Adding a Macron to Text in Hail

Macrons are a written or printed mark (¯) used to indicate a long vowel in some languages like Te Reo Māori.

How you type a macron depends on the operating system you're using. 

On most mobile phones, and the latest couple of versions of Mac OSX (iMacs and MacBooks) you can simply hold down the letter on the keyboard for a second or so and it'll popup with a list of accents and the macron for that letter.

For other Apple Mac Products:

1. Click on the Apple logo in the top left and choose System Preferences
2. Click Language & Region
3. Click Keyboard Preferences
4. Click the + icon and find `Te Reo Māori in the list.
5. Click Add
6. Optionally, tick Show input menu in menu bar

To type a macronised vowel on a machine thus configured you simply hold down Alt / Option and then the vowel. You can also do this in conjunction with the Shift key to type an uppercase macronised vowel.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7/8/10:

1. Start Windows Settings
2. Click Time and Language
3. Click Region and Language
4. If you don’t have English (New Zealand), click Add a language and add ‘English (New Zealand)’.
5. Then under Preferred languages click on ‘English (New Zealand) and select ‘Options’
6. Select ‘Add a keyboard’
7. Find Te Reo Māori in the list and add it. 

Now you can easily enter a macronised vowel by pressing the tilde key (the key with ~ on it) and then the vowel. To enter a macronised capital vowel, press the tilde key, then hold down shift and press the vowel.