# Thai keyboard



## danissa

Guys,

I'm a passionate novice learner of Thai language - I am taking courses of Thai, and just about to start doing written online excersises on grammar, when I got stuck with the input method, so really wanted to maybe ask you guys-experts, if you could help me a bit with getting Thai writing up...
What exactly is required to correctly enter Thai characters? How does the Thai character entry works,
i.e. do I need a driver or enter on-screen? 

My teacher suggested I buy Thai keyboard stickers from Latkey or get some sort of Thai keyboard, but certainly this won't be enough to start typing without proper phonetic driver or something? I'm completely puzzled at this moment 

Are there any special IME or entry methods I need to look at? 

Please help!

Thanks,
DIss


----------



## synthia

I googled 'thai keyboard' and got a lot of respnses. I didn't prowl through them, but you can try the same thing. There was information about layout and conversion. In the suggested searches there was something about stickers, too.


----------



## danissa

Yes I know there are keyboards and stickers, but what I'm wondering about is what else needs to be installed? How Thai input works? This info I did not find googling......


----------



## synthia

Try this site, and look at the three items in the dropdown box to the upper right.


----------



## KhwaamLap

*Thai Typing*

Hi,

that site seems to be trying to sell ThaiMaster. If you have Xl or better, simply download the type fonts (either from the site Synthia mentions or google it - there's quite a few out there). Secondly, add Thai Keyboard to your language bar as follows (sorry if I'm preaching to the converted)...
Click Start Button, open control panel and open Regional and Language Options. Go to the second tab 'Languages' and checl the middle box at the bottom (it mentions Thai). Then click Details button at the top. Click Add. From the dropdown at te top, select Thai Kadmanee... and OK it.
Then click Language Bar Check the first box at least (I have all checked but the second one - transparancy) to show the language bar on the desktop. Click OK.
Then Click Key Settings and set up a fast key swap for English and Thai so you can switch quickly.

You may have to reboot if Windows hasn't got the complex script option installed (you also need the XP Disk).

Now when you are in an app that allows complex text (most of them) - such as Notepad for example, click the language bar and change to thai (or use swap keys) and start typing. To change back to Englsh - mid sentance - just switch back using the keys or language bar.

On keyboards, I find it easiest to simply have two keyboards and swap them as I want. If I'm on my laptop, I wwwuse onscreen keyboard (Start-Accessories-Accesabilities).

All this will cost you zip (with the exception of the physical keyboard or forever-falling off-stickers)


----------



## synthia

Wow, Khwaamlap, thank you for the great response!


----------



## KhwaamLap

no problem


----------



## owenjones

*Converting to a Thai Keyboard*

Hi,

It is quite easy really, as with everything, when you know how.

I wouldn't buy stickers - it's messy and looks cheap. just get a new keyboard with the typical Us 120+ keys but with Thai characters on them too. They cost 200-500 Baht and can be used as replacement keyboards for a desktop or a supplemental keyboard for a laptop. 
Then, assuming you're using XP, go to 'Control Panel' and 'Regional and Language Options'. Click on 'Languages' and the first checkcox (it mentions Thai).
Then click on 'Details'; and 'Add'; choose your language(s); make sure you enable 'keyboard' as an input device. click 'OK'
Click on 'Language Bar' and enable it; Click on 'Key Settings' and adjust them, so ou can switch between English and Thai at the press of a button or click of the mouse.
Click 'OK' and 'OK' and you're done.

It sounds complicated, but when you go to see what I'm saying. you shouldn't have any trouble.

All the best,
Owen.


----------



## Guest

*Thai Key Board*

Damissa

You may already know. If not this may help. You can get stickers for your keyboard. But you do need the software to type etc in Thai. I bought a new laptop here that came with a Thai/English keyboard, but had to get separate software for the Thai lanquage. This came with the Microsoft Microsoft Office Profisional 2007. Not sure of the technicalities of how you interface between English and Thai yet, still working on that. I suggest you go to one of the numerous IT stores in the city for help on this. As far as running lanquage packs on the laptop, they are relatively straight forward, you know by the CD insert and follow the wizards lead. On the subject of learning the Thai language.....can you recommend a place, hopefully when back from my next contract I will have at least three months to apply myself to learning.

