How to Type Chemical Equations in Microsoft Office Word

1. Open a new document in Microsoft Word. Type a heading appropriate to the assignment.
2. Complete a balanced chemical equation on a sheet of paper. Chemistry homework assignments generally provide an unbalanced equation that needs to be balanced. Go through each element from left to right to verify that the same quantity appears on both sides of the equal sign. Add the appropriate coefficients to elements on the right side of the equation to balance.
3. Type a balanced chemical equation in Microsoft Word using capital letters and numbers. For example, the chemical equation for the creation of two water molecules should be written as 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O.
4. Refer to your handwritten equation to determine the numbers that describe the atom count. These numbers must be changed to subscript so they sit lower than the rest of the equation.
5. Highlight the atom counts with your cursor. If there are multiple atom counts in the equations, hold the 'Ctrl' key as you highlight each character. Do not highlight coefficient numbers.
6. Select 'Fonts' from the Home tab. Click 'Subscript' to change the highlighted portion of the equation to subscript font.