How to Do Subscript in Excel? | Step by Step Using Shortcut Key

How To Do Subscripts in Excel?

Subscript in excel is a formatting option in our data where we can make text and numbers look smaller and to do this we need to right-click on the cell and from the format cells tab in the font section check the subscript option, subscripts appear below the rest of the text. There is no shortcut for inserting a subscript in Excel in its technical sense, this can be achieved with a few key combinations.

Shortcut for Subscript in Excel

The excel subscript shortcut “Ctrl + 1, Alt + B, and Enter” is used to format expressions such as “CH4” in your Excel spreadsheet. It requires the use of subscripts to convert it in the proper format “CH₄”.

How to use This Excel Subscript Shortcut? (3 Easy Steps)

Please be careful not to click the keys at once, each key combination should be pressed and released in turn:

Step 1: Choose a character or more that you want to format.
Step 2: To Open the Format Cells dialog, press Ctrl + 1.
Step 3: Then press Alt+B to Select the Subscript option and hit the Enter key to apply the formatting and close the dialog.

Examples

Let’s understand the working of Subscript with the below examples. The subscript is very simple and easy to use. Subscript can be used in excel worksheet on any character/number and can be used in VBA.

You can download this Subscripts Excel Template here – Subscripts Excel Template

Example #1

You can apply the subscript by using the below two methods in any cell of excel sheet

Method 1:

Step 1: Double click on cell A2 and select the value “2”

Step 2: Then right-click, and select Format cells

Step 3: The Format Cells dialog box appears

Step 4: On the Font tab, under the Effect Checkmark on subscript then click on Ok

Step 5: Then it will convert the H2O to H₂O

Method 2:

The second method is to select a cell and the work directly in the formula bar.

Step 1: As before, carefully select the text you’d like to format. Then use Format Cells to apply subscript as you like.

Step 2: You can reverse or remove the subscript formatting by selecting the cell, the access Format Cells and clear the appropriate checkbox.

Example #2

In this example, we are applying the subscript to CH4.

Popular Course in this category

All in One Excel VBA Bundle (35 Courses with Projects)4.9 (1,353 ratings) 35+ Courses | 120+ Hours | Full Lifetime Access | Certificate of Completion

View Course

This time we are using the second method just select the “4” from formula bar then right-click and then click on Format cells

(Format Cells dialog box appears) then checkmark on Subscript that’s it.

Now the output will be CH_4.

Example #3

A subscript is also used to distinguish between different types of subatomic particles. Thus electron, muon, and tau neutrinos are denoted ν_e,ν_μ and ν_τ.

Let’s convert ve, Vu, and vτ to νe, νμ, and ντ in excel.

Open the Format Cells dialog by pressing Ctrl + 1 or right-click the selection and choose Format Cells.

In the Format Cells dialog box, go to the Font tab, and select Subscript under Effects.

Click OK to save the change and close the dialog

Example #4

You can also convert the whole cell text to subscript.

Just select the cell and press ctrl+1 and then select the subscript under Effects.

How to use a keyboard shortcut to convert the selected cell text to subscript at once.

Press Ctrl + Shift + F to open the format cell

Press ALT + B it will automatically select the subscript option under the Effects and hit enter then text for the selected cell will automatically be converted to the subscript.

this will result

Subscript using VBA Code

Suppose we have the text in the Sheet1 and in the D2 cell then apply the subscript by using the below VBA code.

Step 1: Go to the Developer tab and select Visual Basic Option

Step 2: Create a function with any name and apply the below code then run this macro to convert the D2 cell value to subscript.

Sub Subscripts ()

Range(“D2”).Characters(2, 1).Font.Subscript = True

MsgBox “D2 cell value in now in subscripts.”

End Sub

The result will be:

Things to Remember

Adding subscripts to Excel is usually a simple matter of a font setting, but you may run into limitations when adding subscripts to cells containing numbers or excel formulas. You can work around this limitation by converting your data to text before adding the subscripts.