Martin


----------



## jsflynn603

A few iconoclastic comments....

Since you are completely new to typing consider (but only if you will be using your own computer all the time, not rented ones in cafes) on the Pattachote Keyboard layout. 

There are two keyboards and each have the letters in different places. Thai Kedmandee is the "old" keyboard, much like the "qwerty" keyboard you are likely using (look under 1,2,3, and you will see qwerty."

Qwerty was developed specifically to SLOW down typists because of mechanical limitations. In the thirties a guy name Augustine Dvorak made an efficient and fast keyboard. To give you an idea: Two secretaries type all day tying the same thing. By the end of the day the Qwerty typist's fingers moved 5.5 miles, but the Dvorak typist's fingers moved only 3.5 miles. So in fact, typing with the Dvorak keyboard is faster and certainly easier on the hands. (This being typed with the Dvorka keyboard)

Well, the same thing happened in Thailand and the Pattachote (name of guy, I think) came out. But as in America, it never "took."

The Pattachote keyboard is definately superior and you will become a better and faster typist for the same number of hours invested. But if you need to use public computers do not use Pattachote. I too am learning to type Thai and am learning on Pattachote.

As for labels--If you do not use them you will learn faster. 

I'd like to know more about how you are learning Thai... I'm finding it devilishly difficult.

Addendum: When you follow the advice for installing Thai you will see both choices offered.


----------



## Guest

jslynn603

I am using the qwerty keyboard layout, being a slow typer it really does not make that much difference what type of keyboard layout I use, but if I were a secretary then I would opt for your suggestion, which was new info for me. As far as typing Thai on my laptop it is not happening. Way over my head to get to grips with. When I get time, or the inclination I do it by pen. Four years and I can finally write my name....Martin


----------



## owenjones

Can't you get a Thai keyboard on eBay?
Or look for a seller based in Thailand and ask him to sell you one.
Or ask me to sell you one.
My email address is in my profile - mark the subject 'Thai Keyboard'.


----------



## jeroen004

Those sticker are useless. try and buy one from internet


----------



## fon_ame

Maybe you can try online first, check this out convthai dot net


----------



## Guest

I don't suppose any experts here know how to persuade a Thai laptop to produce French letters? ALT plus various number codes doesn't work for me ............


----------



## fon_ame

frogblogger said:


> I don't suppose any experts here know how to persuade a Thai laptop to produce French letters? ALT plus various number codes doesn't work for me ............


Try ALT+Shift+number.


----------



## pende6

danissa said:


> Guys,
> 
> I'm a passionate novice learner of Thai language - I am taking courses of Thai, and just about to start doing written online excersises on grammar, when I got stuck with the input method, so really wanted to maybe ask you guys-experts, if you could help me a bit with getting Thai writing up...
> What exactly is required to correctly enter Thai characters? How does the Thai character entry works,
> i.e. do I need a driver or enter on-screen?
> 
> My teacher suggested I buy Thai keyboard stickers from Latkey or get some sort of Thai keyboard, but certainly this won't be enough to start typing without proper phonetic driver or something? I'm completely puzzled at this moment
> 
> Are there any special IME or entry methods I need to look at?
> 
> Please help!
> 
> Thanks,
> DIss


If you have windows xp all you need is a keyboard with both Thai and English . A cheap usb board will work ,Go to your control panel , open the language section and add the thai langage . If you did it right you will have a icon on your desktop in the lower right corner. This icon will let you switch back and forth between Thai and English .Use notepad to do all your practise . When your work becomes more precise then you can get office to get more formats .


----------



## jsflynn603

*The very long version...*

Good advice, and even though pende6's post is three years old this thread will occasionally be found by others with the same sort of question.

Your advice is good but I find that many people get frustrated trying to make things work, and I feel that a dedicated thai keyboard is not the way to go.

