Useful Shortcut Keys In PowerPoint To Speed Up Your Work And Improve Your Efficiency
Are you one of the frequent PowerPoint users looking for all the best PowerPoint shortcut keys to use so as to enable you to do your work fast without the struggle of dragging and moving the computer mouse around the desk. Covered in this post on PowerPoint shortcut keys are:
- Basic PowerPoint shortcut keys
- PowerPoint shortcut keys for selecting, navigating texts & objects
- PowerPoint shortcut keys for editing and formatting
- PowerPoint shortcut keys when working on Slideshows
Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the first presentation tools widely in use today. It comes with a host of features to enable users to achieve their possible goals. Knowing the shortcut keys secret behind this program helps to speed up your work and improve your efficiency.
You might think you are familiar with the program but the truth is that you’ll be surprised by the variety of keyboard combinations that PowerPoint has to enable you to speed up your work to enhance your productivity.
In this article, we’ve brought together a list of some of the most essential Microsoft PowerPoint key shortcuts you might need to know. You’re advised to read on for the most essential PowerPoint shortcut keys you need to know to carry out the task easier without struggling with the mouse.
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The Basic Microsoft PowerPoint Shortcut Keys You Need To Know

First of all, before we start, let us take a quick look at some of the most basic and generally used keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint that are used for opening, closing, and switching between multiple presentation documents, including navigating through the Ribbon and others.
Shortcut Keys | Meaning |
Ctrl + N | Create a new presentation document |
Ctrl + O | Open an existing presentation document |
Ctrl + S | Save a presentation |
Alt + F2 or F12 | Open the Save As dialog box |
Ctrl + W or Ctrl + F4 | Close a presentation |
Ctrl + Q | Save and close a presentation |
Ctrl + Z | Undo an action |
Ctrl + Y | Redo an action |
Ctrl + F2 | Print Preview View |
F1 | Open the Help pane |
Alt + Q | Directs to the “Tell me what you want to do” box |
F7 | Check for spellings |
Alt or F10 | Turn the key tips to ‘on’ or ‘off’ |
Ctrl + F1 | Show or hide the ribbon |
Ctrl + F | Search in a presentation or use Find and Replace |
Alt + F | Open the File tab menu |
Alt + H | Go to the Home tab |
Alt + N | Open the Insert tab |
Alt + G | Open the Design tab |
Alt + K | Go to the Transitions tab |
Alt + A | Go to the Animations tab |
Alt + S | Go to the Slide Show tab |
Alt + R | Go to the Review tab |
Alt + W | Go to View tab |
Alt + X | Go to the Add-ins tab |
Alt + Y | Go to the Help tab |
Ctrl + Tab | Switch between open presentations |
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Microsoft PowerPoint shortcut keys for selecting, navigating texts & objects
In the following section, we are going to show you tons of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the PowerPoint program that can be used for navigating throughout a PowerPoint document window easily. Thus, you can try out these PowerPoint shortcut keys which will enable you to select a text within text boxes alongside different objects on a slide with much ease than using the mouse. They are:
Shortcut Keys | Meaning |
Ctrl + A | Select all the objects on an active slide |
Tab | Select or move on to the next object on a slide |
Shift + Tab | Select or move to a previous object on a slide |
Home | Go back to the beginning of the slide |
End | Go to the end of the slide |
PgDn | Go to the next slide |
PgUp | Go the previous slide |
Ctrl + Up / Down Arrow | Move a slide up or down in the presentation document (you will need to click on a slide thumbnail before performing this shortcut) |
Ctrl + Shift + Up / Down Arrow | Move a slide to the beginning or end of your presentation document (click on a slide thumbnail first) |
Microsoft PowerPoint shortcut keys for editing and formatting
The following keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint will save you time so that you can edit and format in a snap way. With these shortcuts keys, speeding up your work is achieved.
Shortcut Keys | Meaning |
Ctrl + X | Cut the selected text, object, or slide |
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert | Copy the selected text, object, or selected slide |
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert | Paste the selected text, object, or slide |
Ctrl + Alt + V | Open the Paste Special dialog box |
Delete | Delete the selected text, object, or slide |
Ctrl + B | Toggle bold on the selected text |
Ctrl + I | Toggle italics on the selected text |
Ctrl + U | Add or remove underline to selected text |
Ctrl + E | Center align the selected text |
Ctrl + J | Justify the selected text |
Ctrl + L | Left align the selected text |
Ctrl + R | Right align the selected text |
Ctrl + T | Display the Font dialog box after text or object is selected |
Ctrl + K | Insert a hyperlink |
Ctrl + M | Insert a new slide |
Ctrl + D | Duplicate the selected object or a slide (for selecting a slide, you will first need to click on a slide thumbnail) |
Useful Microsoft PowerPoint shortcut keys for Slideshows
Once you are done compiling your PowerPoint presentation (document) and ready to view the presentation as a slideshow, these keyboard combinations should come in handy.
Shortcut Keys | Meaning |
F5 | Play the presentation from the start |
Shift + F5 | Play the presentation from the current slide |
Ctrl + P | Annotate using a Pen tool while playing the slideshow |
N or Page Down | Move to the next slide while playing the slideshow |
P or Page Up | Return to the previous slide while playing the slideshow |
B | Change the screen to black during a slideshow (Press B again to return to the slideshow) |
Esc | End the slideshow |
Conclusion
Compiled in the above list are all the keyboard combinations in Microsoft PowerPoint that will forever help you in speeding up your work and improving your efficiency when working in a PowerPoint environment. Let’s know your question on this and will reply to you as soon as possible.