I’ve always said there are 4 key contributing factors to building presentations with incredible speed and efficiency.  These are:

  1. Practice.

  2. Having a robust inventory of slides and diagrams. (Don’t have that?  This will help you out.  Or, get the Basic PowerPoint Toolkit for free.)
  3. Button shortcuts. This is why I still prefer 2003, because it reduces the extra step of toggling among ribbons.
  4. Keyboard shortcuts.

In this post, I will list the 10 keyboard shortcuts that I use most often and that are not immediately obvious. In other words, I won’t include any shortcuts that everyone knows (e.g. Page Up, Ctrl+C).

Alright, here they are, in no particular order.

  • Ctrl + arrow key
    Move objects pixel by pixel.  You may notice, if you just select an object (e.g. shape, group, table) and hit the arrow key, the object will jump by a number of pixels.
  • Ctrl + [
    Decrease font size.
  • Ctrl + ]
    And, likewise, increase font size.
  • Shift + F5
    Go to presentation mode on current slide.
  • Shift + changing size of object
    Maintain ratio of object’s dimensions–i.e. a square will remain a square and not turn into a rectangle when you resize.
  • Ctrl + Shift + G
    Group objects together (in PowerPoint 2003).
  • Ctrl + Shift + H
    Ungroup a group objects (in PowerPoint 2003).
  • Ctrl + click object with mouse
    Creates a duplicate copy of the object.
  • Shift + changing length of line
    Ensures straightness of line.
  • Shift + Alt + right arrow
    Increase indent of a bullet one level deeper.

I hope you’ll find these key PowerPoint shortcuts helpful in becoming faster and more efficient with building your PowerPoint presentations.  You can find a more comprehensive list of useful PowerPoint shortcuts included in Chapter 5 of the eBook, Become a PowerPoint Guru.

Questions, thoughts, concerns?  Go to my site (learnppt.com) and shoot me an email.

For pre-made PowerPoint diagrams used in business presentations, browse our library here: learnppt.com/powerpoint/.  These diagrams were professionally designed by management consultants. Give your presentations the look and feel of a final product made by McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Booz Allen, Deloitte, or any of the top consulting firms.

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