How can I type exponents in Mail?

Labljefe wrote:

I'm sending a reply to a friend's email, and I want to inner "I squared" as "I" with the "2" as a superscript. I don't have a TextEdit document available. Nor does the Mail window offer the Font selection in the Format dropdown. I would like to be able to write algebraic formulas in an email message without going to Pages or MS Word and then copy and paste into the email body, having to deal with matching fonts and type size.

Hmmm...

The Control Command Spacebar for opening the Character Viewer works in Mail like anywhere else(?) browser, Textedit.app etc.

Control Command Spacebar is the key short cut

How to use emoji, accents, and symbols on your Mac - Apple ...

From the Character View you can>Digits

example 5 squared 5²

Shift Command Spacebar is the key short cut

How to use emoji, accents, and symbols on your Mac - Apple ...

And if it is something you use all the time, from

>System Preferences>Keyboard>Text

two examples here:

Replace text and punctuation in documents on Mac - Apple ...

Labljefe wrote:

Control Command Spacebar does not open the Character Viewer. I opens the emoji, symbols, pictures, flags, etc. I don't want to have to open MS Word or Pictures to get to a menu that allows me to type (insert) superscripts or subscripts. Help available?

I do not have MS Word. Pictures I am not sure what you are referring to.

Non-the-less, emoji is just one choice on the side bar of the Character Viewer

If Control Command Spacebar, this is what I see:

if it does not work for you, then try

To trouble shoot further you can:

  —Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

  Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache,  etc.  Login and test. Reboot and test as caches get rebuilt.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a  reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode. 

 —Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

  This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

If you are still having issues

Call Customer Support  (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753) 

When you are uncertain what manner of superscript (or subscript) character you may need, it can be useful to have a blank TextEdit (rich text) document open, and select the character that you want to promote to superscript, and then choose Format menu : Font : Baseline : Superscript. Now copy to the clipboard, the adjoining character, or word, and the new superscript, then paste into your Mail compose window. This survives email delivery between two different Mail ISP.

You will not be able to type in equations in Apple Mail compose without a great deal of frustration using alternative sources for the equation building.

If you are on a Mac, you have TextEdit, and all you need to do is open a new document, and use the steps I mentioned previously. The Pages equation editor outputs an embedded MathML object that copies and pastes into Apple Mail as a PDF attachment.

Five squared = 5^2