How to Make an Exponent on Excel

Insert Exponent into Formula
1. Open the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains the formula where you want to add an exponent.
2. Click on the cell that contains your formula. The formula will appear in the bar above the Excel spreadsheet. Click on this bar and place your cursor where you want to add the exponential number.
3. Enter the following into the formula bar, without quotes: 'power(x,y)' where 'x' is the desired number and 'y' is the exponent. If needed, you can wrap the entire 'power' function in parentheses. Additionally, you can write this in shorthand as 'x^y', without quotes.
Have Numbers Display as Exponents
4. Open your Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet where you want to make your numbers display as exponents.
5. Click the top-left cell of the area that you want to change, then hold shift and select the bottom-right cell of that area. If you want to change the entire spreadsheet, you can just click the small box that sits above the '1' and to the left of the 'A' in the top-left corner of the spreadsheet.
6. Right-click anywhere on the selected cells. Choose 'Format Cells' from the pop-up menu.
7. Click on 'Scientific' from the list on the left side of the Format Cells window. On the right side of the window, click the up and down arrows to determine how many decimal places you want to display, then click 'OK.' Excel will now display numbers in those cells like '1.25E 02,' which is the same as '1.25^2' or '125.'