Often times, certain words in your document require smaller letters at the top (superscript) or bottom (subscript) if a line of text.
This is especially true for math text, chemical formulas, or something as simple as dates.
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In Google Docs, you can use subscript and superscript in Google Docs in three ways. One uses the menu system, the other uses keyboard shortcuts, and the latter uses a special character table.
How to Make Superscript in Google Docs
You can create superscript text in Google Doc using the menu system.
- To do this, select the text that you want to convert to superscript.
- From the menu, choose Format.
- Select Text, and then select Superscript.
- Once selected, the selected text will be converted to superscript format.
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You can do this for one character, or you can select the entire string and convert it to superscript. However, in most cases, this format is only used for one character.
A much faster way to do this is to select text and then use the Google Docs keyboard shortcut for superscript text.
This is the keyboard shortcut Ctrl +. and the character will immediately change to superscript. You can also override the superscript format by selecting the same superscript menu option again.
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You can see how the selected superscript text is converted back to normal text formatting
Finally, you can add superscript text to your document using the special character table.
- To do this, choose Paste from the menu and select Special Characters from the menu.
- In the Special Characters box, enter “superscript” in the search box.
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- You will see a list of common superscript characters. When you select any of the options, a superscript is inserted into the document.
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Examples of typical text that requires a superscript include:
- Math Index
- Link to Source in Page Footer
- Copyright or Trade Abbreviations stamps
- Ordinal indicators, for example 1 st
How to subscribe to Google Docs
Creating subscript formatting in Google Docs is almost identical to creating superscript formatting. You can create subscript text in Google Doc using the menu system.
- To do this, select the text you want to subscript.
- Choose from the Format menu.
- Select Text and then select Subscript.
- Once selected, the selected text will be converted to subscript format.
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As with superscript, you can convert formatting for one character or for an entire line of text. In most cases, you will only use it for single characters. But whole-line formatting is useful for things like adding footnotes below a paragraph or at the bottom of a page.
Of course, an even easier way to do this is to select the text and then use the Google Docs keyboard shortcut to subscript.
This keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + and the character will immediately update to subscript. You can also cancel the subscript format by selecting the same Subscript menu item again.
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The highlighted subscript is converted back to normal text formatting
As with superscript, you can add subscript to your document using a table of special characters.
- Choose Paste from the menu and choose Special Characters from the menu.
- In the special characters box, enter “subscript” in the search box.
- A list of subscript characters will be displayed. When you select any of the options, it inserts a subscript into the document that you placed your cursor on.
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Examples of typical text requiring subscripts include:
- Chemical molecular formulas
- Greek symbols used in physics
- Mathematical variables in formulas
Use subscript and superscript characters in Google Docs
The ability to add subscript and superscript formatting to Google Docs gives you the ability to write formulas and other special text that would normally not be possible in a simpler text-based application like Notepad.
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