 456 คำ โดยใช้เวลา 7 ปีจึงสำเร็จเมื่อปี พ.ศ.2474 และเรียกแป้นชนิดนี้ว่าแป้นแบบ “ เกษมณี ” ตามชื่อผู้ออกแบบ...

According to the Thai website, The Kedmanee keyboard layout was apparently designed to place the most frequently used characters in positions that were the easiest to type. This "frequency" was obtained after analyzing 38 books for 7 years, adding up to a total of 167,456 words studied.

So there WAS some logic to the design. However, it wasn't perfect, so a new layout (Pattachote) was designed (and, tested on a focus group, was found to be much faster), but never really caught on, as people were more used to the traditional layout already.

I actually have one of those typewriters in storage, wonder if it's worth anything?

[siamesekitty]

If anyone has noticed any pattern that could help me to find the characters more easily, please let me know.

Here's a website I found that has someone's "tricks" for remembering: Mnemonics for the Kedmanee Keyboard

I wonder if it's our own Richard W?

[Drew345]

It turns out there is a Vista problem when installing Thai Typing Tutor program.

That program comes with a Thai font in its "program file" folder, but Vista does not install it correctly.

The author of the program wrote to me the following steps, and the program works fine on my Vista machine now.

Oh, and thanks for the links on history and remembering Thai keyboard key positions!

Thanks, Andrew

-- -- Quote from Gurce (author of Thai Typing Tutor) -- -- --

Here are the steps to to install the font manually.

1. Press the window key and the R key together

2. In the "Run" window, type "c:\program files\Thai Typing Tutor"

3. In the "Thai Typing Tutor" folder, you should see a "angsd__.ttf" file

4. Press the window key and the R key again

5. In the "Run" window, type "c:\windows\fonts"

6. Copy the "angsd__.ttf" file into the "fonts" folder

7. You may notice a "Windows needs your permission to continue" pop-up

window appear (strangely, it started in minimised form on my Vista, so it

was hiding in the taskbar!). Press the "Continue" button to give your

permission to install the font.

8. Try running the "Thai Typing Tutor" program again. It should hopefully

work now, that fixed it on my Vista machine.

-- --end quote -- -- -- --

[kwarmcheua]

i concur with 5tash about MSN, being another good tool for developing thai typing speed. I use this in conjuction with the the thai typing app. Still not as fast as id like to be, but getting there

[DavidHouston]

Hello,

I can read and write Thai at an intermediate level, so I have started to type in Thai and doing some reading and posting on some Thai language forums.

Although I can write Thai pretty fast, typing is going painfully slow.

Is there some order or pattern to the position of the letters on the Thai keyboard that I am missing? Sometimes I spend more than a minute searching for a character. I mean, early I was searching for ใ and found the ไ in the upper right. I figure ใ should be near the ไ since they are so similar in sound and usage, but no, ใ was no where near to be found. After about 30 more seconds I found it on the bottom right side.

I have the Thai characters on my keyboard of course. But still, sometimes it takes time to look at every key and each key has two separate letters.

If anyone has noticed any pattern that could help me to find the characters more easily, please let me know.

I know that the English "qwerty" keyboard is a senseless layout that was actually designed to slow down fast typist (to keep the letter keys from jamming). So I am not comparing to "our great" keyboard or anything like that. I just want to get faster at finding these Thai letters and if there is some pattern, I appreciate to know it.

If you have any other recommendations for improving speed in typing in Thai, I appreciate it.

Drew

You may wish to look at http://www.nectec.or.th/it-standards/keybo...ut/thai-key.htm for an academic discussion of the origins of the Thai keyboards.

[Drew345]

A couple of posters here have mentioned using MSN for their Thai spelling and typing needs. How, exactly, do you use MSN for that?

I went to the www.msn.com website, seems pretty huge and all encompassing.

What tools of MSN do you use to improve Thai typing?

I have downloaded the Thai Typing Tutor and will start working through that.

I guess one idea I have that would really help is a tool that would complete a word after I enter the first couple of characters. That way I don't have to keep searching for every character in the whole word. Kind of like if you ever see someone typing in Japanese or Chinese. They enter the first two characters and about 20 words show up on the page. Then they enter a third character and there are 3 or 4 words that they can select. Then if they enter another character or two, they only have one choice of a word. No need to spell out the whole word. I know Japanese and Chinese are totally different that Thai since they use "symbolic" characters not phonetic characters, still something like that could speed up my Thai typing in the short term.

Thanks,

Drew

[marshbags]

Apologies but this thread seems an appropriate place to ask for advice re Thai English switching on my key pad.

I used to be able to switch from Thai to English and v. versa.

I used to depress the relevant key and alternate as and when my daughter wanted to type in Thai.

Now i am unable to do so for some reason ???

Can anyone suggest why and a possible solution to restoring the facilities please.

marshbags

[kwarmcheua]

Sorry Drew 345 I meant using MSN messenger to chat with Thai friends. Not saying i understand everyhing they type, some slang and colloquialisms I'm not familiar with. I sometimes get teased for being painfully slow when typing, hence Im starting to use the tutor more.

hope this helps.

[marshbags]

Apologies but this thread seems an appropriate place to ask for advice re Thai English switching on my key pad.

I used to be able to switch from Thai to English and v. versa.

I used to depress the relevant key and alternate as and when my daughter wanted to type in Thai.

Now i am unable to do so for some reason ???

Can anyone suggest why and a possible solution to restoring the facilities please.

marshbags

Thanks David ( Houston ) for taking the time to PM me with details on solving the problem.

My daughter will be especially happy and appreciative of your imput which will allow her to complete certain exercises relating to the computer, using the Thai facility for one of her homework projects.

We now have the Language bar reinstalled which makes it very easy to shift between the two languages.

This is in addition to the keyboard one of course that i was able to restore also.

Not being very computer savvy, i only use the basic facilities.

Your instructions where very sympathetic to this and made it very simple for me to restore the facilities.

Kudos, well deserved DH

marshbags