How to Format Text or Characters as Superscript/Subscript in Excel?

Superscript and subscript formatting in Microsoft Word allows you to format text or characters so that they appear smaller and raised or lowered. This formatting is often used in mathematical equations, chemical formulas, and footnotes.

To format text or characters superscript, select the text or characters you want to format and click the Superscript button in the “Font” section of the Home tab. Alternatively, you can use the key combination “CTRL + SHIFT + +“.

To subscript text or characters, select the text or characters you want to format and click the Subscript button in the “Font” section of the Home tab. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + =“.

You can also use the “Font” dialog box to format text or characters as subscript or superscript. To do this, select the text or characters you want to format, click the Start menu of the “Font” dialog box in the lower-right corner of the “Font” section of the Home tab, choose the “Effects” tab, and select the “Superscript” or “Subscript” check box.

Inserting Text or Characters as Superscript or Subscript

To format text or characters in superscript or subscript in Excel, you can follow the steps below:

• Step 1: Open your Excel worksheet and select the cell(s) in which you want to superscript or subscript the text or characters.

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• Step 2: To format text or characters superscript, use the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + SHIFT + +” or right-click and choose “Font” from the context menu. In the Font dialog box, select Superscript and click “OK“.

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• After selecting Superscript on the Font tab, the result is displayed as follows.

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• Step 3: To format text or characters as subscript, use the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + =” or right-click and choose “Font” from the context menu. In the Font dialog box, select the Subscript option and click “OK“.

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Alternatively, you can use the Font group on the Home tab of the Excel Ribbon to format text or characters as superscript or subscript.

• Step 1: Select the cell(s) in which you want to format the text or characters.

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• Step 2: Click the “Font” group on the Home tab.

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• Step 3: Click the “Superscript” or “Subscript” button, depending on which formatting option you want to apply.

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The selected text or characters are now formatted in superscript or subscript.

Format Text or Characters as Superscript using Kutools

If you want to apply a superscript format to your entered text or characters, follow the steps below.

• Step 1: You must select a cell that contains text or characters to apply a superscript format.

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• Step 2: On the Kutools tab, select Format and choose Superscript/Subscript from the drop-down list.

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• Step 3: The Superscript/Subscript Formatting dialog box appears.
• Step 4: In this dialog box you can see that the entire content of the selected cell is displayed in the box.
• Step 5: Click a character you want to format, and then click the Superscript option under the Character 3 section.
• Step 6: You can also apply the formatting attributes such as bold, italic, font size and upper/lower case to the entered characters.
• Step 7: After formatting a character, repeat the above four steps to format more characters.
• Step 8: Then click the button OK.

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• Step 9: Finally, you will see that the characters you specified have been formatted as subscripted characters, as shown in the following figure.

Steps to Format Text or Characters as Subscript using Kutools

To format input values as subscripts, please follow the steps below.

• Step 1: You must select a cell that you want to format as subscript.

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• Step 2: Go to the Kutools tab, select the Format option and choose the Superscript/Subscript option from the drop-down list.

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• Step 3: This opens the Format Superscript/Subscript dialog box.
• Step 4: In this dialog box, you can see that the entire content of the selected cell is displayed in the field.
• Step 5: Click a character you want to format and click the Subscript option under the Character 3 section.
• Step 6: You can also apply the formatting attributes such as bold, italic, font size and upper/lower case to the entered characters.
• Step 7: After formatting a character, repeat the above four steps to format more characters.
• Step 8: Then, hit the OK button.

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• Step 9: Finally, you will see that the characters you specified have been formatted as subscripted characters, as shown in the following figure.

Conclusion

In summary, formatting text or characters as superscript or subscript in Excel can be useful in various situations, such as displaying chemical formulas or mathematical equations. Superscript formatting raises the text or characters above the baseline, while subscript formatting lowers them below the baseline. You can do this in Excel using the formatting options in the Font dialog box or by using keyboard shortcuts. In addition, Excel has a built-in feature for inserting common superscript and subscript characters, such as ² and ₃, through the Symbol dialog box. However, it is important to use superscript and subscript formatting appropriately and consistently in Excel to ensure clarity and readability of the data in the spreadsheet. For more articles, you can visit our homepage.

Video Tutorial

Here is the Formatting text or characters as Superscript/Subscript in Excel for your better understanding.

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Hajira

Hajira is a skilled financial analyst (Microsoft Certifications Completed) with more than 10 years of expertise in Excel. I love using Excel to assist individuals and organisations in enhancing their financial procedures. I like hiking and exploring outdoors when she’s not crunching mathematics. Follow me on my Mastodon account.