How to Do Subscript in Word

Commands and shortcuts for below-the-line typing

Updated on July 22, 2020

Subscript allows you to type special characters that appear slightly below the current line of text, which can be helpful when depicting certain mathematical and chemical formulas, as well as some other not-so-common uses. Microsoft Word makes it very easy to include subscript text in your documents, which can be achieved by taking the following steps.

How to Subscript in Word

Follow these simple steps to do subscript in Microsoft Word.

Open the document in which you would like to add subscript text, or create a new document.
Type in your text as you would normally, with no special formatting applied. For example, if you'd like to depict a formula that signifies water, type "H2O".
Select the specific text you want to appear as subscript so that it is highlighted. In this example, you'd want to select the number "2" in "H2O".
- For macOS and Windows devices, select the Subscript button, located in the Font section of Word's main toolbar and represented by the letter 'x' and a depressed number 2.
Alternatively, use the following keyboard shortcut:
- Windows: Ctrl + =
- macOS: Cmd + =
- For Microsoft Word Online, select More Font Options, represented by three horizontally-aligned dots and located between the Clear Formatting and Bullets buttons on Word's main toolbar. When the drop-down menu appears, select Subscript.
Word Online only: Select the More Font Options button, represented by three horizontally-aligned dots and located between the Clear Formatting and Bullets buttons on Word's main toolbar. When the drop-down menu appears, select the Subscript option.