One way to speed up your PowerPoint workflow is to navigate the program’s many areas, tabs, groups, menus, and commands using only your keyboard. What’s more, keeping your hands on your keyboard helps you maintain a central posture, minimizing your chances of suffering from mouse shoulder pain.

The keyboard shortcuts in this guide apply to Windows computers. Mac keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint can follow the same principle, though the Alt key on a Windows keyboard is often replaced by the Options key on a Mac, and the Windows Ctrl key can be substituted for a Mac’s Cmd key.

The first and possibly most useful keyboard shortcut that you should learn is F6, as it allows you to jump between the five main areas of the PowerPoint interface in Normal view:

Press Shift+F6 to jump back to the previous area.

Once you’ve landed on theThumbnail paneon the left, use the following keyboard shortcuts to navigate this area and organize your slides:

Select all slides

Go to the next slide

Go to the previous slide

Go to the first slide

Go to the last slide

Move the selected slide upwards

Move the selected slide downwards

Move the selected slide to the beginning of the presentation

Move the selected slide to the end of the presentation

Add a new slide after the selected slide

Duplicate the selected slide

Delete the selected slide

Jump from a selected slide’s thumbnail to the main workspace

F6

These keyboard shortcuts are useful for navigating and organizing the content in themain slide workspaceonce you’ve toggled through the F6 options to activate this area:

Select all objects on a slide

Jump to the first or next object on a slide

Jump to the previous object on a slide

Move a selected item

Arrow keys

Add text to a selected text box

Add a new slide

Make a copy of the current slide

Jump from the main workspace to the Thumbnail pane

Shift+F6

Selecting and Formatting Text in PowerPoint

To select individual words or lines in a text box, but notalltext, when a text box is selected, press F2 to activate the cursor. Then, use the Up, Down, Left, and Right Arrow keys to move the cursor to the relevant position before using the following keyboard shortcuts to select the text:

Action

Shortcut

Select individual characters to the left or right of the cursor

Shift+Left Arrow or Shift+Right Arrow

Select the rest of the line to the left or right of the cursor

Shift+Home or Shift+End

Select the line above

Select the line below

Select all text in the text box before the cursor

Select all text in the text box after the cursor

Ctrl+Shift+End

Alternatively, you can apply formatting to all text within a text box by ensuring the outline of the text box is selected, rather than individual words. If the cursor is flashing in a text box, press Esc to exit the shape while keeping it selected.

Whether you’ve selected a text box’s outline or its individual words, use the following keyboard shortcuts to add direct formatting:

Make text bold

Italicize text

Underline text

Increase the font size

Decrease the font size

Copy the selected text’s formatting

Paste copied formatting onto the selected text

Clear formatting from the selected text

Align the selected text to the left

Align the selected text to the right

Align the selected text to the center

Open and close the Font dialog box

Ctrl+T to open Enter to close

Jump between fields in the Font dialog box

Tab or Shift+Tab

Check a selected font effect in the Font dialog box

Space

Adding Animations and Transitions in PowerPoint

PowerPoint is well-known for its broad selection of animations and transitions you can add to objects and slides. Here’s how you can add them using your keyboard:

Add a primary animation to the selected text or object

Alt > A > S > Arrow keys > Enter

Add more animations to the selected text or object

Alt > A > AA > Arrow keys > Enter

View the Animation pane

Alt > A > C

Add a transition effect between the previous slide and the selected slide

Alt > K > T > Arrow keys > Enter

Change the current transition effect options

Alt > K > O > Up and Down Arrow keys > Enter

Switching PowerPoint Views

When working in PowerPoint, you’re able to switch to different views to do different things:

Keyboard Shortcut

Normal

The Normal view is where you’ll do most of your work. It displays slide thumbnails on the left, the main workspace area in the center, and an area for speaker notes at the bottom.

Alt > W > L

Slide Sorter

The Slide Sorter view displays all slides as thumbnails so you can easily see their order. This is a good place to reorder your slides or reorganize them into groups.

Alt > W > i

Outline

The Outline view displays only the text on your slides, so you can easily see their primary content. I often use this view to easily copy and paste all slide text into a Word document.

Alt > W > PO

Master

There are three Master views: the Slide Master, the Handout Master, and the Notes Master. The Master views are where you can make universal style changes to all slides, notes, or handout pages.

Slide Master view: Alt > W > M Handout Master view: Alt > W > H Notes Master view: Alt > W > K

Slide Show

The Slide Show view is what you will see when you deliver your presentation. In this view, if your computer isn’t connected to an external presenting screen, the slides occupy all your screen space.

Open the Slide Show view from the beginning: F5 Open the Slide Show view from the current slide: Shift+F5

Presenter

The Presenter view displays automatically when you activate the Slide Show view if your computer is connected to an external screen. It lets you see your notes while you deliver your presentation.

Open the Slide Show and Presenter views from the beginning: F5 Open the Slide Show and Presenter views from the current slide: Shift+F5

Reading

The Reading view is similar to the Slide Show view, but rather than taking up the whole screen, certain PowerPoint elements—such as slide numbers and the program’s frame—remain visible. This is like theImmersive Reader in other Microsoft programs.

Alt > W > D

Alternatively, press F6 repeatedly until the view buttons in the bottom-right corner of your PowerPoint window are selected, use the Left and Right Arrow keys to select the view you wish to activate, and press Enter.

Press Esc to exit the Slide Show, Presenter, and Reading views, since the ribbon is hidden when you activate any of these options.

Presenting Your PowerPoint Slide Show

Once you’ve finished preparing your presentation, it’s time to deliver it to your audience! Here are the keyboard shortcuts you need to know to ensure everything goes smoothly:

Start your slide show from the beginning

Start your slide show from the current slide

End your slide show

Pause your slide show and turn the presenting screen black

Pause your slide show and turn the presenting screen white

Move to the next slide or animation

Go back to the previous slide or animation

Left Arrow

There may be scenarios when you want tohide a certain slide from your presentation. To do this, in Normal view, with the slide selected in the Thumbnail pane, press Alt > S > H. Follow the same keyboard shortcut to unhide it again and include it within your slide show.

Other Useful PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Finally, here are a few more PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts to help you along your way:

Activate Copilot tools for the selected textbox

Repeat the last action you completed

Find and replace text

Group the selected objects

Ungroup the selected grouped objects

Add a text box

Add a table

Alt > N > T > Arrow keys > Enter

Add a shape

Alt > N > SH > Arrow keys > Enter

If there’s a command that you often use in PowerPoint that isn’t readily available on the ribbon or has a multistep keyboard shortcut,add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. All buttons on the Quick Access Toolbar are easily accessible through the Alt+[number] hotkey shortcut, so they’re uncomplicated and easy to remember.

Using keyboard shortcuts isn’t the only way tospeed up your workflow in Microsoft PowerPoint. For example, you could make the most of PowerPoint’s vast library of templates, use the program’s AI Designer tool, andmake small changes to the PowerPoint file itselfmake it work more efficiently.