How to use tohutō / Māori macrons on your computer

ā ē ī ō ū

With the recent launch of selected Lenovo laptops that include tohutō (macron) keys, you might be wondering whether your computers support these too. ​The good news is, both Windows 11 and Windows 10 support tohutō on any device with a standard keyboard. 
Through this, Tongan and Samoan speakers also have toloi/fakamamafa and fa’amamafa support respectively.

How to type tohutō characters

1. Tap the   ~ `  (tilde or backquote) key on your keyboard
   (this is usually on the left hand edge below the ESC key - highlighted in yellow above)
2. Then type ā, ē, ī, ō, or ū (highlighted in blue above)
   Tohutō are only applied to vowels

Other tips

• To capitalise a vowel (Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō, Ū)
  Hold the shift key when typing the letter (or use CAPS lock)
• ​To type a backquote (  ` )
  Tap the tilde key twice. To type a  ~  (tilde) character hold the shift key and click the tilde key
• If you tap the tilde key then type a consonant or special character
  A leading backquote character (  ` ) will be typed before the consonant or special character​​

What if it doesn't work?

When you have the correct language settings turned on in Windows 10 or 11 computer, this behaviour is automatic. If it doesn't work for you, do the following:

Enable tohutō in Windows 11

Since late 2021, new Windows 11 in New Zealand have the New Zealand Māori language pack installed by default. If tohutō characters aren't available, you may need to toggle from US keyboard settings to NZ Aotearoa. To toggle between US and NZ Aotearoa  keyboards, hold the Windows key on your keyboard and tap the spacebar until English (New Zealand) NZ Aotearoa is highlighted. 

Enable tohutō in Windows 10

If you have managed devices, your IT team may have deployed support for tohutō already, this is also available to clients that use Modern Fleet Management and device management services from The Laptop Company. If your Windows 10 device doesn't have tohutō support working, do the following:

1. Click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your screen
2. Type Language
3. Select Language Settings or Region & Language from the Best match list to load the Language settings box

4.  Under Preferred languages, click English (New Zealand)*. If this option is not visible, see asterisk below.
5.  Click Options to load the Language options for English (New Zealand)
6.  Under Keyboards, click Add a keyboard to display a list of keyboard options
7.  Scroll down and select Māori QWERTY, then close the Language settings box.

The Windows taskbar will display a new clickable keyboard language icon near your clock marked ENG MI.
To toggle between Māori and US keyboard settings, hold the Windows key on your keyboard and tap the space bar. This will switch between making tohutō characters available or not with the tilde key. 

* If English (New Zealand) is not displayed under the Preferred languages list, do the following in the Language settings box:

1. Click + Add a language to show the Choose a language to install box.
2. Type New Zealand in the search box.
3. Click English (New Zealand) from the list of results and click Next.
4. Windows will then download and install the New Zealand  language pack. When this is complete it will be added to your list of Preferred languages.
5. Click English (New Zealand) and click the up arrow to make it the default language for your computer, then complete steps 4 to 7 above to enable tohutō character typing.

Added benefits

When you select English (New Zealand) as your preferred language, most applications including Word and Excel 365 will also use New Zealand spell checking in place of US spellings.