If you need to raise characters above or lower them below the baseline, you can do it one of four ways. This is typically used in mathematical equations and chemical formulas. You can use the baseline adjustments in many apps, special superscript and subscript characters, commonly-recognized symbols, and the equation editor in Pages.
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Related Subjects: Pages (208 videos), TextEdit (26 videos)
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Comments: 7 Responses to “4 Ways To Type Superscript and Subscript On a Mac”
Paul Lind
5 years ago
Can this method be used in writing music notes i.e. B(#) sharp or D(d) flat. ?
Paul: Yes, if you want to simply use the hashtag # symbol and lowercase B for sharps and flats and then adjust their baseline. But I think people prefer to use the specific flat and sharp characters for those. Control+Command+Space and search for flat or sharp to see those.
Bruce
5 years ago
Microsoft Office & OpenOffice have a Format->Font->super/subscript option that raises/lowers the baseline and reduces the size in one step (your method 1, without bold however). The appearance is not as nice as dedicated superscript characters. And when copy/pasting into other apps the results are not ideal. I use superscript for citations in technical docs and it works okay for that, but the dedicated superscript numerals look much nicer. Thanks²
Bob
5 years ago
Thank^you
I tried to insert the 'pages' version,
but this field wouldn't accept it.
Norm: On iOS, in Pages, you can select text, tap the paintbrush tool, then tap the three dots next to B/I/U and adjust the baseline there. You can also tap + and choose to Insert an equation.
Can this method be used in writing music notes i.e. B(#) sharp or D(d) flat. ?
Paul: Yes, if you want to simply use the hashtag # symbol and lowercase B for sharps and flats and then adjust their baseline. But I think people prefer to use the specific flat and sharp characters for those. Control+Command+Space and search for flat or sharp to see those.
Microsoft Office & OpenOffice have a Format->Font->super/subscript option that raises/lowers the baseline and reduces the size in one step (your method 1, without bold however). The appearance is not as nice as dedicated superscript characters. And when copy/pasting into other apps the results are not ideal. I use superscript for citations in technical docs and it works okay for that, but the dedicated superscript numerals look much nicer. Thanks²
Thank^you
I tried to insert the 'pages' version,
but this field wouldn't accept it.
Bob: Yeah, web forms typically won't take images mixed with text.
Help for the same subject in iOS
Norm: On iOS, in Pages, you can select text, tap the paintbrush tool, then tap the three dots next to B/I/U and adjust the baseline there. You can also tap + and choose to Insert an equation.