Google Docs Equation
Editor
Unofficial Shortcuts List /
Cheat Sheet
If you ever found yourself trying to figure out shortcuts while using the Google Docs equation editor, this page
might be helpful.
The Google Docs equation editor is based on the LaTeX syntax, but LaTeX is much more complex, so if you
aren't familiar with LaTeX, it isn't exactly easy to try and find working shortcuts.
I made this page when I discovered that the shortcuts are actually in the editor code (as an aria-label
attribute on the buttons themselves), but aren't really available in an easy-to-search manner as far as I could
find. I am not in any way affiliated with Google.
If you are looking for special characters or symbols that are not listed here, you can go to Insert → Special
characters from the Google Docs toolbar and search by name.
Other people have since contributed to this list. See GitHub issues for a list of contributed elements.
Quick jump :
Greek letters
Miscellaneous operations
Relations
Maths operations
Arrows
Unlisted
Greek letters
Element Shortcut
\alpha
\beta
\gamma
\delta
\epsilon
\varepsilon
\zeta
\eta
\theta
\vartheta
\iota
\kappa
\lambda
\mu
\nu
\xi
\pi
\varpi
\rho
\varrho
\sigma
\varsigma
\tau
\upsilon
\phi
\varphi
\chi
\psi
\omega
\Gamma
\Delta
\Theta
\Lambda
\Xi
\Pi
\Sigma
\Upsilon
\Phi
\Psi
\Omega
Miscellaneous operations
Element Shortcut
\times
\div
\cdot
\pm
\mp
\ast
\star
\circ
\bullet
\oplus
\ominus
\oslash
\otimes
\odot
\dagger
\ddagger
\vee
\wedge
\cap
\cup
\aleph
\Re
\Im
\top
\bot
\infty
\partial
\forall
\exists
\neg
\triangle
\diamond
Relations
Element Shortcut
\leq
\geq
\prec
\succ
\preceq
\succeq
\ll
\gg
\equiv
\sim
\simeq
\asymp
\approx
\ne
\subset
\supset
\subseteq
\supseteq
\in
\ni
\notin
Maths operations
Element Shortcut
\frac
\sqrt
\rootof
\subsuperscript
\subscript or _
\superscript or ^
\overline
\widehat
\bigcapab
\bigcupab
\prodab
\coprodab
\rbracelr
\sbracelr
\bracelr
\abs
\int or \intab
\oint or \ointab
\sum or \sumab
\lim or \limab
Arrows
Element Shortcut
\leftarrow
\rightarrow
\leftrightarrow
\Leftarrow
\Rightarrow
\Leftrightarrow
\uparrow
\downarrow
\updownarrow
\Uparrow
\Downarrow
\Updownarrow
Unlisted
Those aren't in the menus, but they work! If anything is missing, feel free to contribute on GitHub.
Operations
Element Shortcut
Binomial distribution \choose or \binom
Hat symbol (^) above element \hat
Vector symbol(→) above element \vec
Maximum \max
Minimum \min
Symbols
Element Shortcut
Del / Nabla symbol \nabla
Angle symbol \angle
Keywords
Element Shortcut
Logarithm \log
Natural logarithm \ln
Exponent \exp
Trigonometry functions \sin , \arcsin , \cos , \arccos , \tan , \arctan ,
\csc , \sec , \cot
Legal note : some CSS and images were taken from Google Docs in order to build this page. No copyright
infringement intended.
If this is a problem, please let me know on GitHub.
Created in February 2017. Last updated in May 2020.
