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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October 15th, 2008 9:12 pm
Shift + F5: View presentation from current slide
October 16th, 2008 6:28 pm
Thanks Ben. That is actually one that I wanted but didn’t know about. It will immediately be added to my PowerPoint shortcuts arsenal.
August 7th, 2009 11:53 am
hold down alt when dragging objects for fine scale placement
August 7th, 2009 1:57 pm
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.
October 25th, 2009 4:44 pm
For some one key shortcut, I always use F4 rather than CTRL+Y to repeat last action
October 26th, 2009 10:59 am
Great addition. Thanks Clement!
January 13th, 2010 11:56 am
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?
January 14th, 2010 8:37 am
Mary,
Try Ctrl + Alt + V instead for “Paste Special” in PPT 2007.
January 31st, 2010 10:33 pm
Ctrl and D to duplicate an image, object or slide, depending on what is selected.
February 7th, 2010 9:26 am
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.
November 9th, 2010 9:34 am
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.
January 26th, 2011 7:53 am
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
January 26th, 2011 7:55 am
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!
August 22nd, 2011 11:53 pm
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.
January 18th, 2012 12:39 am
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
January 21st, 2012 7:59 pm
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.
January 25th, 2012 8:14 am
You are definitely a Ninja in PowerPoint. Thank you so much!
January 25th, 2012 8:19 am
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
February 2nd, 2012 10:38 pm
I don’t know of one that will achieve what you’re hoping to do.
October 25th, 2012 7:11 am
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.
October 27th, 2012 9:21 am
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
March 21st, 2013 2:26 pm
is there any equivalent in mac or CTR+SHITF (and then draguin the object) to copy objects and keep them aligned?
May 7th, 2013 8:13 am
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