Supercharge your Presentation Skills and Save Time with these PowerPoint Shortcuts

For many people, creating a successful PowerPoint presentation can be quite time-consuming. The good news is, Microsoft PowerPoint offers numerous features including shortcuts to help you save valuable time.

Below we showcase some of the most useful PowerPoint shortcuts to make your creation process more efficient and stress free.

7 Handy PowerPoint Shortcuts

1. Basic Text Formatting

Below are some handy shortcuts to help you with formatting text in your slides.

a. To make your text bold or italic, select the text and press Ctrl + B for bold or Ctrl + I for italics.

b. If you would like to quickly underline your text, your select the text and simply press Ctrl + U.

c. To increase or decrease font size, select the text and use Ctrl + Shift + > (greater than) or Ctrl +
Shift + < (less than).

2. Copy, Cut and Paste

Use the shortcuts below to help you with copying, cutting, and pasting elements within your slides.

a. Select the object or text you want to copy, then press Ctrl + C, then paste it elsewhere with Ctrl + V.

b. To remove and copy an element at the same time, select it and use Ctrl + X.

c. After copying or cutting, use Ctrl + V to paste your element in the required location.

3. Slide Navigation

To make navigating through your slides much easier, try these shortcuts below.

a. Move forward to your next slide with the Page Down key.

b. To go back up to the previous slide, use the Page Up key.

c. To rearrange your slides with ease Press Ctrl + S to enter the Slide Sorter view.

4. Distribution and Alignment of Objects

To align all your objects and ensure they are distributed evenly throughout your slides, use the shortcuts below.

a. Select the objects you want to align and use Ctrl + Shift + A. You will then be given alignment options; you simply select the one you require.

b. To distribute your objects evenly, use Ctrl + D.

5. To Duplicate a Slide

If you have a slide that you would like to duplicate, select the slide in the slide sorter view, then press Ctrl + D to quickly duplicate it.

6. To Add a new Slide

To add a new slide (without navigating through to menus), you simply use Ctrl + M to create one with your default layout.

7. Presentation Slideshow

Here are some practical shortcuts that can be very handy to know during your presentation.

a. Press F5 to start your presentation slideshow from the beginning.

b. Select the 'B' key to turn your screen to black. This is useful if you would like your audience to turn their focus on to you while presenting.

c. Similarly, pressing 'W' will turn your screen white.

Conclusion

Knowing these simple PowerPoint shortcuts will help you increase your efficiency. Start incorporating these shortcuts when creating your presentations. They will help you be better focused on providing engaging and informative content, instead of stuck in the process of formatting. Afterall, time is valuable.