Hi Dean,
We've made a little app for Windows that is very easy to use if you already know IAST.
You simply "draw" (from top down) the characters on the keyboard for example to type ā you type -a, to type ñ type ~n, ṝ would be -r. and so forth.
Once installed you toggle the app with Ctrl + Alt + S (IAST | देवनागरी | disabled) . The objective was to make something that people already familiar with their keyboard (QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ etc.) would not need to learn something new assuming they already know IAST.
It has a देवनागरी output mode too. The app is still in beta but the beta works fine for IAST and देवनागरी.
A number of people have requested it for Mac and to add the facility to type Vedic accents so this is underway.
If you wish to try it you can get the Windows version at:
Warmest Wishes,
Martin
PS: One of the benefits of the above approach is you can type Sanskrit at the same speed that you can type your native language on your keyboard (assuming you know how to spell in Sanskrit), during my online classes with Prof. McComas Taylor I would have a lot of fun typing words in IAST/देवनागरी very rapidly much to the amazement of my fellow students until I revealed my secret weapon :)
From: Dean Michael Anderson [mailto:eastwestcultural@yahoo.com]
Sent: 04 October 2015 10:21 AM
To: Indology List <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Best way to type Sanskrit in Windows?
It's ironic that I have to ask this question because I created some of the earliest software and fonts to do this back when the Mac first came out but I haven't kept up.
What is the best way to type Sanskrit using the Windows OS?
For years I used ITranslator because it was easy to touch type it and convert to both devanagari and transliteration.
Surely a better solution has been developed by now; and one that directly supports Unicode output.
I realize there are several issues involved (such as Unicode being separate from input) but I'm wondering if there's an easy to use, integrated solution these days?
Best,
Dean