How to Apply Superscript and Subscript Formatting Options in Microsoft Excel

A superscript is a character or more than one character, it can be letters or numbers, that you need to set slightly above the normal line of text. For example, if you need to write 1st, the letters st need to be slightly above the character 1. Likewise, a subscript is a set of characters or a single character that needs to be set slightly below the normal level of text. For example, when you write chemical formulae, you need to put the numbers below the normal line of characters. The following screenshot shows some examples for superscript and subscript formatting.

 

1 Examples Optimized

 

Though this might seem like a tough task, it is actually very simple to apply superscript and subscript formatting to your texts. In this article, we explain in some simple steps how you can easily format texts with superscript or subscript formatting. Hope you enjoy reading the article.

How to Apply Superscript Formatting in Excel

Step 1: Double click on the cell containing the text that you want to apply superscript formatting to. Once you have entered the edit mode, click and select the text that is going to be made a superscript.



 

2 Select Text Optimized

 

Step 2: Once the text is selected, right click on it and then choose the option Format Cells.

 

3 Format Cells Optimized

 

Step 3: On the Format Cells window, under the section Effects, check the checkbox corresponding to the option Superscript. Hit the OK button once done.

 

4 Superscript Optimized

 

Step 4: If you now look at the text you formatted, you can see that the superscript formatting is successfully applied.

 

5 Superscript Done Optimized

 

Step 5: There are no shortcuts to bulk format the superscript texts. You need to apply the superscript formatting one by one. Following is a screenshot that has an entire column with superscript formatting.

 

6 Multiple Optimized

 

How to Apply Subscript Formatting in Excel

Step 1: Just like in superscript formatting, firstly double click on the cell and then select the text that you want to apply subscript formatting to.

 

7 Select Text Optimized

 

Step 2: Now right click on the selected text and click on the Format Cells option.

 

8 Format Cells Optimized

 

Step 3: As next, check the checkbox corresponding to the Subscript option and hit the OK button.

 

9 Subscript Optimized

 



Step 4: If you now look at the Excel sheet, you can see that the subscript formatting is successfully applied.

 

10 Subscript Done Optimized

 

Step 5: Again, we don’t have the option to mass apply the subscript formatting. So, you have to get it done manually one by one as shown in the screenshot below.

 

11 Subscript Multiple Optimized

 

Please tell us in the comments section whether you found the article helpful. Stay tuned!