Introduction

IBus-Braille is an alternate approach to input text using Braille combinations. Braille is a system for producing text with the use of six key combinations. The six keys are used in combinations and alone as in Braille and Brailler.

1.Activating IBus Braille
One can activate IBus Braille in two ways
(a) By going to terminal and typing IBus-Braille and press Enter, or
(b) One can easily activate IBus-Braille by pressing and holding super key and pressing the letter i
along with it.

2.Changing Languages
By default English language is loaded. To switch between languages press the pause key. The pause key can be found on the top row of the keyboard. In the case of laptops one has to press and hold the function key and press the pause key
along with it. Internally one can only switch between English and Malayalam languages. To select more languages one has to go to the IBus preferences.
Steps
i. Press alt+F1 to go to the applications menu.
ii. Press down arrow to get to accessories.
iii. Press right arrow once to expand the menu and press up arrow to find IBus-Braille preferences
and press Enter to activate it.

3.IBus Braille Preferences
IBus Braille Preferences is a dual paged dialogue box. One will land on the general page immediately after activating IBus-Braille preferences. There are a few check boxes, combo boxes and a slider along with the apply, restore and close buttons in this dialogue boxes. Press tab to reach the default language combo box. English will be set as the default language. You can press up or down arrow keys to select the language of your choice here. By selection of a default language IBus-Braille will start with the language of your choice. For example if you choose Malayalam as a default language Malayalam will be activated when you activate IBus-Braille. To choose more languages press tab to get to the list of languages. press tab to get to the language you need to select and press space to activate the check box to select that language.You can choose multiple languages through the list of languages and check boxes. Press tab to get to apply button press space to activate the apply button. Press tab to reach the close button press space to activate it. Your preferences will be saved and when the IBus-Braille is activated the next time, you will be able to switch between the languages you selected and language of your choice will be activated at the startup of IBus-Braille. Changing Table Type
Note: A normal user need not change anything here. This option is only for the advanced users wishing to change text to Braille and vise versa.
3.1 Simple Mode Editing
You can activate the simple mode edit check box by pressing tab and pressing space bar on that check box. Simple mode editing is an option which prevents a user from using contraction forwards. For example pressing the letter ‘f’ and then pressing the contraction key will enable the user to write the word from. Like wise pressing contraction key dot5 and then typing letter ‘f’ will give the word father. Beginner will not be able to use word contractions as mentioned if the simple mode check box is checked. However the contractions used in between a word will be in use. For example dot2 is used to write ‘ea’in between a word. You can write the word ‘peace’ by typing the letter ‘p’ then pressing dot2 to insert the letters ‘ea’ and then typing ‘ce’. Another example is the word ‘however’. You can type ‘however’ by typing ‘h’ then pressing dot2,4,6 to insert the letters ‘ow’ and then typing ‘ever’. This feature is especially added for the children who learn Braille typing.
3.2 Conventional Braille Mode
You can get to this option by pressing tab. You will find a checkbox to switch between conventional Braille mode and normal Braille mode. This checkbox will be unchecked by default. If this checkbox is activated, conventional Braille mode will be in operational. In this mode you can press dot4 and the letters to double. For example (in Malayalam) dot4 is pressed and the dot1 and dot3 are pressed together twice to get the pronunciation kka(ക). To write the word ‘pokki ‘ in Malayalam you can type the letter Malayalam pa, Malayalam letter o, pressing dot4 once and then typing the Malayalam letters k twice and then pressing the letter dot2,4 for Malayalam i. In the case of normal Braille mode dot4 comes in between the doubled letters. For example , to write the word ‘pokki’ in Malayalam you will have to type “p o dot1,3 then dot4 then dot1,3”. Then dots2,4 for Malayalam i. Normal Braille mode feature is provided to make the user better understand the way of write in the sighted. In other words one can easily understand the way a sighted person writes the above mentioned words.
3.3 One Hand Mode
You can get to one hand mode by pressing tab to find the one hand mode check box. This check box enables a writer to use single hand. In Braille normally two hands are used to type dot 1,2,3,4,5,6. A person who can only use a single hand can type with one hand using the one hand mode. For example to type the letter ‘d’, normally one presses dot1 with a left hand and dot4,5 together with the right hand. This is not possible in the case of a person using single hand. One hand mode is used to overcome this barrier. For example to type the letter ‘d’ that person can press dot1, wait for a
second and then press dot4,5 together. Here dot1,2,3 (fds) becomes dot4,5,6. The delay can be adjusted according to the need of the use. This can be done by pressing tab getting to the delay slider and using up and down arrow keys.
3.4 Keyboard Shortcuts page
So far, we have extensively explained the features in the general page of IBus-Braille Preference. To get to the keyboard shortcuts page press right arrow once immediately after activating IBus-Braille preferences. You can quickly go to the apply button by pressing control+tab. From there you only need to press the tab few times to get to the general page. As mentioned above press right arrow to get to the keyboard shortcuts page again.
3.5 Key Reassign
Press tab once to get to the key reassign option.

Important: Give at most care in changing the key assignments. For example letter ‘f’ is assigned for dot1. Pressing down arrow key will reassign dot1 to down arrow. Tab once more to get to dot2 edit field. Normally letter ‘d’ is assigned for dot2. Tab a few times to go to dot 3,4,5 and 6. Pressing tab again will give you the option of changing dot7 and dot8.
Note: dot7 and dot8 is used to accommodate languages like Chinese which has more characters that can’t be included in the 6 key system. You can also change punctuation key, abbreviation key, capital key, letter deletion key and one hand skip key by pressing tab and selecting the desired keys. Pressing tab once from one hand skip will take you to the shortcut panel. Here you can choose your desired key to switch between languages by pressing it. Pause key is set as the default key. Pressing tab once more will take you to the beginning and middle list switching option. Alt+L is set as the default key for this purpose. Pressing tab a few times will give you ‘apply’, ‘restore’ and ‘close’ buttons respectively.

