The first step in learning Tamil is to learn the relevant alphabets and the English keystrokes equivalent to the Tamil alphabets, when you use a transliteration software and an English keyboard with your computer to type out tamil letters. This Tutorial is developed based on the 'dual screen' Tamil Transliteration software Azhagi, which offers various tools/utilities/features, including 'Direct Tamil Input' in all applications. Though Azhagi provides input in 2 other keyboard layout formats viz. Tamil-Typewriter and Tamilnet99, as said earlier, this tutorial is based on transliteration (i.e. type as you speak) input mode only, as it is the most popularly used.

Tamil alphabets and their most convenient equivalent key strokes in English letters are given below. More options and variations available are shown in popup when you move your mouse over the English equivalent Letters corresponding to the Tamil alphabets for which alternatives are available. For example when you move the mouse over "aa" which are the keys for "ஆ" the other options "A" will be shown in a popup display. If you are a new user, you may please refer to the table which pops up as soon as you start Azhagi as well as the commands available under "Preferences" menu and the help topics of Azhagi under 'Help -> English to Tamil Mappings'. As you move ahead with Azhagi, http://azhagi.com/easy.html is also a very useful reference and a must-read.