How to Do Superscript in Word

Superscript lets you type characters that appear slightly above the current line of text and is often used when displaying exponents in mathematical expressions, footnote citations, and temperatures. Incorporating superscript text in your Microsoft Word documents can be done by taking the following steps. It's much faster than using the keyboard shortcut for a degree symbol.

1. Open the document in which you would like to add superscript text, or create a new document.
2. Type in your text as you would normally, with no special formatting applied. For example, if you'd like to depict a formula that begins with the letter 'x' squared, simply type x2.
3. Select the specific text you want to appear as superscript so it becomes highlighted. In this example, you'd want to select the number 2.
4. On macOS and Windows only: Select the Superscript button, located in the Font section of Word's main toolbar and represented by the letter 'x' and a raised number 2.
   1. Tip: You can also use the following keyboard shortcut in lieu of selecting this button. Windows: Ctrl+Shift+Plus(+); macOS: Cmd+Shift+Plus(+).
5. 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 Superscript option.
6. Your selected character(s) should now appear in superscript format, such as x².

Repeat these steps at any time to reverse this formatting.