--- title: The keyboard menu description: A new keyboard menu will replace both the keyboard layout toggle from Ubuntu’s doomed notification area, and the IBus menu for choosing a keyboard input method. […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/keyboard?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Matthew Paul Thomas](https://canonical.com/blog/author/matthew-paul-thomas "More about Matthew Paul Thomas") 27 May 2010 # The keyboard menu [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) --- Share the article Quite often, designers work on a design for something they’re unlikely to use themselves. This is a situation I’ve found myself in the past few weeks, designing a new keyboard menu for Ubuntu. This menu will replace both the keyboard layout toggle from Ubuntu’s [doomed notification area](http://design.canonical.com/2010/04/notification-area/), and the [IBus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Input_Bus) menu for choosing a keyboard input method. I use just one keyboard layout myself, but switching layouts is important for millions of multilingual users. And input methods are important for typing characters in languages that have hundreds or thousands of characters, such as Chinese and Korean. Keyboard layouts and input methods are highly related things, so showing them in the same menu is long overdue. It would be great if we could also merge the Keyboard Preferences window with the IBus Preferences window; Canonical engineers don’t have time for that in the near future, but I’d be happy to work on a design with anyone who is interested. At UDS earlier this month [we discussed the new menu](https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/dx-m-indicator-keyboard). We’d also like your feedback on [the full specification](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KeyboardMenu), especially if you use input methods or multiple keyboard layouts. [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Why web engineering is great](https://canonical.com/blog/why-web-engineering-is-great) Hi, I’m Johann! I’m an engineering manager in Canonical’s web team. For the larger part of my 15 years of work experience as engineer, I’ve been working in web development.... [Johann Wolf](https://canonical.com/blog/author/johannwolf) 27 April 2026 [### Canonical’s recipe for High Performance Computing](https://canonical.com/blog/canonicals-recipe-for-high-performance-computing) In essence, High Performance Computing (HPC) is quite simple. Speed and scale. In practice, the concept is quite complex and hard to achieve. It is not dissimilar to what... [Igor Ljubuncic](https://canonical.com/blog/author/igorljubuncic) 24 January 2024 [### Web team – hack week 2023](https://canonical.com/blog/web-team-hack-week-2023) Today, around 96% of software projects utilize open source in some way. The web team here at Canonical is passionate about Open source. We lead with an open-by-default approach... [Anthony Dillon](https://canonical.com/blog/author/ya-bo-ng) 25 October 2023