Hindi on Computers

Last day my search took off on a tangent. I was trying to understand what roles fonts play. freetypes.org has some relevant information in their documentation section. Another good reference i found was from jujusoft. however what i realized is , right now i dont need to go into the underpinnings. That can always come later.
what i need to do first is to complete the circle from user's perspective. so i should look at the following points
1) what do i need to do to display hindi content in applications i use.
2) how can i create some hindi content. Like can i start blogging in hindi right away.
I will try to leverage existing applications and systems.
point 1)
Applications that i will try to cover are browsers and word processors.Displaying part is now ok. i have covered that in previous posts. safari browser on mac os x and firefox on windows boxes. For word processor i will cover openoffice. Because i want to cover something that is free. i will also try to cover some simple editor. one in which you can type in a hindi note very quickly.
point 2)
How to input hindi ? This seems to be a bigger issue now. I do not like the keyboard for doing this. and selecting individual characters and inputting them is a bigger pain. So better thing would be to concentrate on a better input method.