How to Install and Use Google IME

Those who want to type in Hindi on computer, Google IME is  a very handy tool. There are many other Input Methods (IME) tools available –I will talk about them in other articles. Google IME is free and it’s easy to use. It works in 22 different languages: Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi (Persian), Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya and Urdu.

How to install Google IME

Go to this download link and download Google IME. (Make sure you choose right kind of download. If your Windows in 64 bit –you should download 64 bit installation)

You also need to select for which language you need the IME. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use Hindi language IME

Select bit count and language. Then click Download button.

After the download is complete, run the installation file. In the first step the setup will download more files from Internet, so you should remain connected to Internet. Once download is complete just follow the setup instructions:

Accept the agreement

Let the instllation be complete

Click Finish to complete the installation

How to Run Google IME

Using Google IME, you can write in Hindi (or any other supported language) directly in any application (e.g. MS-Word, Notepad, Wordpad etc.)

You must start the application first and then run Google IME.

To run Google IME; make right click on in an empty area on task bar (task bar is the strip on which start button is located) ; a pop-up menu will appear. Select Toolbar > Language bar to run Google IME

Popup menu that comes when you make right click on task bar

Language bar option is not visible

If you don’t see the Language bar option, take the following steps

Windows 7/Vista

• Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Keyboard and Languages tab
• Click on Change keyboards… button to open Text services and input languages dialog
• Navigate to Language Bar tab
• Enable the radio button Docked in the taskbar under Language Bar section
• Apply all settings and try to display language bar as mentioned in previous section.

Windows XP

• Go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages tab -> Text services and input languages (Details) -> Advanced Tab
• Make sure that under System configuration, option Turn off advanced text services is NOT checked.
• Go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages tab -> Text services and input languages (Details) -> Settings Tab
• Click Language Bar
• Select Show the Language bar on the desktop. Click OK.
• If you are installing the IME for East Asian language or Right-To-Left language, go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages Tab
• Make sure that options Install files for complex scripts and right to left languages and Install files for East Asian languages are checked in the checkboxes. This requires installation of system files and the system will prompt to insert the Operating System Disc.
• Apply all settings and try to display language bar as mentioned in previous section.

How to Use Google IME

Once you have selected the Language bar option as described above, you’ll see the status window of IME appearing in the bottom right corner of the screen. You can drag it around and place it anywhere on screen.

IME status window

As mentioned before, you should first run the target application (e.g. MS-Word) and then activate IME Language bar.

Now start typing in MS-Word (or any other application of your choice), and you should see that typing is taking place in your chosen language. As you type, edit window of IME will appear giving you choice of words that you might want to type.

Google IME edit window

You can select any of these words by navigation using UP and DOWN arrow keys. It is not necessary that you select a word from this window. You can go on typing and as soon as you will press ENTER key -the first word in the IME edit window will get printed in MS Word.

Toggling between Hindi and English

While typing in your chosen language, you might need to type a few words in English as well. For this you can quickly toggle between langauges using F12 key. While typing in Hindi, if you press F12 key, the input language will get changed to English. When are finished typing in Hindi, press F12 again to go to back Hindi.

Using on-screen Keyboard

Sometimes, you will find yourself wondering how to type a particular character in Hindi. In such cases, you can bring up the on-screen keyboard by pressing CTRL+K. Now you can click on any character given in the keyboard and it will get printed. When you are done taking help from on-screen keyboard, press CTRL+K again and start typing on your physical keyboard.