Typing Macrons

A macron is a line above a vowel to indicate that it should be spoken as a long vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō and Ū. The Māori word for macron is tohutō (or pōtae - hat). For more detailed information on its use, see Māori Orthographic Conventions.
Ngā mihi!

Instructions for typing macrons vary between different operating systems.

on Apple Mac

Mac versions higher than 10.8 feature the Character Accent Menu that allows you to hold down a key as you are typing and after a moment a list of different accented characters will appear with numbers below. You then type the number of the character you wish to use. You don't need to install a Māori keyboard to do this. 

One-off steps to install the Māori keyboard

  • Select System Preference from the Bar
    • Select Languages & Region
      • Preferred Languages:
        • Add (+) Māori – Primary
        • English (New Zealand)
      • Keyboard Preferences:
        • Input Sources
          • Add (+) Māori

Typing a vowel with a macron

  • Hold Option Key (left or right)
  • Press vowel requiring macron

 

on Microsoft Windows

One-off steps

Windows 7/8/10/11

On Windows 7 and later, the Māori keyboard driver is already installed. You just have to activate it as follows:

  1. Start Control Panel.
  2. Click on Change keyboards or other input methods (under the Clock, Language and Region heading).
  3. Click on Change keyboard.
  4. If it already says English (New Zealand) - Maori, then it's already set up. Don't continue!
    Otherwise, click on Add.
  5. Scroll down to English (New Zealand), expand Keyboard, click on Show More.
  6. Find Maori in the list and tick it, then click on OK.
  7. Change the Default input language to English (New Zealand) - Maori.

Typing a vowel with a macron

Now you can easily enter a macronised vowel by pressing ` (the key with ~ on it) and then the vowel. For example:
`a = ā
To enter a macronised capital vowel, press `, then hold down shift and press the vowel, e.g.,
`A = Ā

 

on iPads and iPhones

One-off steps

(none if you're already using the default keyboard)

Typing a vowel with a macron

Hold down the letter on which you want a macron – multiple copies of the letter appear above the letter, each with a different accent mark. Slide your finger up to the one with the macron. Done.

 

on Android Devices

One-off steps

(Optional; you can use personal ad-hoc spelling instead.)
Add Māori to your list of keyboard languages:

  1. (from your home screen or app drawer) choose Settings; thence:
  2. Additional Settings
  3. Keyboard & Input Method
  4. (under Available Keyboards) Gboard
  5. Languages
  6. (following steps depend on device type and current settings; follow you nose to find Māori)
  7. Select language Māori
  8. Add layout Māori (which is functionally identical to US-English)

Note that multilingual mode for English+Māori isn't currently supported.

Typing a vowel with a macron

Either:

  1. Hold down the letter on which you want a macron – multiple copies of the letter appear above the letter, each with a different accent mark. Slide your finger up to the one with the macron. (Same method as iPad and iPhone)
  2. Use the "swype mode", and choose the macronized version of the word from the shortlist. If you do that often enough, your device will learn that you prefer that spelling.

 

on Linux

Most of the modern Linux distributions now have a Māori keyboard that can be installed to make typing macrons easy. The easiest way is to choose the Māori keyboard while you are doing the installation. But if you are doing a post installation change it should be fairly simple.

The Māori keyboard in Linux uses the RightAlt+'vowel' to create the ā ē ī ō ū.

 

For more information, go to Ngā Kupu here

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