10 PowerPoint hacks to save you time

Gotta love some PowerPoint hacks right?

The world is busy. You’re busy, I’m busy. We’re all too busy to waste our time formatting PowerPoint presentations. You know, those decks we’ve left until the last minute so we definitely don’t have time now. Ugh, and that sinking feeling like like you should have outsourced it so it at least looks good. Rushing through the slides for content value and not giving your full attention to the layout and design as you are massively short on time. If that’s you (it’s all of us) then our PowerPoint hacks will be right up your street!

10 PowerPoint hacks for speed so your time is freed up to spend on other things…

1. Changing size of image

Changing the size of an image is important not to screw up. As you drag a corner handle of the image to alter the size, hold down the Shift key to avoid skewing it out of proportion.

2. Aligning objects

Objects out of whack can make even a great design look amateur. It’s worth lining things up evenly. Select the images you want to move and hold down the Ctrl key while using the arrow keys, for smaller movements than the arrow keys alone. For perfection (recommended), select all of the items, go to the Drawing tab and find the Align tools in the Arrange group.

3. Quick Access Toolbar

If you find yourself doing the above point more than once, you should add your favourite buttons to the top of the page so that they are easily accessible. Right click the top of the screen and select ‘Quick Access Toolbar‘. Select the icons you want to add. This is an essential hack for the team here at Presented.

4. Aligning text

To quickly align text within a box: to align right press Ctrl + R. To align left press Ctrl + L, for center press Ctrl + E and to justify press Ctrl + J.

5. Selecting small objects

Grabbing smaller objects can be a bit tricky, especially with layered content. To avoid messing around: Once you have one object selected, then simply press the Tab key to toggle through all of the objects on the slide. (Shift + tab to go backwards.)

6. Change the case

To change any text into upper or lower case without retyping it, you just need to select the text and press Shift + F3. Repeat this for different case options.

7. Change the font size

To speedily increase the font size of text: use Ctrl+Shift and <  or > buttons on your keyboard (comma and full stop). Or use Ctrl + [ or ].

8. Format painter

To copy the format from one object to another, simply select the original object and press Ctrl+Shift + C to copy format and Ctrl+Shift + V to apply the format.
And if you want to multiple apply the format painter – then double click the button. It keeps it turned on.

9. Grouping

To group objects together, just select the objects and press Ctrl + G. To ungroup, press Ctrl+Shift + G.

10. Draw straight lines

Hold down Shift while inserting a line to make sure it is perfectly horizontal or vertical or at a 45-degree angle! Don’t just draw it without the Shift…
(check the line size if a line looks wonky – if one of the values isn’t at 0.0cm then it make it so!)

Or, don’t bother with these hacks and simply outsource it all to the speedsters at Presented 🙂

We hope these hacks do save you some time on your next presentation!

P.S. If you’re a Mac user… well, it’s usually similar and with the Cmd button. Otherwise… search for it on the internet (and hope it exists!)

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