40 PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts to Speed Up Your Work

Most people use PowerPoint by clicking through menus. That works, but it's slow. Once you learn the keyboard shortcuts, you stop reaching for the mouse every few seconds. Tasks that took five clicks take one keystroke.

This guide covers 40 shortcuts organized by category. Both Windows and Mac shortcuts are listed side by side. You don't need to memorize all of them at once — pick the ones relevant to how you work and add more as you go.

General File Shortcuts

These are the basics that apply to almost any work session. If you know nothing else, know these.

Get into the habit of pressing Ctrl+S (or Cmd+S on Mac) every few minutes. PowerPoint has autosave when you're using OneDrive, but the manual save habit protects you everywhere else.

Editing Shortcuts

These shortcuts work when you're inside a text box or working with objects on a slide.

Paste without formatting (Ctrl+Shift+V) is underused. When you copy text from a website or another document, it brings along the original formatting. Use this shortcut to paste plain text that picks up your slide's styles instead.

Text Formatting Shortcuts

These work when you have text selected inside a text box. They're faster than using the ribbon toolbar.

The font size shortcuts (Ctrl+Shift+> and Ctrl+Shift+<) are particularly handy. Instead of clicking into the font size box, typing a number, and pressing Enter, you just tap the shortcut until the text looks right.

Slideshow Mode Shortcuts

These are the shortcuts you use while presenting. Knowing them means you don't have to fumble with your laptop during a talk.

The B key is one of the most useful presenting shortcuts. Press B and the screen goes black. This is perfect when you want the audience to focus on you rather than the slide — during a discussion, a Q&A moment, or when you need to make a point without visual distraction. Press B again to bring the slide back.

The go to specific slide shortcut is valuable during Q&A. If someone asks about a point you covered on slide 12, just type "12" and press Enter. You jump straight there without clicking through slides one by one.

Slide Navigation Shortcuts

These shortcuts work in Normal view while you're building the presentation.

Working with Objects and Shapes

These shortcuts apply when you have objects selected on your slide — text boxes, shapes, images, or charts.

Grouping (Ctrl+G) is essential for keeping complex slide elements together. If you've built a chart with separate labels, icons, and text boxes, group them before you move or resize anything. Otherwise you spend ten minutes realigning pieces.

View and Zoom Shortcuts

Shortcuts Worth Practicing First

If you're new to keyboard shortcuts, don't try to learn 40 at once. Start with these five. Use them for a week until they're automatic. Then add more.

1. Ctrl+S — Save constantly. Lose data once and you'll never forget this one.
2. Ctrl+Z — Undo. Lets you experiment without fear.
3. Ctrl+D — Duplicate. Faster than copying and pasting, especially for slides.
4. B (in slideshow) — Black screen. Gives you a break mid-presentation without awkwardness.
5. F5 — Start slideshow. Stop clicking the playback button in the bottom corner.

Creating Custom Shortcuts in PowerPoint

PowerPoint on Windows lets you create custom keyboard shortcuts for any ribbon command. This is useful for commands you use frequently that don't have a default shortcut.

To set a custom shortcut:

1. Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon
2. Click "Customize..." next to "Keyboard shortcuts" at the bottom
3. Find the command you want to assign a shortcut to
4. Click in the "Press new shortcut key" field and press the key combination you want
5. Click Assign, then Close

On Mac, keyboard shortcut customization is more limited in PowerPoint. For complex workflows, consider using macOS's built-in keyboard shortcut system under System Preferences > Keyboard.

Quick Reference: The Most Common Shortcuts

Here's a condensed reference for the shortcuts you'll use in almost every working session:

• Save: Ctrl+S / Cmd+S
• Undo: Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z
• Redo: Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Y
• Copy: Ctrl+C / Cmd+C
• Paste: Ctrl+V / Cmd+V
• Duplicate: Ctrl+D / Cmd+D
• Bold: Ctrl+B / Cmd+B
• Start slideshow: F5 / Cmd+Shift+Return
• Black screen during slideshow: B
• End slideshow: Esc

Print this list and keep it near your desk while you're building the habit. Within a few weeks, these shortcuts become muscle memory and you'll wonder how you worked without them.

If you regularly download presentations from SlideShare to study or repurpose, our SlideShare downloader makes that quick and easy. And if you need to convert between formats, check out our full set of presentation tools.