Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Replacing with a Subscript.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 16, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Arie needs to replace one name with another for several thousand occasions in hundreds of documents. The new name has a subscript character in it, like 'TO2', where the '2' is in subscript. Arie notes that it doesn't seem possible to put this into the standard Find and Replace function in Word, but doesn't look forward to doing the replacements by hand.
Actually, there are a couple of ways you can approach this issue; you should pick the one that is easiest to remember and that fits best with the way you normally work.
The first approach is to do a two-step replacement. Replace the original text with something like "TO++2++". The idea is to make sure that you surround the "2" (the part that will eventually be subscripted) with a sequence of characters that won't be elsewhere in your document. Then, do a replace operation search for "++2++" and replace it with a subscripted "2".
The second approach is easier still; it allows you to do the replacement in a single pass. Follow these general steps:
Word dutifully replaces the original text with the properly formatted TO2 text.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3837) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Replacing with a Subscript.
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2022-04-23 02:46:06
Humanearthlin
This is genius, thank you!
2022-04-15 14:51:53
Anonymous
Allen, you are my god. My thesis and my carpal tunnel thanks you.
2021-05-17 20:45:21
Basis
This is great! Very useful.
How does one type "^c" on the Mac?
2021-03-16 09:54:41
Kian
You are a champion, Allen :-)
I owe you at least 2 hours
2020-12-26 23:59:56
Rishi
Thank you for this excellent tip! You saved my day! :)
2020-10-01 22:37:13
Brandon
Thank you! This worked perfectly for replacing improperly-formatted chemical formulas.
2020-06-27 12:31:03
Catherine
Wow, thank you for such a great tip! I wasn't looking forward to manually replacing all mention of CO2 with the correctly formatted version!
2020-06-04 04:47:41
Allen ... a brilliant solution .. much appreciated by an Australia Chemistry instructor.
Just replaced 171 instances of "CO2" to the proper subscripted "2".
Cheers & Thanks !
2020-05-11 12:46:30
Ed Harper
This doesn't work. I'm trying to replace CO2 with the proper way of writing it, but it's not doing it. It says it's made the replacements but it hasn't.
2020-04-12 13:38:42
Syme
BLESS YOU this is amazing
2020-04-05 23:43:28
Raja Setlur
Got my first tip from you today! Thank you sir!
2019-11-10 07:39:26
LA
Very helpful. Thanks.
2019-07-28 23:14:35
Guntar
Briliiant Tips! Thank you verymuch, Sir!
2019-05-29 18:48:44
ctrl H and ^c worked great! thank you
2019-02-27 05:45:40
Ann
Thank you SO MUCH. You saved me!!!
2019-02-07 19:45:15
All I can say is, I love you.
2018-11-03 12:36:46
Lawrence
Greatest-tip-ever! Genius!
2018-10-20 04:23:09
Nina Frantzen
I would like to do just the reverse of this... I would like to replace all of the superscripted numbers in my document with something else (namely, a space).
I ried the ^c in the find field, and it does not work.
Thank you for your help!
2018-09-03 16:24:07
Vincent
You saved me hours, thanks a lot!
2018-01-31 17:03:49
Kala
THANK YOU!
2018-01-08 01:38:29
Henry
So useful ! It helped with my thesis writing .. over 100+ words to be replaced with the chemical name subscript ! Thx dude ...great help there ;)
2017-12-13 12:22:29
John
Thank you very much for your help. You saved me loads of time.
2017-12-07 15:11:59
Evangelia
Dear Sir,
Thank you very much for your advice for "Replacing with a Subscript". Valuable help!
2017-11-29 03:45:34
YaYa
Perfect. Just don´t do the same mistake as me - copy the properly formatted text, then the open search box and copy the command into replace (overwriting the clipboard) :) But in the end, I found out what I was doing wrong.
2017-03-01 14:58:33
dev
Dear Sir
Thank you so much!! You have no idea how grateful I shall always be to you for the help. I was struggling with editing in my thesis.
2016-06-10 11:52:10
Joe
I was about to rip my own head off trying to search and replace 4 different 90 page experimental scripts to include a degrees sign (superscripted white circle). You probably just saved me an entire day of clicking and typing single characters at a time... thank you so much!!!
2016-05-19 13:46:17
Rebecca
THANK YOU!!!!! You just saved me so much time!
2016-01-21 20:55:31
Ganesh Rajasekharan
Awsome!!!
This technique really helped me in searching and replacing a single word with multiple line content
Great and thank you so much to the author
2015-10-19 12:21:06
Sola
If I could give you a hug right now, I would. Thank you so much! You saved me some much time and energy.
2015-08-09 09:59:54
Suslik
Thank you very very much, it is extremely helpful!!!
2015-06-03 01:54:45
Jasmine
2 words 4 u: life savior!
2015-05-05 12:03:20
thank you
fantastic, thanks so much
2015-04-04 04:23:38
Shahrzad Fathollahipour
You can't imagine how much you helped me with your solution. Really thanks and wish you good luck :)
2015-02-23 03:14:42
Buzzed Aldrin
OUT.STAND.ING tip. So simple yet I had no awareness of the ^c replace-with-clipboard functionality (and would not have assumed formatting would be retained through the Find/Replace dialog), just XLNT!
2014-11-29 06:50:30
M. D.
Tank you so much!
This saved me several hours of midless work.
2014-11-17 21:50:41
edwin thein
Great tip!
Wonder if there is a special symbol function e.g. ^p or some other ^ command for subscript and superscripts
2014-05-26 03:39:55
Michele
Thank you for this useful tip!
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here:
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