The Top 10 PowerPoint Shortcuts You Should Know

Author: David Tracy

In my opinion, there are 4 key contributing factors to building presentations with incredible speed and efficiency. These are:

1. Practice.
2. Having a robust inventory of slides and diagrams./li>
3. Button shortcuts. This is why I still prefer 2003, because it reduces the extra step of toggling among ribbons.
4. Keyboard shortcuts.

In this article, I will list the 10 keyboard shortcuts that I use most often and that are not immediately obvious. In other words, I won’t include any shortcuts that everyone knows (e.g. Page Up, Ctrl+C).

Alright, here they are, in no particular order.

• Ctrl + arrow key Move objects pixel by pixel. You may notice, if you just select an object (e.g. shape, group, table) and hit the arrow key, the object will jump by a number of pixels.
• Ctrl + [ Decrease font size.
• Ctrl + ] And, likewise, increase font size.
• Shift + F5 Go to presentation mode on current slide.
• Shift + changing size of object Maintain ratio of object’s dimensions-i.e. a square will remain a square and not turn into a rectangle when you resize.
• Ctrl + Shift + G Group objects together (in PowerPoint 2003).
• Ctrl + Shift + H Ungroup a group objects (in PowerPoint 2003).
• Ctrl + click object with mouse Creates a duplicate copy of the object.
• Shift + changing length of line Ensures straightness of line.
• Shift + Alt + right arrow Increase indent of a bullet one level deeper.

Here is an extra bonus. Useful shortcut number 11:

• Ctrl + Shift + P Jump to the font size dropdown toolbar.

At the beginning of our discussion, I mentioned having a large inventory of created slides is instrumental in whipping together slides quickly. This, of course, takes time to collect and/or create such slides.

To speed things along, I have put together a Basic PowerPoint Toolkit, which you can freely download: http://www.learnppt.com/downloads/basictoolkit/.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/presentation-articles/the-top-10-powerpoint-shortcuts-you-should-know-2732005.html

About the Author

My name is David Tracy. For the better part of my career, I worked as a management consultant, where I focused largely on corporate strategy and M&A. In 2010, I decided to wrote an eBook called “Become a PowerPoint Guru.” You can find it at my site: http://learnppt.com.

Most of my articles here are excerpts from my eBook. You can also browse and download PowerPoint Diagram Packs from my site: http://learnppt.com/powerpoint/.

The software application PowerPoint has been a revolution in public speaking particularly in the business world. PowerPoint is easy to use, available with almost every implementation of the Microsoft Office suite and it’s reliable. If you can use Microsoft Word, you probably have the skills to put together an effective presentation using PowerPoint.

But just like anything else, there is a right way and wrong way to give a talk using PowerPoint as a speaking tool. If you have ever sat in on a presentation where the speaker used PowerPoint unwisely, you know that the tool can become as much of a curse as a blessing to a public speaker. So it’s good to have some guidelines on how to use PowerPoint to help your presentation and not hurt it.

Knowing in advance some of the problems that can disturb your talk if you use PowerPoint unwisely can help you in the design of your slides. For one thing, it’s a good idea not to put too much text on a PowerPoint slide. If you put a long paragraph of information up on the screen, you will see people squinting to try to read it all. And even if the section of your talk refers to that text, you put your audience in the position of trying to read that text or listen to you. And either way they go, part of your message will be lost on them as they try to keep up.

PowerPoint comes with some really fun special effects like fonts and special effects like fade in or other ways text can be revealed on each slide. Avoid the temptation to get too cute with these effects. It’s always nice to have a little humor in your presentation but if your slides are overly “cutesy”, it reduces the credibility of your talk. Also if every slide uses a different special effect, color scheme or font, not only is that distracting to the audience, it makes you look like you just discovered PowerPoint and had to play with all of the toys it has. So establish some consistency in how each slide will look or behave and stick with it through every slide.

Another great device that PowerPoint offers is to allow the software to change slides for you on a timed progression. In that way, PowerPoint can change the slide every two minutes allowing you just the amount of time you want between slides. While this is also very slick, it is a dangerous toy to use because it can cause you to stumble while doing your talk. You have to have you talk planned to a high level of precision to carry off that kind of talk and if you pause too much, have a question pop up or any other disturbance in your script, PowerPoint will move on when you do not. So use this feature with caution.

Above all, do not turn your back on the audience to read a PowerPoint slide to them. This is the number one most common mistake people do when speaking using PowerPoint. Turning your back on your audience is always a bad idea. So if you must discuss what is on the slide, do so facing the audience. But to turn your back and then read a slide to them is insulting and boring to your audience.

It is far better not to have the text information on the slide but just a series of bullet items that are ticklers for the presentation you are giving. This approach assures that PowerPoint remains a tool that you are using not a tool that is using you. And that makes you the boss of PowerPoint which is the way it should be.

About the Author

Mohd Shahreil writes regularly about self-help related topics. For more information about self-help. Please go to his website http://www.topachievement.info