Enter chemical expressions from your keyboard

Updated 17 Sep 2025

Although chemical formula answers are primarily authored using ChemTeX, you can also use the following keystrokes to enter specially formatted characters or symbols for text boxes in the chemical formula or expression answer type.

Students can use these same keystrokes to answer chemical formula questions on a computer. Otherwise they can use the toolbar options above the answer box for this answer type.

For this format Type this from your keyboard
""

(subscript) 		_ (underbar)
""

(superscript)		 ^
stacked subscript/superscript (for isotope) \stack

 

For this chemical symbol Type this from your keyboard
reaction arrow -> or -->

(\-> and \--> also work.)
equilibrium arrow symbol \= or \eq

 

For this character or format Type this from your keyboard
+ (plus sign)
+
-
- (hyphen)
""

(fraction)

 /
""
(multiplication dot)
 * (asterisk)

 

Although students must enter the backslash (\) character before these terms in their typed responses, you don't need to enter the backslash when working in answer boxes for the chemical formula or expression answer type in the Simple Editor.

For this letter Enter this from your keyboard
Greek character for alpha alpha
Greek character for beta beta
Greek character gamma gamma
Greek character nu nu

 

For this format Type this from your keyboard
bar \bar

 

When you enter the first part, it displays in red until you close the expression.

For these characters Type this from your keyboard
( ) (parentheses) ( )
[ ] (square brackets) [ ]

 

 

To move the cursor within the answer: Use keyboard arrow keys (, , , ).