I teach chemistry and am trying to type symbolic notation for specific
isotopes. I need to show the mass number as a superscript and the atomic
number as a subscript directly in front of the symbol for the element.

Two ways come to mind:
1. Use an { EQ \o (atomicnumber,massnumber) } field. To do
this, type the field text shown between the curly braces (but not
the curly braces themselves), manually subscript the atomicnumber
and superscript the massnumber, highlight the field text, press
Ctrl+F9, and press Alt+F9 twice.
2. Insert an Equation Editor object. To do this, click on
Insert | Object | Microsoft Equation 3.0. There are several
ready-made subscript/superscript templates for what you want to do.

You can save the EQ fields or equation objects as AutoText or
AutoCorrect entries to make them easier to insert into the text.

mkilroy wrote:

I teach chemistry and am trying to type symbolic notation for specific
isotopes. I need to show the mass number as a superscript and the atomic
number as a subscript directly in front of the symbol for the element.