Keyboard shortcuts to help you work more efficiently

Once you are fully proficient, you almost won’t need to use the mouse in PowerPoint. Before trying to learn all the commands below all at once, select the commands you use most frequently and practice until you're proficient. When those have become second nature, you can add new commands to your arsenal.

Pros: This will not make your slides better, but it will increase your speed significantly.
Cons: There is a learning curve: it does take time to learn all commands, and you will be slower initially. It is an investment, like anything else.

Action and Shortcut Keys for Windows PC

Top 15 shortcuts we highly recommend to use:
When you need to repeat your last command – no matter what it is – hit F4. This nifty shortcut is built into every version of PowerPoint, across all office programs. This shortcut is one of the best time savers especially when repetitive actions need to be done. Make sure to try it out!
Copy formatting of selected shape or text: Ctrl + Shift + C
Paste formatting to another shape or text: Ctrl + Shift + V
Cut selected object or text: Ctrl + X
Copy selected object or text: Ctrl + C
Paste cut or copied object or text: Ctrl + V
Undo: Ctrl + Z
Redo: Ctrl + Y
Group Items (with items selected): Ctrl + G
Ungroup: Ctrl + Shift + G
Open Find dialog box: Ctrl + F - very helpful to use in work with Content checker
Change case: Shift + F3
Select all text: Ctrl + A (on the Outline tab)
Hold Shift while resizing object. This will lock the aspect ratio so you do not stretch the object to width or height. Very useful in work with pictures, circles or grouped objects that should keep their proportions.
Hold Alt when you need to do very small moves or resizing of any objects on the slide. This is very helpful when you need to resize some shape just a tiny bit or adjust the slide guide to very precise position. Your mouse usually moves object in bigger jumps and holding Alt will allow you to do the tiniest changes.

Additional useful shortcuts:
Go to “Tell me what you want to do ”: Alt + Q
Switch between outline and thumbnail pane: Ctrl + Shift + Tab
Zoom: Alt + W, Q, Tab to value you want
Switch between outline and thumbnail pane: Ctrl + Shift + Tab
Move to next placeholder (if on slide’s last placeholder, this inserts a new slide): Ctrl + Enter
Insert a new slide: Ctrl + M
Duplicate the current side: Ctrl + D
Increase font size: Ctrl + Shift + >
Decrease font size: Ctrl + Shift + <
Display the font dialog box: Ctrl + T or Ctrl + Shift + F
Apply superscript formatting: Ctrl + Equal sign
Apply subscript formatting: Ctrl + Shift + Plus sign
Remove manual character formatting: Ctrl + Spacebar
Center a paragraph: Ctrl + E
Justify a paragraph: Ctrl + J
Left align a paragraph: Ctrl + L
Right align a paragraph: Ctrl + R
Promote a paragraph in an outline: Alt + Shift + Left arrow
Demote a paragraph in an outline: Alt + Shift + Right arrow
Move selected outline paragraphs up: Alt + Shift + Up arrow
Show or hide the grid: Shift + F9
Show or hide the guides: Alt + F9
Insert hyperlink: Ctrl + K
Select to the end of a word: Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow
Select to the beginning of a word: Ctrl + Shift + Left arrow
Select all objects: Ctrl + A (on Slides tab)
Select all slides: Ctrl + A (in Slide Sorter view)
Delete one word to the left: Alt Gr + Backspace
Delete one word to the right: Alt Gr + Delete
Spellcheck: F7

Updated on: 23/01/2023