4.IBus Braille Abbreviation Editor
This option can be found under the accessories menu. Press alt+F1 to go to the applications menu press down arrow to find accessories. Press right arrow once to expand the accessories menu. Press up or down to find abbreviation editor and press Enter to activate it. Abbreviation editor is a single paged dialogue box with ten elements. This option is used to create and edit abbreviations. When you first activate the abbreviations editor we land on a language selection combo box. Here we can select the language to which abbreviations has to be created or edited by pressing down arrow and up arrow respectively. Pressing tab once more will take you to add button. If you wish to create a new abbreviation press space here. You will be provided with an abbreviation edit field here. Type a letter or combination of letters you wish to set as an abbreviation. For example ‘f’ can be assigned for ‘father’ and ‘m’ can be assigned for ‘mother’. Pressing tab once more will take you to the expansion edit field. Here you can type the word of your choice. For example ‘father’ or
‘mother’.
Note: A word, sentence or even a large chunk of text can be added here. Pressing tab once more will take you to the ‘remove’ button. If you wish to remove an abbreviation, press tab once more and you will be provided with a list of abbreviations and its expansions. Select the abbreviation you wish to remove by pressing down or up arrow from this list.
Press shift+tab to get back to the remove button and press space bar to remove the selected abbreviation item. Press tab to get to apply button and press space bar to make the changes. Pressing space bar from the abbreviations list will take you to the clear all button. If you wish to delete the abbreviation list you can activate this button by pressing space bar. Pressing tab once more will take you to restore default button. If you wish to undo any changes you have made to the
abbreviations list press space here. The abbreviations list will be completely restored. Press tab once from the restore button and you will reach to the save option. Any actions taken in this dialogue box will be permanently saved by activating this button.
Caution: Take at most care in adding, editing, removing or clearing all abbreviations. Consider the following facts before activating the save button.
There is an import button once you press tab from the save button. If you activate this button you will be asked to choose a file with the list of abbreviations. You can select the choice of your file and press Enter. The file of list with abbreviations will be imported. While importing the file a warning pop up will appear on your screen there you will find skip, skip all, replace and replace all buttons. Choose the appropriate button from this list and activate it to make the appropriate choice. Pressing tab once from the import button will take you to the export button. If you activate this button, a file name will be asked and the list of abbreviations will be saved once you press Enter immediately after
typing the file name. Press space bar to quit from the abbreviation editor.

5. IBus -Braille Language Editor
This option is to add new languages and to add contractions in the newly added languages. We can get to the IBus-Braille Language Editor by going to accessories and by pressing up arrow to take IBus-Braille Language Editor. After pressing and activating IBus-Braille language Editor you will find a dialogue box with 14 elements where you will find a combo box to select the language of your choice with up and down arrow. By pressing the tab twice you will get to the remove button. If you activate this button by pressing space bar, the language you have selected will be removed from the
list of languages.
caution: Take at most care in selecting and removing any language. This action cannot be undone. Immediately after the language selection combo box you will find Add new language option by pressing tab once. If you activate this option you will be asked to type the name of the new language with voice variant. For example if you wish to add the language Malayalam, type Malayalam followed by dash and followed by the letters ml to represent the Malayalam voice variant. Press tab once and you will find the add button. Activate it then the new language may be added. Press tab once and you
will get to the remove button. If you activate this button by pressing space bar the newly added language will be removed. If you proceed without removing the newly added language by pressing tab once, you will get to the add map button. If you press space to activate this button you will asked to type a file name for the newly created map. You can only type number or combinations of numbers.  The number or numbers should be in line with the contraction list you wish to create. For example you can give numbers 4 and 5 to represent the list of contractions used in combination with these numbers.
Note: Numbers can only be typed using Braille key combinations. After typing the file name press tab once to go to the add map button. If you activate this button by pressing space bar a new map will be created. Press tab once to reach the remove button. Press tab once more to get to the list of maps for the selected language. Choose the map you wish to remove by up or down arrow keys and press shift+tab to get to the remove button and activate it by pressing space bar. The selected map will be removed. From the list of maps, by pressing tab you will get to the add row button. If you activate this button by pressing space bar you will be asked to type key Combination in Braille Mode. Then press tab once more and you will get to the text edit field. Type the alphabet you wish to add for the key combinations you have already entered. For example if you wish to produce the alphabet ‘A’ in English language press the letter ‘f’ to represent the letter dot1 in the Braille keys edit field. Press tab once more from the alphabet edit field to get to the add button.
If you activate this button, the newly created key or key combinations and the corresponding alphabet will be added. You need to activate the add row button to create more key combinations and corresponding alphabet by the above mentioned method. If you activate the remove button by pressing tab and space bar the created list of key combinations and alphabet will be removed. Pressing tab once from the remove row button will take you to the clear all button. If you activate this button by pressing space bar the key combinations and alphabets created in rows will be removed. If you
activate the save button by pressing space bar after pressing tab once from the clear all button the selected file will be saved. Activating the save all button will save all the files. Pressing tab once from save all will get you to the import button. If you activate this button you will get the option of browsing to the files you need to import. You can press up, down arrow keys along with the home and end keys to get to the files you need to import. You can import the file by pressing Enter on it. You can get to the export button by pressing tab from the import button. If you activate this button you will be asked to write a file name, type the name and press Enter the file will be exported to the home folder. You can exit from Language Editor by activating the quit button.