Productivity Cheat Sheet 5: PowerPoint - 1

Public speaking is an inborn art that not many possess in their DNA. Yet making presentations is a required skill in this day and age. It is software tools like PowerPoint that help infuse us with “can-be acquired” skill of articulation and confidence. So here’s a skinny on essential PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts that will help make life easier in the panic periods prior to zero hour.

Ctrl + A: Selects all
Ctrl + D: Duplicates slide
Ctrl + E: Centres text
Ctrl + F: Finds
Ctrl + G: Shows guides
Ctrl + H: Replaces text
Ctrl + K: Inserts hyperlink
Ctrl + L: Left aligns text
Ctrl + M: Creates new slide
Ctrl + N: Creates new presentation
Ctrl + Q: Closes PowerPoint
Ctrl + R: Right aligns text
Ctrl + T: Opens font dialog
Ctrl + W: Closes document
Ctrl + Y or F4: Repeats last action
Ctrl + Z: Undoes last action
Ctrl + =: Applies subscript formatting
Ctrl + +: Applies superscript formatting
Ctrl + Backspace: Deletes a word
Alt + Shift + Left Arrow: Promotes a paragraph (Para here means text that has Enter at the end of it. Each item in a bulleted or numbered list is a paragraph; a title or subtitle is also a paragraph.)
Alt + Shift + Right Arrow: Demotes a paragraph
Alt + Shift + Up Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs up
Alt + Shift + Down Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs down
Alt + Shift + 1: Shows heading level 1
Alt + Shift + +: Expands text below a heading
Alt + Shift + -: Collapses text below a heading
Alt + Shift + A: Shows all or collapses all text or headings
F5: Starts slide show
F6: Switches to next pane (clockwise)
Shift+F6: Switches to previous pane (counterclockwise)
N, Enter, Page Down, Right Arrow, Down Arrow, Spacebar, or Mouse Click: Next animation/advance slide
P, Page Up, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, or Backspace: Goes to previous animation/slide
Number + Enter: Goes to required slide number
B or Period: Displays black screen, or returns to slide show from black screen
W or Comma: Displays white screen, or return to slide show from white screen
S or +: Stops or restarts an automatic slide show
Esc, Ctrl + Break, or Hyphen: Ends slide show
E: Erase on-screen annotations
H: Goes to next hidden slide
T: Sets new timings while rehearsing
O: Uses original timings while rehearsing
M: Uses mouse-click to advance while rehearsing
1 + Enter (or pressing both mouse buttons for 2 seconds): Returns to first slide