Tech Thursday: PowerPoint Shortcuts

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I absolutely love, love, love shortcuts.  I always look for a way to work smarter- not harder and shortcuts are a great way to ensure the "smarter" you is in charge!

PowerPoint has a lot of great shortcuts.  Here are a few of my favorites.

(Reminder:  I am a PC kind of girl and I am working on Microsoft Office 13.)

Inserting a Text Box

This is "mouse" down my all time favorite shortcut for PowerPoint!

I really insert a lot of text boxes into PowerPoint. I mean a lot! I went searching for the shortcut and finally found it.  

Press ALT, then N, and then X.  In that order.  You don't have to hold them down.

Next, click your left mouse button, and your text box will appear with the cursor inside.

Use the Keyboard to Access the Ribbon

Every time you take your hands off of the keyboard to touch your mouse, you lose time.  And who wants to waste time?  Not me!  You can actually access sections of the ribbon right from your keyboard.

Ready for the trick.....

Hit ALT.  Yep.  That's the trick!

Little black boxes with letters in them will appear on your ribbon.  These are the letters to access that part of the ribbon.  

Hit the letter to match the selection that you want!

For example, I am on the Home Tab.  I want to Insert something.  I press ALT and then I see a black box with the letter N by Insert.  I press N and I am now on the Insert Tab.  Now I can hit "P" to insert a picture.  

No need to remember all of the letters...they are displayed for you!

Group and Ungrouping Shapes

Select the shapes you want to group by using Control and clicking on the objects.

Hold down CTRL and G to group items.

Hold down CTRL, SHIFT, and G to ungroup items.

Select All

This is a great tip if you are wanting to save a design you have made as a picture.  To do this you have to select all of the graphics at one time.  You can click, hold, and highlight with your mouse but sometimes things move or you miss an object.  This shortcut takes care of all of that.

Hold down CTRL and A.  Awesome!

Show a Grid or Guide

Okay, I must admit...I didn't even know there was a guide or a grid...but great for centering things!

Hold down ALT and then press F9.  Press again to remove.  This gives you a guides (horizontal and vertical line).

Hold down SHIFT and then press F9.  Press again to remove.  This gives you a grids (smaller squares).

Display the Context Menu

Hold down SHIFT and then press F10.

Great if you want grids and rulers.

Old Standbys

Cut Selected Object:  CTRL + X

Copy Selected Object:  CTRL + C

Paste Selected Object: CTRL +  V

Undo Last Action:  CTRL + Z

Redo Last Action:  CTRL + Y

Copy Formatting Only:  CTRL + SHIFT + C

Paste Formatting Only:  CTRL + SHIFT + V

Now you are probably wondering, "How am I ever going to remember all of these?" Check out my previous blog post giving you a quick and easy tip on how to learn shortcuts!

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