The Ibus typing booster is a predictive text input method. The project goal is to empower existing keyboard layouts with predictions to allow users to boost their typing speed without compromising on data accuracy. This project started in 2010 with an first focus on only a few languages. Over the years, many improvements and innovative features were added.

Ibus typing booster supports almost all languages except Chinese, Japanese, Albanian, and a few others. This article explains various features and how it helps you master efficient typing.

Installing Ibus

Ibus typing booster is installed by default. If it is not available on your system, install it with this command.

$ sudo dnf install ibus-typing-booster

It uses the Hunspell dictionaries in the background for predictions. While it is not mandatory, it may help to install the Hunspell dictionaries for your language. However, even if a dictionary is not available, you still get predictions from your own typed words. You can install the Hunspell dictionaries as follows.

$ sudo dnf install hunspell-<langcode>

Here,

langcode

is an ISO 639-1/2/3 code. For example,

en

represents English and

fr

represents French.

Enabling input

You can see an example below about how to enable input with the typing booster for your preferred language. In this example, we add the Hindi typing booster to our input selection.

Key features

Predictions

Based on partial input, word predictions are listed in a lookup table from dictionaries. These words are improved over time by frequency of use. As users use the Ibus typing booster more, its predictions improve. Words not available in dictionaries are automatically added to a local user dictionary. Users train it with their own custom word list or additional dictionaries. In the case of a wrongly typed word being added to the local dictionary, it can be deleted it with

Ctrl + <entry number in lookup table>

.

If a dictionary is not installed, the user gets a message in the lookup table.

/usr/share/myspell/<langcode>.doc not found. Please install hunspell dictionary.

If you receive this message, install the Hunspell dictionaries and restart Ibus by typing

ibus restart

in a terminal window.

Multilingual input

Out of all world languages, English is third in the number of first language speakers. Around a half-billion speakers use English as a second language. This means many speakers switch between English and their native language keyboard layout. This is problematic when your native language uses a script other than Latin. For example, Hindi uses the Devanagari script type.

The multilingual feature of Ibus improves this issue. With a single layout, the user types two different languages. To enable multilingual mode, go to the setup options and enable “Add direct input”.

Unicode emoji

It is also possible for the Ibus typing booster to ease typing emoji characters. In the settings menu, enable Unicode emoji input from the dropdown options. Alternatively, you can use the shortcut

AltGr + F6

. Typing the word “smile” shows the corresponding emoji in the lookup table.

Since the Ibus typing booster is multilingual, even if you type the emoji name in a non-English language, the corresponding emoji will appear.

Please note that the Unicode emoji support is enabled by default. It can slow down your typing experience, since it searches through all emoji data. You can enable and disable emoji support when you need it with the

AltGr + F6

shortcut.

We want your feedback!

Mike Fabian is doing great work on the Ibus typing booster and continually tries to improve it for users. The project has more detailed documentation about its features on its website.

If you have ideas to improve the typing booster or find any bugs, feel free to file a bug or RFE.

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