Setting up Māori Keyboard

Setting up the Māori keyboard on your Windows computer

Windows 7, 8

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region (or Region and Language).

2. Go to the Keyboards and Languages tab and click Change keyboard. If it already says English (New Zealand) — Māori, then it's already set up.

3. Otherwise, click Add. Scroll down to English (New Zealand), expand the Keyboard options and click Show More.

4. Find Māori in the list and tick it, then click OK.

5. Change the Default input language bar at the top of the window to display English (New Zealand) — Māori.

Windows 10

1. Use the search (magnifying glass icon on the task bar, next to the Windows icon) to find Settings.

2. Click on the Time & Language setting, then click Language.

3. The language should be set to English (New Zealand); use Add a Language to change this if necessary.

4. Click on Options to add an input method of Reo Māori; this should now show the Reo Māori keyboard layout indicator.

5. You should now see ENG/MRI displayed in the task bar at the far right next to the time and date indicator.

Typing a macron on a Windows computer

To type a macron, press the backquote/tilde key (`/~) at the top left of the keyboard then the vowel.

Windows in Māori

If you are using Windows 10 you can also change your computer's system language into Te Reo Māori (i.e. Windows features like Settings and File Explorer will appear in Māori):

1. Click Start > Settings.

2. Click on the Time & Language button and select Language in the lefthand panel. Click on the + Add a preferred language option. You will be shown all the languages that Windows 10 currently supports. Find Te reo Māori in the list and click on it to select.

3. Click on Set as default and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Te reo Māori may just be referred to in Windows 10 as Maori so if you are unable to find one, try the other.

Setting up the Māori keyboard on your macOS computer

macOS versions higher than 10.8 also 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.

macOS 10.11 and later

1. Click on your Apple menu in the top left and open System Preferences > Keyboard.

2. Go to the Input Sources tab. Click on the + sign and scroll down the input methods list until you find Māori.

3. Select to add to your list. Make sure that Show Input menu in menu bar is checked at the bottom so you can easily switch back at the top of the screen if required.

macOS 10.10 and earlier

1. Click on your Apple menu in the top left and open System Preferences > Language & Text.

2. Click on the Input Sources tab and scroll down the input methods list under you find Māori. Tick this box.

3. At the bottom of the dialogue window, tick Show Input menu in menu bar so you can easily switch back at the top of the screen if required.

Typing a macron on a macOS computer

To type a macron with the Māori keyboard on a macOS computer, press the tilde key (~) then type a vowel. Alternately, hold down the Alt/Option key and type the vowel.

Macrons in Outlook email

To make sure macrons can be typed in your emails:

1. Open Outlook, and from the Format menu choose Text Encoding > Default Text Encoding.

2. At the bottom of the HTML tab, tick the Preferred encoding for new message box and choose Unicode (UTF-8) if it's not already selected. Close this window.

Typing a macron on a mobile device

iOS (iPhone, iPad)

Press and hold a vowel to select the macron version from the displayed menu.

Android

The standard language package for most Android devices allows you to press and hold a vowel to select the macron version from the displayed menu, however this does not include ō for some users. A workaround for this is to add Te Reo Māori for predictive text in any app that uses a keyboard — you can do this in most Android devices by following these instructions:

1. Open the Messages app.

2. Go to Settings and find your languages options — on some devices this is under Languages and types, Languages & input, or Language & Keyboard. Enter "maori" in the Search field or find it in the list of available languages. Depending on the version of Android and device you are using you may need to install a language package from the Google App store.

3. Return to the Messages app.

4. Swipe the spacebar to change your predictive text language. Type in a word such as “toku”, and predictive text options appear, one of which is “tōku”

Note: some devices will only allow installation of two predictive text languages