Create easy access to the subscript and superscript font effects

Applying the subscript and superscript font effect can be tedious if you do it often. After selecting the text, you click the Font group’s dialog launcher and check the appropriate effect. Office 2003 users must choose Font from the Format menu. It’s not hard, but some users will appreciate the built-in keyboard shortcuts for both:

• The keyboard shortcut for _subscript is [Ctrl]+=
• The keyboard shortcut for ^superscript is [Ctrl]+[Shift]+=

Keyboard shortcuts might be more efficient for some users, but if users apply one or both of these effects often, you can add either or both to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), as follows:

1. From the QAT dropdown, choose More Commands.
2. From Word’s Choose Commands From dropdown, choose Popular Commands. In PowerPoint 2010, choose Commands Not In Ribbon. (You can’t do this in Excel.)
3. Choose Home tab.
4. In the resulting Home tab list, highlight Subscript (or Superscript) and click Add.
5. Click OK and Office adds the font effect to the QAT.

If you’re using Word or PowerPoint 2003, you can add the effect to the toolbar as follows:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Click the Commands tab.
3. In the Categories list, choose Format.
4. From the resulting Commands list, drag Subscript (or Superscript) to the toolbar and release it.

Thanks to reader, Lynda Sanders for prompting this quick tip!