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I want to put some short words in certain subscripts when I am in math mode, for example:

\[W_{total} = \sum{W_i}\]

but I think LaTeX understands this as the product of t, o, t, a and l.

Is in any case this way the right way, or is there any other one?

By the way, I have tried

\[W_{\text{total}}\]

but it is not fine for me. (A bit ugly) Forget that.

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    Could you elaborate why you find it ugly.
    – Caramdir
    Jan 23, 2011 at 16:59
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    @Caramdir bah, I made a mistake. Forget that
    – astrojuanlu
    Jan 23, 2011 at 21:31

1 Answer 1

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What you have tried is the right way. You can simplify it slightly and play with other fonts:

$$ W_\textrm{total} = \sum_i W_i $$

To make it prettier I'd suggest to think about the use of variables and indices in your work. For example, you could reserve W (without index) for the total which is the sum of w_i (lowercase w). This way you can avoid long subscripts.

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    As this is a LaTeX question, stick with \[ ... \] rather than $$ ... $$. Also, I'd recommend W_{\textrm{total}} with braces around the subscript text.
    – Joseph Wright ♦
    Jan 23, 2011 at 18:01
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    Thank you for your answer; your suggestion about subscripts was useful too :) By the way, is there any difference between \textrm and \text?
    – astrojuanlu
    Jan 23, 2011 at 21:34
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    @Juan Yes, \textrm make the text whatever is defined as the serifed text font. \text respects the local text environment. So \sffamily $W_\text{total}$ will give you a sans serifed subscript, while \sffamily $W_\textrm{total}$ will still give you a serifed subscript.
    – Alan Munn
    Jan 23, 2011 at 21:44

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