Admittedly this is a very long post, but you may only need parts of it. Here’s what my take is:

There are different learning styles and for some transliteration works well. In Chiang Mai I took a Thai course at AUA. It seemed to me that there were two distinct “types” of learners.

Most people do very well using transliteration, but a few of us find it to be a horrible impediment. My theory has to do with how language is processed between the two hemispheres of the brain. Most people can, very quickly “translate” inside their brains, and for them transliteration works quite well.
But for some, including I and another fellow, using transliteration is like having to run outside for each word and run back in, it simply does not work. It was interesting to find another student approaching learning Thai the exact same way. We both had our very similar sets of flashcards, we both hated transliteration, and wanted to learn via Thai script, and we both realized that we were working about 8 times as hard as the others, and eventually we both quit the class it absolute frustration. We knew that since AUA uses transliteration, it was not an effective method of learning for us.

We realized that we cannot translate using backwards C’s and uu’s with crossed lines through them, and other AUA style transliteration. We did our best actually when we worked with real Thai characters, and it didn’t take a long time to learn to read, and to identify the effect on sound that vowels, placement, or tone marks. So we had our advantages.

For those people especially who can identify with what I have said (which brings me to your question) here is what I suggest. (I believe this will be very useful even for those who enjoy transliteration).

Go to:

Download Thai Typing Tutor 1.04 (Freeware) | Bangkok Library

It is a simple Thai “typing tutor.” Then, I suggest that you do NOT get stickers, or get a Thai keyboard—it will only act as an impediment. If you have stickers, or Thai characters on your keyboard, you will cheat, and in doing so, you will cheat yourself!

The brain (and the rest of us) is quite lazy by nature. If one can “look” and cheat, usually a person will. But if you have no way to cheat (since there are no thai characters on your English keyboard) then your brain, being the lazy thing it is, will kinesthetically “learn” the link between the character (or element, such as tone mark) and own it. English characters are not tonally affected by the use of vowels or placement, and we don’t really have tone marks, so learning to type English is quit straightforward. The brain can cheat quite effectively using English characters, but cannot cheat very well when using Thai characters because on character can be very much affected by precedent, antecedent, surrounding vowels, or tone marks, as well as placement. 

So this is what I recommend:

Download the thai typing tutor and install it. If the link does not show search for keywords “thai+typing+tutor+library.” This will bring you to the Bangkok Library. Do NOT download it elsewhere. I have found that though many, many sites have this small free program, most sites have a corrupted version of it. When you use it, it can seem glitchy, but in reality it isn’t. Just be aware that when you think it is broken, you are doing something wrong; play around with it and eventually you will find that it’s fully functional. I thought it was broken once, until I realized that it wanted me to enter two “spaces” (space bar twice) between character sets.
The Thai character set is “in” Windows (and I assume it’s in Mac’s too). Not only is the Thai character set there for your use, there is actually two character sets that use different keyboard placement. There is Thai Kedmanee, and Thai Pattachote. When you go to the Bkk Library, print out the page, and make sure that when your keyboard is set to type Thai that it is typing on the keyboard shown (Kedmanee)! (Unless you want to be unique and learn Pattachote which is actually an easier to use keyboard, just as the Dvorak keyboard is much better ergonomically than the Qwerty keyboard that you now use. If you learned using the more efficient Pattachote keyboard the only time you would have trouble is if you use someone else’s computer and virtually everyone’s computer in Thailand is set to Kedmanee. On the other hand if you learned using Pattachote, you could, if you wished to, probably type faster than professional secretaries. But since the Thai Typing Tutor only has Kedmanee, if you use it then you’re stuck with it. I know of no typing tutors that use Pattachote.

Since the Thai character set is inside your computer, here is how to get it: (Note: for Mac users you will have to ask someone else, such as a Mac forum or search for keywords: typing thai macintosh—you will find information.

For Windows XP/XP Pro: Click Start>Control Panel>Regional and Language Options> Then click on “Languages” tab. Under “Supplemental languages support” is there a green checkmark where it says: Install files for complex script and right to left languages (including Thai). If so you are good to go.

