How to PowerPoint

Most people use the mouse and cursor to navigate the PowerPoint features.  However, there’s a faster way.  And that’s by using keyboard shortcuts.

Common Keyboard Shortcuts

There are some keyboard shortcuts that I use all the time.  They are:

CTRL+D =  duplicate slides or objects

CTRL+M = create a new slide

CTRL+X = cut the object off the screen and place on the clipboard

CTRL+C = copy object and place on clipboard for pasting

CTRL+V = paste object from clipboard

While those are the ones I use most of the time, there are all sort of shortcuts available via the keyboard.  And once you know what they are and how to use them, it can really speed up your production.

Using the CTRL key and it works is the same across PowerPoint versions.  With the introduction of the ribbon toolbar in PowerPoint 2007, how you use the ALT key is a little different.

Below are two quick video tutorials that explain how to use keyboard shortcuts in the different versions.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint 2003

Here’s an earlier post that describes the PowerPoint 2003 tutorial in more detail.

Click here to view the PowerPoint 2003 tutorial.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint 2007

Here’s an earlier post that describes the PowerPoint 2007 tutorial in more detail.

Click here to view the PowerPoint 2007 tutorial.

In an earlier post, we covered keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint 2003.  Today, we’ll look at the differences in PowerPoint 2007.

CTRL Key

Just like PowerPoint 2003, you can use the CTRL key for quick access to features. 

ALT Key

The big difference between PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 is the ALT key feature.  When you click on the ALT key in PowerPoint 2007, you get visual cue for all of the available shortcuts.  This makes sense since this version of PowerPoint uses the ribbon toolbar and not a dropdown menu.

To activate a feature, select ALT and then the letter or number associated with the feature.

PowerPoint 2007 Tutorial

Here’s a quick tutorial that shows how to use the keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint 2007.

Click here to view the tutorial.

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.