Looking for fast and easy ways to type ʻokina and kahakō? Find out here how to add a Hawaiian keyboard layout to Windows, no matter the keyboard hardware and input language you use.
First, Add Coffee to Your Butter
Who wants to start a day and morning with coffee (alone)?
Add a spoonful of butter, though, then one more spoon filled to the brim with coconut oil, and your memory may take you to a penthouse throning over Waikiki beach in Honolulu. For it is on Ilikai Hotel’s penthouse balcony that we famously meet Steve McGarrett, who—in the 2010 incarnation of Hawaii Five-O/0—swears by pouring butter and oil into his coffee.
Now, before further additions of creatine and cardamom sweep us from Hawaii… how about pouring some Hawaiian keys onto a virtual keyboard?
How to Add the Hawaiian Keyboard Layout to Windows
Time needed: 5 minutes
To add the Hawaiian keyboard layout to Windows for comfortable typing:
- Select Settings in the Windows Start menu.
Windows keyboard shortcut: Press Windows I to open Settings.
- Select the Time & language category.
- Now pick Language & region.
- Under Language, click the three dots menu for the desired input language.
- Select Language options from the menu that has appeared.
- Click Add a keyboard unter Keyboards.
- Now choose Hawaiian from the menu.
Add Hawaiian to Windows 10
To add the Hawaiian key layout to Windows 10:
- Select Settings from the Startt menu.
- Go to Time & Language.
- Open Language.
- Under Preferred Languages, click the language for which you want to use the Hawaiian keyboard.
- Click Options.
- Now click Add a keyboard.
- Find and choose Hawaiian.
How to Add the Hawaiian Keyboard Layout to Windows: FAQ
How do I switch to the Hawaiian layout for typing?
To quickly enable Hawaiian input on Windows:
- Press Windows Space.
- Holding the Windows key, press Space until Hawaiian is highlighted as the layout in the Windows language picker (near the bottom right corner of the screen).
(How to add the Hawaiian keyboard layout tested with Windows 11 Version 22H2–23H2; first published April 2023, last updated September 2024)