If not, then click on the box inserting a checkmark for that line, and click on “apply.” The computer will prompt you to insert your Window’s install disk (these instructions are for Win 98, Win XP—it is different in Windows 7 but it did not take me long to figure it out on my laptop). Windows should be able to find the needed files on the Windows disk, if not, search for the folder on your master disk called “I386”, and then it should find and load the files necessary and install them.

Now restart the computer. And check—now you should see a green check automatically show under “supplemental languages support. Your computer now has the things necessary for you to type Thai, but you still need to tell it that you want to so:

Click START, open CONTROL PANEL. Select REGIONAL AND LANGUAGE OPTIONS. Click on LANGUAGE tab, then DETAILS and SETTINGS tab. Click ADD and then select THAI from the drop down INPUT LANGUAGE box and THAI KEDMANEE from the drop down KEYBOARD LAYOUT box. Click OKAY, OKAY, APPLY, OKAY. Thai language should then be installed.

When you click on “Details” which brings you to the “Text Services and Input Languages” you will see under “installed services” both English and now Thai. If you want your computer to always start with English make sure that the English keyboard is in bold letters. It should be that way, but if for some reason it is not, play with “add and remove” and eventually you will get English as the predominant (start)(bold) service with Thai as secondary. Under “preferences” I suggest that you click on the language bar button and make sure that “show additional button in task bar.” That way if you are chatting with someone in English who knows Thai and you want to use a Thai scripted word, you simply click on the language bar to open it and then click on “Thai” and voila…. สวัสดีครับ
Now it two seconds or less you can switch from English to Thai. 

Switch to Thai once after you start your computer using the “language bar” then start Thai Typing Tutor. 

Download Thai Typing Tutor, check it for virus’ and then let it install. It installs itself in c:/programs/thai typing tutor. To make an easy to find link to the program, since it does not put one on your desktop, go to c:/programs/thai typing tutor, right click on Thaitype.exe and make a shortcut which will appear, then drag the shortcut to your desktop. Now to run Thai Typing Tutor just switch to Thai first in the language bar, and then double click on the shortcut to open Thai Typing Tutor. Your keyboard must be set to Thai before you run Typing Tutor.

When you type a bit in Thai Typing Tutor if you get odd characters like an A with a 0 on top of it instead of Thai script do this: Click START, open CONTROL PANEL. Select REGIONAL AND LANGUAGE OPTIONS. Click on Advanced tab, select Thai by using the down arrow and highlighting Thai, under that is Code Page Conversion tables, count down about 12 places till you see Mac – Thai, click on that. Click on apply, and it should tell you to restart your computer. Now if you restart, and switch to the Thai keyboard and then open Thai Typing Tutor you will see the Thai characters. The reason for this is that Thai Typing Tutor uses non-unicode programming because it’s now about 8 years old. This should not affect anything else on your computer, but it does allow Thai Typing Tutor to show you Thai script instead of strange characters. (To continue see Part II in a later post).


----------



## jsflynn603

Part II

If you wish go to Thai fonts :: Thai Language Program, University of Hawai'i, Manoa there are areas there installing interesting Thai fonts. I do recommend that eventually you install some fonts because you find that you can read in one font, and be totally lost in another, especially the stylized ones. Installing fonts will allow you to use different fonts in programs like Microsoft Word. The fonts will, once installed, simply show up where you click in Word to change fonts. Remember that not all fonts that show in Word will show as Thai script, some won’t but the ones that you just added in Thai will work.

Note: I just noticed that at this site (Univ. of Hawaii) that they indicate that ONLY the “ultimate” upgrade to Win 7 allows foreign language support. However this is really not true. With the ultimate upgrade you can have “everything” in Thai, drop-down menus, even the “start” button, and the date will show as the Thai date, which is quite different than what we are used to. For most of us who just want to type in Thai, you can do this by downloading or changing the free “keyboard” (under language) and that is free. Look up “adding another language.” U of H’s statement is sort of misleading unless you only speak Thai and want everything on Windows to be in Thai script.


