How To Make Subscripts In MS Excel 2016

Superscripts and subscripts may already come in the formatting ribbon in Word and PowerPoint, yet they’re absent in Excel. This may make it a problem for those in academic fields, where subscripts and superscripts give additional context to different symbols.

The latest version of MS Excel, although has new features, still doesn’t have superscripts and subscripts readily available. Nothing to fear—these formatting features are available with a little tweaking.

This is why we’ve compiled a list of steps you can do when the need for creating super and subscripts arises! Scroll down below to read more.

How to Make Subscripts in MS Excel 2016

1). First, let’s start with the text you want to subscript. In the picture below, the word ‘sub’ will be turned into a subscript.

2). Select the cell with the word that you want to subscript. Below, we can see xsub is in A1.

3). Highlight the word to be subscripted. As mentioned in Step 1, the word we want to format to a  subscript is ‘sub’.

4). Right click on the highlighted area. Below, you can see a list of commands appear.

5). Left-click ‘Format Cells…’

6).After clicking ‘Format Cells…’, a separate window will open.

7). Under Effects, click Subscript. Afterwards, click OK.

8). And you’re done! Now appreciate your new subscripted text!

How to Do Superscripts in Excel 2016

1). For making text in superscripts, we’ll use the word xsup, where ‘sup’ is the word to be superscripted. Select the cell that contains the word.

2).Repeat steps 3-6 from How to Make Subscripts in MS Excel 2016

3).Once the Format Cells window is open, click Superscript then OK.

4). And now you’ve got a superscript!

Isn’t it an amazing experience of getting superscripts and subscripts in Excel? 

How to Make Subscripts And Superscripts in Excel 2016 in Graphs

Graphs are best made in MS Excel. However, sometimes certain variables require subscripts and superscripts to explain a point.

Take, for example, this picture below

The table headers for the data have their corresponding superscript and subscript, respectively. However, when that information is plotted in the graph, they lose their formatting.

Thankfully, we can format fonts in axis titles and chart titles as well!

1).  First, select the chart/graph you wish to perform the formatting changes. Then, click the title that        you want to perform the specific change.

2). Click the same object again, so that the rigid box that outlines the text is made up of dash lines.

3).Highlight the word you want to make format changes.

4).Right click on the word. A set of commands/options will be seen.

5). Select ‘Font…’

6). A Font window then opens up.

7). Click Superscript, then OK.

8).  And there you have it! The formatting you want!

9). To make subscripts, follow steps 1 to 7. Next, click Subscript then OK.

10). And now you have an axis title with a subscript!

11). You can apply this to chart titles as well…

There Are Some Exceptions…

So far, everything that we’ve formatted into subscripts and superscripts allows us to highlight and pick specific characters to perform format changes. However, there are certain elements that don’t allow us to do so.

The Legend element gives us limited options in what can be formatted to subscripts or superscripts.

1. In this example, we’re using a bar graph with the same values we used in our first two examples regarding graphs. We can see the values of xsup and xsub are plotted and labeled on the bar graph, but the formatting doesn’t translate to the graph’s legend.

2). Click the legends element of the chart you want to edit.

3).Next, click the series that you want to edit the format.

4. And follow Step 9 of the How to Make Subscripts and Superscripts in Graphs section for creating subscripts and Steps 1 to 7 for creating superscripts in Excel.

5. And after applying the changes, you’ll see this change of format!

Noting from the above picture, the whole text has turned into a subscript. Creating subscripts and superscripts in the Legend will only get the whole series to become a subscript/supscript, as you can’t highlight certain specific characters.