Keyboard Shortcut Basics for PowerPoint 2003

Keyboard shortcuts are a fast way to work with your slides and objects in PowerPoint 2003.  The key is to learn the shortcuts for your most common tasks.

The CTRL Key

Most of the features in the drop down menu offer a keyboard shortcut.  You’ll see them next to the feature.

If the shortcut is active and available to use, it will be in black.  If it’s inactive and not available, it’s grayed out.

The ALT Key

When you look at the top of the toolbar, you’ll notice that some letters are underscored.  For example, the file menu read as, File.  When you press the ALT key, that will highlight the menu.

Then select the underscored letter and it will active the menu item.  From there, just keep pressing the underscored letter of the feature you want to use.

In the example below, we want to insert a new comment.

• So we press ALT+I since Insert is underscored.  That opens the insert menu.
• Then we select M for comment and it will create a new comment.

It takes a little getting used to, but once you got it, you’ll find that it does make working in PowerPoint much easier and faster.

PowerPoint 2003 Tutorial

Here’s a quick tutorial that shows how to use keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint 2003.

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.