The first-ever Urdu software with an autocorrect feature to detect and fix grammatical errors and anomalies in Urdu diction as well as proofread the text will be launched in the first week of August.

The software called ‘Harf Kaar’ is the result of joint efforts by writer Akhtar Raza Saleemi and software programmer Saeed Raza Khan.

In an interview to the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), Saleemi said that 95 percent of the work on the software had been completed, and the rest would be finished within a few days. He said the software was designed considering the global digital needs of Urdu writers and poets, adding that it would autocorrect all errors in Urdu diction and proofread the text in one-click. “So far we have carried out 500 successful trials of this software,” he said.

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It took the team more than a year to design and prepare the software. In the process, they consulted almost all major dictionaries, reference books and research material on Urdu.

Regarding correction in Urdu diction, the team of researchers and designers took guidance from the 1985 seminar held by the National Language Promotion Department on Urdu diction, grammar and all its related fields, as well as recommendations made in 1973-74 by a Committee on Urdu in India.

Saleemi said ‘Harf Kaar’ would be consulted, used, and downloaded by all those who want to compose essays, poems, articles, or stories in grammatically correct Urdu. However, he added, the software would be of particular use to academics working on literary and other forms of the Urdu genre. He hoped that the software would pave the way for uniform, error-free and up-to-date Urdu expressions.

Software programmer Saeed Raza said that the program had been prepared in ‘dot net’ and no third party tool was used in it. “The software is in one portable form and there is no need to even install it,” he said, adding, that due to its small size, it could be run on any computer.