Microsoft recently announced the launch of its Office suite in Hindi to tap into the huge non-English speaking market. Christened Office Hindi, the suite includes a Hindi language interface for applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Frontage and Outlook. It will allow users to create documents in Hindi and navigate using the menus and toolbars that are also in Hindi.

This is a first of kind initiative that will try and take computing beyond India’s English speaking population. Just one in twenty Indians speaks the language. This is precisely what triggered Microsoft to develop a product of this nature and it has been in development for the last six years. Bill Gates, during his visit to the country two years ago also spoke of the project that had nearly 400 people working on it.

Office Hindi will be available in the Standard and Professional editions and will be available through Microsoft’s regular sales channels.

The professional edition comes with a switchable interface that allows the users to switch between a Hindi or an English interface.

Over ten Microsoft partners including Samtech, WebDuniya, Modular, Vishwakanadda and Web Chutney are providing add-on applications or tools - including a Hindi text-to-speech converter, CBT (computer-based training) modules, fonts, special dictionaries, and special multilingual smart tags among others. Microsoft also announced the availability of online resources, training material and partner support for customers to easily adopt and integrate the new Office into their present systems.

MOHIT CHHABRA in New Delhi

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