Save time in PowerPoint by learning from the expert team here at Presented. We are super fast at formatting. Years of working as presentation specialists mean that we have gained quite a few tips and tricks.
5 ways to save time in PowerPoint that we couldn’t live without…
1. Using the Reset button
It’s surprising how few people know about this button. If the template masters are correctly set up using layouts and placeholders, then resetting a slide is the best way to get a consistent looking professional deck fast.
Give the button a click on an existing slide to see if anything happens. If you are using a company template then content should move and automatically format to the house style.
Even if the only layout you use is “Title Only”, then Reset gets all your titles across all slides in the same place and same style every time.
The Reset Button shows the power of templates and why we recommend them!
2. Using layouts and templates correctly
The reset button tip won’t be much use if you aren’t using a template. And if you aren’t: why not? Even for custom use decks we’ll set up a few layouts in the masters to help us format the rest of the deck as quickly as possible. We’ll always load a palette, fonts and default styles for shapes, lines and text.
But when it comes to adjusting design, then using a template is vital for amends. For example, if you have 80 slides and your boss wants the title style to be larger and bold now? Well you can make that change in the master and it’ll just take one edit, rather than 80 edits (one for each slide). The reset button has to be the ultimate best way to save time in PowerPoint.
Actually applying layouts to your slides will also make your deck look how it’s supposed to look. This keeps marketing compliance happy. And it takes you no time at all. Changing from 1 column to 2 column? There might be a layout for that. MUCH faster than fiddling on the slide and finding that the positioning of content is a mil or 2 different to other slides. Inconsistencies make it look like your content is jumping around, and it diminishes how professional you look.
3. Quick access tool bar
There are a lot of buttons on the ribbon. Microsoft have buried the ones we want to be handy so they are in sub menus (e.g. Arrange > Align > Right Align). So it takes multiple clicks to access these tools. But we can reduce that to one click by adding these buttons to the top of the window so that they are easily accessible.
Either right click the top of the screen and select ‘Quick access tool bar’ to select the buttons you want to add. Or, go to the button itself and right click it to ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’. Either way, this is an essential hack for the team here at Presented.
4. Format painter
To copy the format from one object to another, simply select the original object and press Alt + F to activate the Format Painter. (Or click the Format Painter button on the ribbon – it’s below the Home tab).
You can also right click any shape that you’ve styled correctly, and choose “Set as default shape”, so that all future shapes follow that same style. The same is true for a text box and a line.
5. F4 will save time
F4 is a great key for reducing mouse movement and clicks, and for saving time in PowerPoint.
Whatever formatted you just did: pressing F4 will repeat it. Have a go. It’s an easy way to save time in PowerPoint. (Even if you have to use the Fn key with it!)
We hope these tricks help you to save time in PowerPoint!
View of samples here if you want to be impressed with PowerPoint’s interactive capababilities.
We like the nuts and bolts training resource on YouTube also for tips and tricks!
