Oct 14 2008

Essential PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

PowerPoint ninjas need to be agile and resourceful. Microsoft provides many different shortcuts to streamline repetitive tasks within PowerPoint 2007. Rather than overwhelm you with all of the shortcut key options, I’d like to focus on a lethal subset of key strokes that can significantly impact your PowerPoint productivity. If you don’t feel you need shortcuts, remember that slow, inefficient ninjas are dead ninjas.

Shortcuts for Building Presentations Notes
Ctrl + A: Select all objects
Ctrl + B: Bold
Ctrl + C: Copy
Ctrl + D: Duplicate Faster than copy + paste
Ctrl + G: Group selected objects Changed to more logical shortcut key in PPT 2007
Ctrl + Shift + G: Ungroup selected objects Changed to more logical shortcut key in PPT 2007
Ctrl + M: Add new slide
Ctrl + V: Paste
Ctrl + Alt + V: Paste Special New in PPT 2007 and a great addition
Ctrl + W: Close presentation Very handy in PPT 2007 due to the removal of the “Close window” option at the top-right
Ctrl + Y: Repeats last action (F4 does the same thing)
Ctrl + Z: Undo last change
Ctrl + Mouse wheel: Zoom in and out Great trick and not frequently listed in other shortcut key lists
Ctrl + ] : Increases font size
Ctrl + [ : Decreases font size
Ctrl + drag: Create a copy of an object
Shift + Left click: Select multiple objects
F5: View presentation from starting slide
Shift + F5: View presentation from current slide A recent find and a good one
Tab: Toggle through objects
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23 Responses to “Essential PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts”

  1. Ben says:

    Shift + F5: View presentation from current slide

  2. pptninja says:

    Thanks Ben. That is actually one that I wanted but didn’t know about. It will immediately be added to my PowerPoint shortcuts arsenal.

  3. zane says:

    hold down alt when dragging objects for fine scale placement

  4. pptninja says:

    Another related tip is to hold down the Shift key when you’re dragging objects and it will let you drag them in a straight line left/right or up/down.

  5. Clément says:

    For some one key shortcut, I always use F4 rather than CTRL+Y to repeat last action

  6. pptninja says:

    Great addition. Thanks Clement!

  7. Mary says:

    My paste special shortcut (Alt E S)is not working. It goes to Slide Design instead. I have to press Alt + E+ down arrow + S, which is really annoying. Any suggestions?

  8. pptninja says:

    Mary,

    Try Ctrl + Alt + V instead for “Paste Special” in PPT 2007.

  9. Angela says:

    Ctrl and D to duplicate an image, object or slide, depending on what is selected.

  10. pptninja says:

    Thanks Angela. I’ve never used that one before but I can see it could be very handy. I’ll add it to the list.

  11. Kobus says:

    While in a presentation, W gives you a white screen and B a black Screen. Useful while you are waiting for people to settle down or during a break.

  12. Mark Kimber says:

    I’m looking for a key combination to make drawing tools ‘sticky’ when selecting an autoshape so that you can draw a sequence of arrows for example without having to go back through the Draw menu or do ctrl C/ ctrl V and then drag shapes around

  13. Mark Kimber says:

    oh, and to give as well as get, sure you all know but ctrl+S does an instant Save, when you’re in a push and your battery goes you’ll be glad you did!

  14. Ryan Brewer says:

    One of my favorites for checking animations while reading my speaker notes is to hold Ctrl while clicking the “start slideshow” icon at bottom right. This starts your presentation in a “picture-in-picture” mode.

  15. Heidy says:

    I am trying to move my graphs using the arrow keys. I usually hold down “shift” to nudge it just a bit. It does not work in 2010. When I hold down Shift, it just moves to the objects within the graph. What can I do to nudge up and down just a bit

    • pptninja says:

      Here’s the trick. Left-click on the graph while holding the CTRL key. Then you’ll either want to move the graph with arrow keys or hold down the CTRL key while using the arrow keys to nudge it in smaller increments.

  16. Heidy says:

    You are definitely a Ninja in PowerPoint. Thank you so much!

  17. Heidy says:

    reply on I’m looking for a key combination to make drawing tools ‘sticky’ when selecting an autoshape so that you can draw a sequence of arrows for example without having to go back through the Draw menu or do ctrl C/ ctrl V and then drag shapes around””
    In the older versions of PPT all you need to do is double click the autoshape. In the 2010, righ lick the shape, select lock drawing

  18. Jonathan says:

    Great site. Do you know how to zoom in and out without using the mouse? The one I’ve found to be the most helpful in 2010 has been to single press ‘alt’. it brings up a set of tooltips with corresponding letters you can press to highlight anything in the ribbon. Some have further levels of keyboard shortcuts available.

    To compensate for the mouse (I am using that shortcut for something else), I’ve been hitting Alt>W>Q (for the zoom menu), and then Alt>W>F to enter full screen.

    • pptninja says:

      I only use the Ctrl key + mouse wheel for zooming in and out. It works really well for me so I haven’t needed to find an alternative method.

      PPT Ninja

  19. miguel klurfan says:

    is there any equivalent in mac or CTR+SHITF (and then draguin the object) to copy objects and keep them aligned?

  20. batra somesh says:

    Hi!

    This is a nice article. Thank for sharing your knowledge. There are some other links related to shortcuts keys, that’s very useful for developers.

    http://www.mindstick.com/Articles/44c59688-5f26-4196-a51d-c29121ec7402/?Power%20Point%202007%20Shortcut%20Keys
    http://www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/PowerPoint_2007.html

    you can get the more links related to shortcut keys such as Windows 8, Menu, Powerpoint, Adobe Photoshop, Excel, Access etc.

    http://www.mindstick.com/BlogList.aspx?Cat=54
    http://www.mindstick.com/DevelopersSection.aspx?Cat=54

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