What are the most popular PowerPoint shortcuts?

PowerPoint Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of keys that perform a specific action or command. If you use PowerPoint frequently, learning keyboard shortcuts can help you save time and work more efficiently.

In this article, we introduce the most popular PowerPoint shortcuts and how to use them.

Here's a list of some of the most popular keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint:

PowerPoint Shortcuts to Create, Save and Open Presentations

• Ctrl+N: Create a new PowerPoint presentation
• Ctrl+M: Insert a new PowerPoint slide
• Ctrl+O: Open an existing PowerPoint presentation
• Ctrl+S: Save your PowerPoint presentation
• Fn+F12: Save your PowerPoint presentation as

PowerPoint Shortcuts to Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo

• Ctrl+Z: Undo your last action in PowerPoint
• Ctrl+Y: Redo your last action in PowerPoint
• Ctrl+C: Copy a selected object
• Ctrl+X: Cut a selected object
• Ctrl+V: Paste a copied or cut object
• Ctrl+D: Duplicate a selected object

PowerPoint Shortcuts to Find, Replace, Select, Group, Ungroup

• Ctrl+F: Find text in your PowerPoint presentation
• Ctrl+H: Replace text in your PowerPoint presentation
• Ctrl+A: Select all objects on a PowerPoint slide
• Ctrl+G: Group selected objects in PowerPoint
• Ctrl+Shift+G: Ungroup grouped objects in PowerPoint

PowerPoint Shortcuts to Format Text

• Ctrl+E: Align text to center
• Ctrl+L: Align text to left
• Ctrl+R: Align text to right
• Ctrl+B: Make text bold
• Ctrl+I: Make text italic
• Ctrl+U: Underline text
• Ctrl+T: Open the font dialog box
• Ctrl+Shift+>: Increase font size
• Ctrl+Shift+<: Decrease font size

PowerPoint Shortcuts to Manage Display

• Alt+F9: Show or hide gridlines and guides
• Alt+F10: Show or hide the selection pane
• Fn+F5: Start the PowerPoint slideshow from the beginning
• Shift+F5: Start the PowerPoint slideshow from the current slide
• Esc: End the PowerPoint slideshow

PowerPoint Shortcuts to navigate Animations

• N or Spacebar: Go to the next slide or animation
• P or Backspace: Go to the previous slide or animation

These are just some of the most popular keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint. If you're seeking to be a PowerPoint power user you can find a more comprehensive and printable list of PowerPoint shortcuts cheat sheet on our website.

Microsoft only assigns shortcut keys to only ~200 of the 800+ PowerPoint commands. The standard PowerPoint shortcuts are not readily customizable, but you can customize PowerPoint Shortcuts using PPT Productivity. PPT Productivity add-in for PowerPoint lets you override shortcut keys to any PowerPoint command, which means you can specify your preferred shortcuts.

Wondering how to create PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts? In addition to letting you reassign standard PowerPoint shortcuts, PPT Productivity also allows you to create new PowerPoint shortcut keys. Learn how to add extra PowerPoint shortcuts.

And if you're a McKinsey Alum, PPT Productivity has an option for you to use your favorite McKinsey Keyboard Shortcuts.