Typing Math and Science Symbols

Thanks to the text replacement feature in iOS and OS X, you can make shortcuts that automatically replace specified characters with symbols of your choosing. This makes it easy to type math and science symbols, subscripts, and superscripts in Notability.

Making Text Shortcuts on iOS

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap "General".
  3. Tap "Keyboard".
  4. Tap "Text Replacement".
  5. Tap "+" in the top right corner of the screen.
  6. In the Phrase row, type or paste your desired symbol, such as "²".
  7. In the Shortcut row, type or paste your desired shortcut, such as "^2".
  8. Tap Save in the top right corner of the screen.

Making Text Shortcuts on OS X

  1. Open System Preference.
  2. Click "Keyboard".
  3. Click "Text".
  4. Click "+" near the bottom left corner of the window.
  5. In the Replace column, type your desired shortcut, such as "^2".
  6. In the With column, type or paste your desired symbol, such as "²".

Helpful Tips

  • If your devices are synced through iCloud Drive, any text replacement shortcuts you make on one device will be available on all of your devices.
  • On a Mac, you can export text replacement shortcuts as follows:
  1. In System Preference's "Replace / With" box, shift-click the shortcuts you wish to export, or use the command+a keyboard shortcut to select all of your shortcuts.
  2. Click-and-drag your selected shortcuts from the "Replace / With" box to your desktop.
  3. This will create a file named "Text Substitutions.plist", which will contain your text replacement shortcuts.
  • On a Mac, you can import text replacement shortcuts as follows:
    1. Click-and-drag a ".plist" file (like the "superscript.plist" file on this page) into System Preference's "Replace / With" box.
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