Skip to content

Make your own fractions in Word and Outlook

There’s an easy way to make a good looking symbol for any fraction, no matter how unusual it might be.

There are symbols and shortcuts for common fractions but beyond that you need a little Word trickery. But not very tricky because all you need is on the Home tab.

Superscript then Subscript

Use a combination of

  • Subscript – Ctrl + =  for the denominator (bottom bit)
  • Superscript – Ctrl + Shift + + for the numerator (top bit)

to create your own.

Both formatting buttons are on Home | Font | then Subscript or Superscript.

Type the fraction as standard text in the font and formatting you want like this using three different fonts (Calibri, Times New Roman and Courier New)

Then select the top number/numerator and apply Superscript formatting

Leave the / slash as standard text. Finally, select the bottom number or denominator and choose Subscript.

You might want to play with the formatting a little. In the last example (347 etc in Courier New) we used Font properties | Advanced | Spacing to compress the characters by 1.5pt.

Add to AutoCorrect

If you use that fraction often, copy it into an AutoCorrect entry.

For example, for the fraction 1/16 we have used Superscript for 1, followed by a forward slash, then subscript for the 16 (1/16). Once you’ve made the fraction using the combination of both scripts, highlight it and copy (make sure it remains highlighted), then go to File | Options | Proofing | Autocorrect Options.

Make sure that the with section is under Formatted text.

Now press add and you can then test it out for yourself in the document!

Typing some simple fractions automatically in Word and Outlook
Typing common fractions in Word and Outlook
Stacked or vertical fractions with Equation Editor in Word

About this author