HOW TO SUBSCRIPT TEXT IN EXCEL

INTRODUCTION

You must have seen the subscripted text or a number such as Log represented with a base or the valency in chemistry.

Subscript is the process of putting a smaller version of any letter or symbol lowered from the normal level of text input.  For Example H2O. 2 is in the subscript format.

The most common example of a subscript is found in the Mathematics such as showing the LOG BASE or in Chemistry while writing the chemical formulas etc.

We also need this while showing the NUMBER BASE whether its binary or octal or hexadecimal etc.

In this article , we’ll learn to apply SUBSCRIPT FORMAT in various ways in Excel.

WHEN IS SUBSCRIPT USED IN EXCEL ?

SUBSCRIPT is mostly needed while we are working with Mathematics or Chemistry.

We require them frequently while working with chemical formulae or Logarithms .

For example

H2O is the chemical formula of water.

Log210 and Log10100 are the logarithm expressions with different base.

etc.

WAYS TO SUBSCRIPT TEXT IN EXCEL

We can use many ways to SUBSCRIPT the text in Excel.

The ways available are :

  • RIGHT CLICK > FORMAT CELLS.
  • EXCEL RIBBON
  • KEYBOARD SHORTCUT

Let us discuss all the ways one by one in detail.

We ‘ll take a few examples to learn how we can put the ending text to SUBSCRIPT format in excel.

The following picture shows the current situation.

We’ll use the subscripting steps on the SUBSCRIPTED TEXT column.

EXAMPLE DATA

SUBSCRIPT TEXT IN EXCEL USING RIGHT CLICK OPTION

This section deals with the techniques to SUBSCRIPT the text in Excel.

STEPS TO SUBSCRIPT THE TEXT IN EXCEL.

  • Double Click the cell containing the text to be subscripted.
  • Double click will make the text inside the cell editable.
  • Select the text to be subscripted.
  • Right Click the cell containing the text and choose FORMAT CELLS.
SELECT THE TEXT AND RIGHT CLICK CHOOSE FORMAT CELLS
  • As we click the FORMAT CELLS, the FORMAT CELLS dialog box will open.
  • Check [ Click the checkbox ] SubScript and Click OK.
CLICK SUBSCRIPT AND CLICK OK
  • The selected text will rise to subscript format.
  • The following picture shows the output.
RESULT OF SUBSCRIPTING USING RIGHT CLICK OPTION

SUBSCRIPT TEXT IN EXCEL USING EXCEL RIBBON OPTION

We can also subscript our text directly from the EXCEL RIBBON.

STEPS TO SUBSCRIPT USING THE OPTION PRESENT IN EXCEL RIBBON.

  • Double click the cell. It’ll make the text in the cell editable on the character level.
  • Select the character or a group of characters which we want to subscript.
  • Click the FONT SETTINGS button on the EXCEL RIBBON. Location is shown below in the picture.
FONT SETTINGS BUTTON LOCATION
  • As we click the FONT SETTINGS BUTTON, Format Cells dialog box opens.
  • Click SUBSCRIPT BOX [ Select it ].
  • Click OK.
SELECT SUBSCRIPT AND CLICK OK
  • The selected text will be subscripted.
  • The output is shown below in the picture.
OUTPUT OF THE SUBSCRIPTING USING EXCEL RIBBON

SUBSCRIPT TEXT IN EXCEL USING KEYBOARD SHORTCUT

The fastest way of operation in any software is still the use of KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS.

THERE IS NO DIRECT SHORTCUT FOR SUBSCRIPT TEXTING TEXT IN EXCEL. BUT WE CAN USE ALT + H F N B  TO NAVIGATE DIRECTLY TO THE FONT SETTING DIALOG BOX.

Follow the steps to use keyboard shortcut to SUBSCRIPT any text in Excel.

  • Double Click the cell and select the text which we want to subscript.
  • Press ALT + H + F + N +B
  • The Font Setting dialog box will open with the SUBSCRIPT OPTION selected.
  • Click OK.
  • The process is shown below in the animated picture.
USE ALT+HFNB SHORTCUT TO SUBSCRIPT AND PRESS AGAIN TO REMOVE SUBSCRIPT

PROBLEM WITH SUBSCRIPT NUMBER TO A NUMBER

Did you notice that we didn’t do the Third example in our picture which is 67 raised to power 34 yet in detail.

If you try this example, you would find that excel would convert it to 6734.

So follow the steps to avoid this problem.

Select the cell containing the Numbers.

  • Go to HOME TAB and CHOOSE TEXT FORMAT for the cell from the formats drop down.
  • We can also go to RIGHT CLICK > FORMAT CELLS > TEXT.

FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT NUMBER TYPES [ FORMATS] CLICK HERE.

CONVERT THE CELL TO TEXT FORMAT

We need to convert the Format to the TEXT so that we can convert the number to subscript .

REMOVE SUBSCRIPT FROM TEXT IN EXCEL

We discussed Three ways to subscript any text or number in Excel.To remove the Subscript follow the following general steps.

  • Double Click the cell containing the Text. It’ll make the content of cell editable on character level.
  • Select the subscripted characters.
  • Go to FORMAT CELLS dialog box through Right Click or Excel Ribbon or Ctrl + HFNB.
  • It’ll open the dialog box.
  • Deselect the SubScript option.
  • Click OK.
  • It’ll remove the subscript.