If you’re looking to work faster in PowerPoint, learning a few key PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts is a great place to start. If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know I’m all about improving efficiency and doing things in the fastest way possible.
In my training sessions, I always take time to share my favourite keyboard shortcuts, and PowerPoint is no exception. Using shortcuts keeps your hands on the keyboard and helps you stay focused, cutting down the time it takes to navigate menus and click through options.
If the list feels a bit overwhelming at first, don’t worry! Start by choosing 3–5 PowerPoint shortcuts that you think you’ll use the most and focus on remembering those. Once they become second nature, you can choose the next few and slowly work your way through the list.
In this post, I’m sharing my top PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts, the ones I use all the time to speed up slide creation and when presenting to an audience. There’s also a downloadable PDF at the end so you can keep them on hand for easy reference.
General PowerPoint shortcuts
| Shortcut Keys | Description |
| Ctrl + N | Create a new presentation. Don’t go to the File tab or the Office button; just press this combination for a new blank presentation to appear. |
| Ctrl + O | Open a new presentation. This will display the Open screen which is located in Backstage View. You will see any recently opened files plus any files you have Pinned. |
| Ctrl + F12 | Open a new presentation by displaying the Open dialog box. This bypasses the Backstage View area. |
| Ctrl + S | Save the presentation. If you have not saved the presentation prior then you will be prompted to give the presentation a file name and specific a location. If the presentation has already been saved before it will save any changes you have made since opening or since you last pressed save. |
| Ctrl + M | Insert a new blank slide. No need to use the Home tab on the Ribbon. |
| Ctrl + P | Print the current presentation, this shortcut combination will open the Print Preview window. |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo. Undo. Undo. Need I say more? If you make a boo-boo, undo. I often have people will hit a key on the keyboard or click something on the mouse and they have no idea what they did, just UNDO.. You can press this multiple times to undo multiple things. |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo the last action. If you have undone any of your actions and you realise you undid too many, use this shortcut to undo your undo. |
| Ctrl + X | Performs the Cut function. You can highlight a word, sentence, bullet point, image or object and press this combination to cut the text from its original location. |
| Ctrl + C | Performs the Copy function. You can highlight a word, sentence, bullet point, image or object and press this combination to copy the text including the formatting. |
| Ctrl + V | Performs the Paste function. Use this to Paste anything you have previously cut or copied. |
| Alt + F | Open the File tab, otherwise called Backstage View. |
| Alt | Turn key tips on or off. |
| Alt + Tab | Switch between open programs using thumbnail versions to allow you to navigate between programs without the mouse. |
| Ctrl + Mouse Wheel | Zoom in and zoom out using the wheel on your mouse and the Ctrl key. |
| F1 | Open the Help system. |
| F4 | Repeat the last thing you did whether it was formatting text or deleting an object. |
| F12 | The F12 button will automatically perform a Save As regardless of if the file has been saved before or not. |
PowerPoint Shortcuts used inside a placeholder
| Ctrl + B | Apply the Bold formatting. Simply highlight a word, sentence or bullet point and press this combination to apply bold. |
| Ctrl + I | Apply the Italics formatting. Simply highlight a word, sentence or bullet point and press this combination to apply italics. |
| Ctrl + U | Apply the Underline formatting. Simply highlight a word, sentence or bullet point and press this combination to apply underline. |
| Ctrl + A | Use this combination if you want to select an entire element or object in your presentation. For example, place your cursor inside a placeholder and press Ctrl + A and it will select ALL of the text included in the placeholder. |
| Ctrl + L | Place your cursor inside a placeholder and use this combination to make the selected paragraph Left aligned. |
| Ctrl + R | Place your cursor inside a placeholder and use this combination to make the selected paragraph Right aligned. |
| Ctrl + E | Place your cursor inside a placeholder and use this combination to make the selected paragraph Centre aligned. |
| Ctrl + J | Place your cursor inside a placeholder and use this combination to make the selected paragraph Justify aligned. |
| Ctrl + ] | Increase the font size. Keep pressing this combination to keep increasing font size. |
| Ctrl + [ | Increase the font size. Again keep pressing this combination to keep decreasing the size. |
PowerPoint Shortcuts used during a presentation
| F5 | View a presentation in Slide Show mode from the Beginning |
| Shift + F5 | View a presentation in Slide Show mode from the Current Slide |
| Esc | Press during Slide Show mode to exit and return back to the PowerPoint window |
| Ctrl + P | Change the mouse cursor to the Pen tool |
| Ctrl + A | Change the mouse cursor to the Arrow tool |
| Ctrl + E | Change the mouse cursor to the Eraser tool |
Be sure to check out my other posts for keyboard shortcuts to use in Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Word.
If you are interested in learning more then check out the official Microsoft documentation to see all the PowerPoint shortcuts available along with options for MacOS, iOS, Android and Web versions.
I love hearing about shortcut combinations that other people use so feel free to comment below if you have a favourite combination not listed here.
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