On Windows (which seems to be the request, not Linux), your friend needs
to enable all the languages in which he wants to type using the Control
Panel, associating a keyboard with each. He should also enable the
option to cycle through the available keyboards using ALT-LEFT SHIFT
(that's more efficient that using the icon in the system tray, although
that option certainly works too).
There's a page on Microsoft's web site where one can get a graphic
showing the layout for each keyboard shipped with Windows; the graphics
can be copied and pasted into a document and printed for reference. (I
don't have the URL at hand but a google search will locate it.) There
is also an on-screen keyboard that can be turned on in the Ease of
Access portion of Control Panel. This is designed mainly for people who
have trouble typing on a physical keyboard but can also serve simply as
a reference for an unfamiliar layout.
different languages aka. fonts
Languages and fonts are different (although interconnected) issues. A
single font may support several scripts. Linux Libertine, e.g., has
Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew; Times New Roman has these and more,
including (I think) Arabic. Other fonts support only one or two
scripts. Windows comes with quite a wide selection, with more recent
versions (Vista and 7) having the best support. Note that on Win7,
fonts that are designed to support a single script are grayed out if
that script is not enabled in the Control Panel.
Also, in Word and OpenOffice Writer, one must enable the use of complex
scripts (Arabic, Devanagari, etc.) specifically or they won't work.
David
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