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16 Useful Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint

save time in microsoft powerpoint with keyboard shortcutsSome people spend a lot of time working with Microsoft Office, performing the same actions over and over again. Using the mouse is a friendly and easy way to navigate around your presentations, but keyboard shortcuts can really speed up your workflow. Just a couple sprinkled throughout your week can add up to significant time savings. Even if you’re not the kind of person who likes to use keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint, try some of these out and see how natural they become in a short amount of time.

Editing a Presentation

  • Ctrl + N : Open a new blank presentation
  • Ctrl + M : Insert a new slide
  • Ctrl + D : duplicate an object
  • Ctrl + SHIFT + D :duplicate selected slide
  • Ctrl + F1 : show/hide the ribbon
  • F5 : starts slide show from the first slide
  • SHIFT + F5 : starts slide show from the current slide
  • Ctrl + K : opens hyperlink dialogue box
  • Ctrl + W : close active window
  • Ctrl + Q : close the program
  • F4 : repeats the last action performed
  • F7 : Spell check

When in Slide Show view

  • N = next slide
  • P = Previous slide
  • B = black out the screen
  • W = white out the screen

You’ll be surprised how useful keyboard shortcuts can be once you get used to them.

If you want to learn more, browse the largest schedule of STL PowerPoint training London and UK wide.

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Making Images Transparent in Microsoft PowerPoint

You’ve found the perfect image that illustrates the point you’re trying to make in your presentation, so you drop it in. Unfortunately it has a big white rectangle around it that really spoils the look. Or you’ve inserted the logo for your company’s new product but the black background makes it jar against the slide. You could modify it in a dedicated image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, however PowerPoint has many useful image editing abilities built in.

Image in PowerPoint without transparency
Not a good look.

One of these features include setting one of the colours to be transparent. Here’s how to achieve this in different versions of PowerPoint.

powerpoint 2007 image transparency optionsSetting the transparency in PowerPoint 2007:

  1. Select your image
  2. Select the Format tab on the ribbon
  3. Select Recolor
  4. Choose Set Transparent Color
  5. Now click on the colour in the image you wish to set as see-through.

powerpoint 2010 image transparency settingsSetting the transparency in PowerPoint 2010:

  1. Select your image
  2. Select the Format tab on the ribbon
  3. Select Color
  4. Choose Set Transparent Color
  5. Now click on the colour in the image you wish to set as see-through.

powerpoint 2013 image transparency settingsSetting the transparency in PowerPoint 2013:

  1. Select your image
  2. Select the Format tab on the ribbon
  3. Select Color
  4. Choose Set Transparent Color
  5. Now click on the colour in the image you wish to set as see-through.

powerpoint after transparencyNote the results aren’t always perfect and you occasionally get artifacts surrounding your object, but it’s much better than the original. You can always try clicking a different part of the image and seeing if it gauges the transparent colour with more accuracy.

Want to know more? This technique among many others is covered in our Best STL PowerPoint training, London and UK wide.