[osk] no way to remove user added dictionary words

[Bill Filler]

when spell checking is enabled, any word the user types that is not recognized gets added to the user dictionary (I think).
The problem is once a word gets added there is no way to delete it and it always shows up on the word ribbon, whether you want it or not.

We should be more selective when adding words (i.e. if you type asdafadfadsfadsfadsfadsf that gets added). We can address that in another bug. For this bug, I think we need to provide the user with a way to remove words they added to the dictionary.

<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LanguageAndText#Custom_words>: "The 'Custom words' screen itself should list all custom words alphabetically, with a delete button alongside each."

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I designed a "Custom words" screen in System Settings, for browsing and deleting words that you have (or a prankster has) added accidentally. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LanguageAndText#phone-spelling> Unfortunately not only hasn't it been implemented yet, even its parent "Spell checking" screen hasn't been implemented.

I agree that it would be convenient to remove words directly from the word ribbon. Unfortunately I haven't found steps to reproduce the problem, which would help in specifying the design.

[Michael Sheldon (michael-sheldon)]

This behaviour has changed a bit since this bug was first reported. Words no longer get added to the dictionary automatically, they only get added if the user explicitly selects their word from the word ribbon. Personally I think the system settings approach is the best option, as removing words directly from the word ribbon could be problematic; since the user would only be able to delete words they'd added themselves and not words from the system dictionary (although we could potentially add a personal 'words to ignore' list or something), distinguishing the two could be difficult.

The only other thing I can think of that might need additional consideration for the system settings design is that currently we store a separate user dictionary for each language (so if you add a word to the Danish dictionary it won't get suggested when you're typing in English). So I think we'd either need to change the keyboard behaviour to have one global custom dictionary or have a way of selecting the language that you're editing the custom words for.

Could the "Custom words" page perhaps just live under the "Language & Text" menu?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Sure, the "Custom words" screen could temporarily have its parent item below the current "Spell checking" switch.

I agree with the idea of having a global custom dictionary. Multilingual people code-switch between sentences or even in the middle of a sentence. The spell-checker might be able to tell which language you're using currently if you're using all standard words -- but if you're introducing a custom word, maybe you just switched to another language, or maybe you didn't, so the word would end up in the wrong custom dictionary too often. And a single custom dictionary also makes for a much simpler UI.

[Daniela Ferrai (dferrai)]

This feature has already been specified by Matthew Thomas (mpt) in the phone system settings. Specification available here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LanguageAndText

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I'm now having second thoughts about the System Settings design. It does make explicit the entire contents of your user dictionary, but it's fairly unlikely that someone will stop in the middle of their typing, and go to the trouble of diving deep into System Settings just to remove a word. And if they don't stop in the middle of their typing, it's even less likely that they'll remember to do it sometime later.

I wonder if we could achieve the same effect by making the UI essentially invisible. A word should be added to the user dictionary if you type it and refuse correction enough times; maybe it can be removed from the user dictionary if it is suggested or auto-completed and you undo it enough times.