How to write a fraction in Word

How to write a fraction in Word: While editing text, there are times when you need to type fractions in Word to enter fraction formulas for mathematical, physical, or chemical expressions. But not all users know how to make a fraction in Word.

In Word documents, not only plain text and numbers are used, formulas and symbols are also written there. A fraction in the Word is often used in materials devoted to mathematics, medicine, sports, science, photography, technology, or even cooking, for example, when it is necessary to designate some value as part of a whole.

We were all taught in school how to write fractions by hand and how to apply them in real life. But how to write them in digital form, how to write a fraction in Word?

Microsoft Word is the most popular word processor used in various fields. Therefore, it makes sense for many users to learn how to enter fraction formulas in Word.

Using fractions in Word

As a rule, fractions are parts of a whole. We use fractions to represent data in more readable forms.

Use a few rules to help you decide when to use fractions:

• If you need to represent a fraction instead of the decimal form of some numbers, like ½ instead of 0.5.
• You are working on a document that includes dimension details. An example of this is text with a recipe where the quantities of the ingredients are in proportions.

These are some of the most common cases where fractions work best. Before using them in a particular document, you must determine if this format is really suitable for your content.

Usually, two types of display of fractions are used in documents: ordinary fractions in Word with a horizontal line between numbers (vertical division), and fractions with a slash (slash) that separates numbers (horizontal division). These are simple vertical and simple diagonal fractions.

In this guide, we will look at several methods on how to write a fraction in Word:

• Enter fractions as plain text on one line.
• Using preformatted fraction symbols.
• Create a fraction using the fraction division slash symbol.
• Using the Equation tool to create a custom fraction.

We’ll look at how each of these approaches works below. From the instructions in this article, you will learn how to insert a fraction in Word in several ways.

How to write a fraction horizontally in Word

The easiest way to write fractions in Microsoft Word is to simply use a slash between the numerator and denominator, that is, between the two numbers that make up the fraction. Thus, you simply use the syntactic “numerator, fraction bar in Word (/), denominator”, for example, 1/3, 2/3 as a representation of the fraction in the text content of the document.

Although this is an effective method that most users understand, such expressions are not strictly fractions because they are spelled incorrectly.

In this image, the fraction on the left is mistyped and the one on the right is mistyped.

Depending on the program settings, Word often automatically corrects the spelling of fractions, so if you type 1/2, 1/4, 3/4, the application will automatically replace them with ½, ¼, ¾ from the insert character table.

If it doesn’t, you can enable this setting in the following way:

1. Go to the “File” menu by clicking “Options”.
2. In the Options window, open the Spelling tab.
3. Click the “AutoCorrect Options…” button.
4. In the AutoCorrect window, on the AutoFormat As You Type tab, check the box next to Fractions (1/2) with appropriate characters, and then click OK.

Note that this function only works for fractions that are in the caret symbol table.

After entering the expression, press the “Space” key, and the autocorrect for the correct type of fraction immediately takes place.

How to print a fraction in Word using symbols

Not all characters in MS Word are used for the auto-replace feature, for example, 1/3, 2/3, 1/5 will not turn into proper fractions. Therefore, you will need to convert such expressions into fractions manually.

Do the following:

1. Open the “Insert” tab, and in the “Symbols” group, click on the “Symbol” button.
2. Select “More Symbols” from the drop-down menu.
3. In the “Symbol” window, in the “Symbols” tab in the “Set:” field, select the “numeric characters” option.
4. Here you will find some simple fractions ready for insertion.

5. You need to click on the appropriate symbol and then close the symbol table.
6. After performing this operation, the selected fraction sign will appear in the Word.

How to put a fraction in Word using code

You can insert fractions into a Word document using a special character code from Unicode. The standard includes 19 characters that can be used to write fractions in a Word document.

Unicode Fraction Integral Character Table.

¼	00BC
½	00BD
¾	00BE
⅐	2150
⅑	2151
⅒	2152
⅓	2153
⅔	2154
⅕	2155
⅖	2156
⅗	2157
⅘	2158
⅙	2159
⅚	215A
⅛	215B
⅜	215C
⅝	215D
⅞	215E
↉	2189

You will need to first enter the corresponding character code, consisting of numbers, and then, without indenting, press the key combination “Alt” + “X”. After that, the inserted characters will turn into the corresponding fraction.

How to insert a fraction in Word horizontally using the equation box

Now we will look at a universal way to create a simple fraction using special fields. We will use the EQ field (Equation – equation) using the \f switch. This method creates a fraction with a horizontal bar between the numerator and denominator.

Do the following:

1. Place the mouse cursor where you want to insert the fraction.
2. Press the “Ctrl” + “F9” keys to insert curly braces. On some laptops, you need to press “Ctrl” + “Fn” + “F9”.
3. In curly brackets, enter the following formula:

eq \f(numerator; denominator)

The EQ field creates a mathematical equation, followed by a space, then a function is output with the numerator and denominator separated by a semicolon.

You should get the following expression:

{ eq \f(numerator; denominator) }

4. Press the “F9” key (“Fn” + “F9”) to update the field.
5. As a result, you will get a fraction with the numerator and denominator separated by a horizontal division line.

Note that you are not limited to just the numbers in the numerator and denominator, if you want to create fractions using words you can do that too. Type words instead of numbers, or use both in combination.

How to make fractions in Word using superscript and subscript characters

Now we will look at one of the ways to write custom fractions using superscript and subscript characters. With this method, by properly formatting the numbers before and after the slash, you get an almost real fraction, like ⁵ ∕ ₆ , ⁸ ∕ ₉ .

Do the following:

1. Type the numbers as a fraction separated by a slash at the selected location in the document.
2. Select the first number (numerator).
3. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Superscript icon to convert this number to a superscript.
4. Select the second number (denominator) after the slash.
5. Click the Subscript icon to convert a number to a subscript.

How to make a fraction in Word using the “Equation” function

Now you will learn how to write a formula with a fraction in Word. Microsoft Word has an Equation tool that includes the ability to create a custom fraction that is separate from the rest of the text in the document.

Go through the steps:

1. Go to the “Insert” tab.
2. In the Symbols group, click the Equation icon.
3. The Equation tab opens.
4. In the “Structures” group, click on “Fraction”.
5. Choose the right shot design.

In the field that appears, add the numerator and denominator, and then left-click to remove the borders.

This option is suitable if you are using a fraction as part of an equation or if you place it separately from the main text in your document. However, in other cases, the equation boxes don’t always blend well with the surrounding text.

Inserting a fraction using a text box

In some cases, you need to insert a fraction at a specific location in a Word document, and not just in the center, right, or left. To do this, use the text field function.

Do the following:

1. Open the “Insert” tab.
2. In the “Text” group, click on the “Text Box” icon (In Word 2010, Word 2007 – “Inscription”).
3. Select “Simple Lettering”.
4. A text box frame appears on the document page from which you want to remove the selected content.
5. In the “Symbols” group, click on the “Equation” button to insert a suitable fraction into the text box.
6. Drag the frame to the desired location in the Word document.

Article Conclusions

In the process of typing in MS Word, the user may need to type fractions that can be used in documents of various kinds. You can use several methods to insert fractions into a Word document: using the AutoCorrect feature, inserting symbols, entering character codes, using special fields, or using the equation function.