Of course you can buy a Thai keybord but if so, you’ll have to unplug it each time you want to switch—I’ll go to the one-time bother of installing it on each of my computers and have done so on Win98, Win98XP; Win98XP Pro; and the home edition of Windows 7.

What I suggest is that you start simply by letting the typing tutor lead you. Trust in it. It will lead you through the different rows, and then through “comfy keys” and so on. I suggest that you do not try to associate a sound with typing because if you do so, you will confuse yourself since a character’s tone can be changed by a character typed before, after, above, or it can be changed by position within a word, or by a tone mark. 

Simply learn to type ด or ส or ใ such that when you see the character your mind reacts to its shape, and you can type it. I suggest that you type an hour a day or two if you can stand it, so you become a transcriptionist. It is not necessary to, at this point, associate the sound. What happens is that your mind learns the path to the character. Then when you can type the entire keyboard at about 20-30 words per minute, use excerpts from Thai-language.com and transcribe them. Once you can do this at 20 words per minute, then start to learn all the rules and then, like magic the tones will come together with your fingertips—and your mind is totally free to now associate the sound/tone with the characters. 
A good typist does not “sound” or even type letters, she types words. If you must “mouth” each character in English you are not a typist, or certainly not one that can type at a speed of about 45wpm. 

Now you are free to type exercises and words, and your mind will associate the sound with the words, not with individual characters.

I can’t remember how long it took me to get to 25wpm, but I think it was about 6 weeks of not really working too hard.

Some of you are far beyond the need to learn character sound and tones, but for those who aren't I heartily recommend the neatest little book from Learn the Thai Alphabet in Minutes. Learn Thai Font, Thai Symbols and Tones, for Travelling in Thailand You can download and try it for free. It says “$49.99 but for the next 48 hours it’s $12.99” but if you decide a week later, and write to the author I think he would take your offer of $12.99. I have no connection, nor gain from this site, I am just impressed with his methodology, and though it says “60 minutes to learn the Thai alphabet” it really doesn’t—but I have found it immensely helpful in learning to read. Now all I need is a class for speaking Thai that uses Thai characters, not Romanized transliteration.

It seems difficult, but I’ve installed the Typing Tutor and have changed so that I can switch on many computers and it only takes me now about 10 minutes. Yes, this post is wordy, but you may only need parts of it.


----------



## tezza

you can buy thai keyboard from pantip market..
alternavely you can download a thai keyboard for iphone or other smartphones..


----------



## jsflynn603

Yes, if in Thailand you can buy a keyboard. But many including myself do not want to drag a keyboard around Thailand since when I travel I use carry-on luggage only.

This post is just for those who wish to modify their Windows or Mac so that in two seconds you are typing Thai without an extra keyboard.

For many just buying a keyboard is a good answer, but for using the Thai keyboard that exists inside every windows or mac computer is the preferred way.


----------



## Thaistix

owenjones said:


> Hi,
> 
> It is quite easy really, as with everything, when you know how.
> 
> I wouldn't buy stickers - it's messy and looks cheap. just get a new keyboard with the typical Us 120+ keys but with Thai characters on them too. They cost 200-500 Baht and can be used as replacement keyboards for a desktop or a supplemental keyboard for a laptop.
> Then, assuming you're using XP, go to 'Control Panel' and 'Regional and Language Options'. Click on 'Languages' and the first checkcox (it mentions Thai).
> Then click on 'Details'; and 'Add'; choose your language(s); make sure you enable 'keyboard' as an input device. click 'OK'
> Click on 'Language Bar' and enable it; Click on 'Key Settings' and adjust them, so ou can switch between English and Thai at the press of a button or click of the mouse.
> Click 'OK' and 'OK' and you're done.
> 
> It sounds complicated, but when you go to see what I'm saying. you shouldn't have any trouble.
> 
> All the best,
> Owen.


I agreed with Owenjones. You don't really need the software to write Thai language if you are running Windows XP or 7. Just get the sticker for the keyboard. Just change you language setting in the control panel like Owenjones mentioned. To switch to the languages, just press ALT & Shift at the same time.

Hope this help.


----------

