How to Superscript and Subscript in Microsoft Office Word?
If you are new here, Subscribe to Full Feeds or by Email or follow us in Twitter and receive free daily updates on Office and Windows Tips, Tricks and Tweaks..
In earlier version of Microsoft Office (Word 2003), trying to write a subscript or superscript takes quite a time but with the new Word 2007 it’s so simple. For those who are writing technical articles face situation to use these subscripts and superscripts in almost every article like mathematical formulae or chemical equations.
What are Subscript and Superscript? A subscript appears smaller and below the baseline (Ex. H2O or X2) while a superscript appears smaller and above the baseline (Ex. X3)
How to Subscript and Superscript in Office 2003 and 2007?
In Word 2003, select the characters that you would like to change. Go to Format menu and Click Font, from the Font tab you have to select subscript or superscript.
In Word 2007, select the character that you would like to change and Click the Superscript or Subscript symbol from the ribbon under the home tab.

In both Word 2003 and Word 2007, you can also use keyboard Shortcut keys to make the characters as Subscript or Superscript.
Superscript: Press CTRL+SHIFT+=
Subscript: Press CTRL+=
If you work on Windows and Office Applications most of the time then these posts on Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows and Office will help you a lot.
Update: Now with Word 2007, one can do more than this like writing a mathematical equation or physics derivation or chemisty formula in Word 2007.
















































[...] Joel tells you how to add superscripts and subscripts in Microsoft Word. [...]
Thanks this info helped alot
Yes, that was really helpful. Thanks for the info.
@Sam, Joon… Thanks for your comments
Thanks! Now if I can get it to do an actual one inch margin on the right.
helped me a lot
This was really helpful! Would you happen to know how to place a superscript directly above a subscript?
@James, Its simple, first apply the subscript to all the items that you want to subscript and superscript. Then apply the superscript to the elements you want to superscript.
woo thanks alot working on a biotech book for my school and hvae to type up alot of chemical formulas
[...] Email and receive free daily updates on Tips, Tricks and Tweaks.. Long back, I wrote a post on How to Superscript and Subscript in Office Word? But One can do much more than that in Microsoft Office Word from Office 2007, like writing a [...]
@Batsu, You can also write mathematical equations, physics derivation and chemical formula in Word 2007
Do you know how do we do that in WordPress? Can it be done when using html mode instead of WYSIWYG?
THANK YOU!!!!!!
THANK YOU! helped so much on my science homework!
Than you soooo much…That was incredibly helpful!!:=)!
billion of thanx
that solved my problem
` THANKS. now, I caN USE SUBSCRIPT & SUPERSCRIPT at microsoft word.
tnx for the information..i can use superscript and subscript using the shortcut keys.
Thank you
it wont work for me!! plz help me. i tried to add a superscript but the control shift thing didnt work
k never mind. the control shift thing didnt work but going into the font tab helped me. thnks so much now i can finally do my math project!!
hi thanks alot, this info helped me so much
hey this really helped me, thanks a lot
You can easily add these buttons to your toolbar in MS Office 2003.
tnX.. it helps me alot
coz I am doing some test question here.. tnx
Thank You!
Actually u can select the super/sub script on 2003 on ur toolbar, all u have to do is add the buttons onto format, but thanks for the shortcuts!
Hey thanks a lot… it really helped…
can you use superscript/subscript on other office programs other than word?
for those that still 03. you can set up superscript and subscript as a toolbar. Right click the top and add a formatting toolbar(it should already be up there) and then click the little down arrow to the right of it. Click add or remove buttons, and go to formatting. Superscript and subscript are right at the bottom.