Subscripts help represent mathematical equations, whereas superscripts are often used to represent important information, such as indicating trademarks, copyrights, and footnotes. There are different ways to add subscripts and superscripts in PowerPoint templates to represent important information and equations.
Method 1: Convert Text to Subscript and Superscript with Advanced Font and Character Options
You can use the advanced font and character options to convert your text into a subscript or superscript. Highlight the text you wish to change and click the arrow icon in the Font menu from the Home tab. This will open a new dialog box.
Check the Superscript option and click OK to convert the selected text into superscript.
Similarly, you can highlight the text you intend to convert to change it to subscript by expanding the Font menu and selecting subscript from the dialog box that pops up to convert the highlighted text.
In the example below, we highlighted and changed (C) into the standard superscript for Copyrights, which is ©. For the subscript, we selected the 2 in H2O to convert it into a subscript, making it H2O.
Method 2: Shortcuts to Convert Text to Subscript and Superscript in PowerPoint
Instead of expanding the advanced font and character options each time to convert text to subscript or superscript, you can use keyboard shortcuts. The shortcuts for each are mentioned below.
Superscript: CTRL SHIFT +
Subscript: CTRL +
Method 3: Use Ribbon Menu Options for Subscript and Superscript PowerPoint Conversion
To simplify text conversion, you can add the Superscript and Subscript buttons to the Ribbon menu. To do this, right-click on the Ribbon menu and select Customize the Ribbon.
In the dialog box, select All Commands from the Choose Commands from the drop-down menu.
Since commands can be added only to custom groups, click New Group to create a custom group to add your menu buttons.
Name the group to proceed further. You can also pick a symbol for your custom group.
Select the desired command (e.g., Superscript), followed by your custom group, and click Add. Once both scripts have been added, select OK to close the dialog box.
The below image shows Superscript and Subscript icons added to a custom group in the PowerPoint Ribbon menu. To convert your text, highlight the text for conversion and click the Superscript or Subscript button.
Method 4: Insert PowerPoint Superscript and Subscript Icons
It is likely that you might not know the text to type to convert into superscript or subscript. In such a case, you can look for the required symbol to insert in PowerPoint.
Select the area to place the superscript or subscript and go to Insert > Symbols > Symbol.
Go to normal text from the Font drop-down menu and select Subscripts and Superscripts from the Subset drop-down menu.
Select the symbol you wish to use and click insert to add the symbol to the slide. Below is an example of a superscript symbol added to a PowerPoint slide.
Similarly, you can add subscript symbols to include in your slides.
Suppose you are familiar with how to add superscripts in PowerPoint. In that case, the first three methods should be a good option, especially keyboard shortcuts that are always good for productivity. However, if you aren’t sure what text to add to convert it into superscript or subscript, you can use the last method mentioned in our list to search and insert the required symbol.
