With a document open in Writer, type the text normally, including any inserted symbols.
Then select any adjacent characters that you want to be positioned differently (super- or sub-). Use the Format | Character ... selection from the menu bar. On the Character dialog, select the "Position" tab. The superscript, subscript, and other positioning selections are there. If you are need more complicated formulas (such as exponentionals with exponentials as exponents) you'll need to use the Math editor via Insert | Object | Formula. This will be more complicated. I'm sorry to confess that I don't know how these work via assistive technologies. - Dennis -----Original Message----- From: Theoderik Orbus [mailto:theode...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 11:57 To: dev@openoffice.apache.org Subject: typing formulae in writer I am visually disable. I just spent about 3/4 of an our on the web site attempting to find an answer to what I think is a simple question. I have not been able to find instructions in OO or on the web site (or anywhere else) on how to write subscripts and superscripts for chemical and mathematical formulae in OO Writer. I have to say the search was exceedingly painful, physically, and accomplished nothing. The only reason I have this e-mail address is it was given to me off line. What I have tried is going to the "Insert" then "Special Characters" then "Subscripts and superscripts" and finding none of the numbers i need to use. I have seen formulae that were imported from other word processors displayed correctly, but i have been unable to compose them correctly in OO Writer. if there is an instruction on how to do this, could you please place it somewhere where it can be found? thank you for your time.