Swapboard
Keyboard layout switcher for macOS
Type ghbdtn, get «привет»
Swapboard notices words typed in the wrong keyboard layout (Russian vs English) and retypes them for you. Lives in the menu bar, no Dock icon.
macOS 13 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · free · app interface in Russian
Did not install or work? Message me on Telegram or at and we will sort it out.
See it in action
A minute and a half of live typing: auto-switching, ⇧⇧, selections and the ё-fixer.
Features
Type without watching the layout
Auto-switching
At a word boundary: space, Tab, Return and punctuation. The punctuation mark is typed in the right layout too:
ghbdtn&becomes «привет?».⇧⇧ fixes it
With a selection, converts it to the other layout. Without one, fixes the current or last word; press ⇧⇧ again to undo.
Double capitals
«ПРивет» becomes «Привет» on its own.
ё-fixer
Turn it on in the menu: «еще» becomes «ещё», «черный» becomes «чёрный». Ambiguous pairs like «все/всё» are left alone.
Per-app rules
In terminals and code editors only on ⇧⇧; in password managers, games and remote desktops it stays out of the way entirely. Add your own exceptions from the menu.
Learns from undo
Undo a switch with ⇧⇧ and that word will not be switched again. All learned words and exceptions are in the «Правила и исключения…» (Rules and exceptions) window.
Also: statistics, sound, launch at login, paste without formatting ⌘⇧V and a warning when Secure Input is on.
Shortcuts
Everything at hand
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| ⇧⇧Shift twice | with a selection: convert it to the other layout; without: fix the current or last word (⇧⇧ again undoes); nothing to fix: switch layout |
| ⇧ + ⇧left and right Shift | turn auto-switching on or off |
| ⌥optional | same as ⇧⇧ |
| ⇧single Shift, optional | switch layout |
| ⇧ | ⇧separate Shifts, optional | left selects EN, right selects RU |
| ⌘⇧Voptional | paste without formatting |
Privacy
It only sees the word you are typing
- And only to decide which layout it is in.
- Nothing you type leaves your Mac: no words, no statistics. Swapboard goes online only once a day, to check for a new version.
- The correction log stays on this Mac and can be cleared from the menu.
- Password fields (Secure Input) are invisible to Swapboard.
Install
Three steps
- Drag to ApplicationsOpen Swapboard.dmg and drag the app into Applications.
- Grant accessOn first launch macOS asks for Accessibility access: without it the keyboard cannot be intercepted.
- TypeRU / EN appears in the menu bar. To start it automatically, tick «Запускать при входе в систему» (Launch at login) in the menu.
Data
Its own open model
The layout decision is made by its own model built on open data: FrequencyWords frequency lists and 2.9 million Russian word forms from OpenCorpora. It catches about 99% of words typed in the wrong layout.
Data licenses: FrequencyWords (CC BY-SA 4.0), OpenCorpora (CC BY-SA 3.0).