How to quickly type a chemical formula in Word 2007 or 2010

If you are working in science fields, especially as a chemist or biologist, then you are likely to have documents that are created with many chemical formula in it. How do you type a chemical formula such as H2SO4 which the chemical formula of sulphuric acid? Beginner Word users will type that normally and do formatting for number 2 and 4 using subscript button so that the formula is typed correctly. But, this is not quite practical when you have to type them such chemical formulas many times. You may copy and paste the one you have typed, but that is not recommended, either.

There is a practical and quick way to do this task. With this, you do not have to manually format each chemical formula you type because it will be done automatically and correctly. Here, people use autocorrect function. Follow below steps how to do it:

1. Type the first chemical formula (such as H2SO4) and format it manually as should be.
2. Highlight that formatted chemical formula and click Office button (on the most upper left corner on your Word window) to select Word Option in Word 2007 (in Word 2010, this is under File)

3. Click Proofing and the Autocorrect button to display its window
4. In that window, type H2SO4 in the box under Replace and tick Formatted text.

5. Click Add.
6. Click Ok

Now the formatted H2SO4 is saved in autocorrect function. Now type another H2SO4 and press spacebar.

Posted in: Autocorrect