How to Type Māori Tohutō (Macrons)

When writing in te reo Māori, it’s important to include the line above vowels in some kupu (words), since it changes the pronunciation and even the meaning in some cases. The line is called ‘tohutō’ or ‘pōtae’ (hat) in te reo Māori, and ‘macron’ in English. Many people do not know how to type these, or only know how to do it on a mobile phone but not on a computer.

This handy guide will have you typing tohutō easily!

​If you’re not sure which words have tohutō, or which vowels to put them over, Te Aka Māori Dictionary is very useful! 

​Mobile Phones/Tablets 

Typing tohutō on mobile phones and tablets is usually as easy as tapping and holding your finger on the vowel on the on-screen keyboard, and after a moment a variety of accented characters appears. Slide your finger over to the correct one to choose it and take your finger off the screen to type it.

​Samsung Galaxy Mobile Phones/Tablets

The keyboard that comes with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets is missing the tohutō over top of one of the vowels. To be able to type them over all of the vowels, you need to install an alternative keyboard such as Gboard: 

1. Open the ‘Play Store’ app
2. Search for an install the ‘Gboard’ app
3. Open the ‘Settings’ app
4. Tap ‘General Management’
5. If you see ‘Language and Input’, tap it (only needed for older phones/tablets)
6. Tap ‘Keyboard list and default’ (or ‘On-screen keyboard’ for older phones)
7. If you see ‘+ Manage keyboards’, tap on it (for older phones/tablets)
8. Switch on ‘Gboard’
   Note that it will warn you that Gboard collects data about you – in case you are concerned about privacy and how they use your data, you might consider finding an alternative keyboard to install instead, but this article only covers Gboard because it is known to have tohutō for all of the vowels
9. Tap ‘OK’ then the ‘back’ button on your device (bottom-right)
10. Change ‘Default keyboard’ to ‘Gboard’
11. Tap on the word ‘Gboard’ to get into settings for Gboard
12. Tap ‘Languages’
13. Tap ‘Add keyboard’ button, choose ‘English (Australia)’ or ‘English (United Kingdom)’ then tap ‘Done’
    Note there is no option for ‘English (New Zealand/Aotearoa)
14. Use the pencil icon to delete the ‘English (US)’ keyboard, then tap the ‘back’ button
15. Tap ‘Preferences’
16. Recommended: switch on ‘Number row’
17. Switch on ‘Long press for symbols’, then tap the ‘back’ button three times
18. Tap ‘Spelling correction’ (for older phones, you first have to tap into ‘General Settings’)
19. Recommended: change ‘Default spell checker’ to ‘Google spell checker’ (or ‘Gboard spell checker’ on older phones). Note though that this sends the words that you type into the keyboard to Google so they can provide the spell checking service, so if you’re concerned about the privacy implications of that, leave this setting as-is
20. Push the home button. Now you can tap and hold your finger on a vowel and slide your finger across to the vowel with tohutō to type it, and this process now works on all of the vowels

​Computer

On both Windows and Apple Mac computers, you first need to change the computer’s keyboard settings to use the Māori keyboard. Once that is done, the procedure to type a vowel with tohutō is simple.
Type the [~`] key at the top-left of your keyboard (just below the ‘Esc’ key) once before you type a vowel, and a tohutō will appear over the vowel: āēīōū
Note: do not hold down the [~`] key, just type it the same as you type other letters.
To get a vowel in uppercase, type the [~`] key, then hold Shift and type the vowel you want: ĀĒĪŌŪ

Configuring the Māori Keyboard - Windows

1. Click the ‘Windows’ menu (bottom-left)
2. Click the ‘Settings’ cog icon
3. Click ‘Time & Language’
4. Click ‘Language’ on the left
5. Click ‘Add a language’
6. Search for and choose your preferred language, e.g. ‘English (New Zealand)’ or another preferred language
7. Note that ‘English (New Zealand)’ does not support dictation, whereas ‘English (Australia)’ or ‘English (United Kingdom)’ does, once you install the language pack (from the ‘Options’ button for the language)
8. Click ‘Next’
9. Ensure ‘Install language pack’ is ticked
10. Recommended: tick these if available – ‘Text-to-speech', ‘Speech recognition’ and ‘Handwriting’
11. Click ‘Install’
12. Wait for the new language to install
13. Click the new language name in the list of languages and click the up-arrow to move it to the top of the list
14. Click the new language name again, then click ‘Options’ 
15. Click ‘Add a keyboard’, then choose ‘Maori (QWERTY)’
    Note: this keyboard is basically the same as the US keyboard but with the ability to add tohutō to vowels
16. Click the ‘US (QWERTY)’ keyboard and click ‘Remove’
17. Click the ‘back’ arrow at the top-left 
18. Recommended: click the English (United States) language and click ‘Remove’, Unless you prefer United States English
19. Sign out of Windows, then sign back in, or restart your computer 
20. You should now be able to type vowels with tohutō as described above (type the the [~`] key then type the vowel you want). 

Configuring the Māori Keyboard - Apple Mac

1. Click the 'System Preferences’ app (cog icon, also available in the Apple menu at the top-left of the screen)
2. Click ‘Keyboard’
3. Click ‘Input Sources’
4. Click the ‘+’ button at the bottom-left 
5. Scroll down and click 'Maori' then click ‘Add’ 
6. Click on the other keyboard in the list (probably ‘U.S. International - PC’) and click the ‘-’ sign at the bottom-left to remove that keyboard, leaving only ‘Maori’ in the list
7. Click the red ‘Close’ button at the to-left to close the window 
8. You should now be able to type vowels with tohutō as described above (type the the [~`] key then type the vowel you want)​