(Credit: Microsoft)
From the Ribbon’s Insert tab, choose Equation (or, in Windows, type Alt-=; on a Mac, Ctrl-=), and start typing your equation, using standard notation. When you press Enter, a string like ^2 will be converted to a superscript 2. You can also insert commonly used equations from a menu, select non-alphanumeric signs from an extensive menu, and save your equation to a gallery so that you can insert it into other documents. Some years ago, Microsoft devoted a lot of effort and expertise to Word’s math typography, and it’s now probably the most elegant math typography available anywhere.