Keyboard Shortcuts for PowerPoint Views

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A reader asked if there were any shortcut keys in PowerPoint that could let her go from Normal view to Slide Sorter view? The answer is both no and yes, no because there’s no real shortcut to do that and yes because there is such an easy workaround.

What you need to do is quickly press the Alt + V keyboard shortcut to bring the View tab of the Ribbon in focus, and then press the D key immediately thereafter. So you would use the Alt + V > D sequence to get to Slide Sorter view.

Fortunately, you can quickly access all PowerPoint views with similar keyboard sequences:

Normal View: Alt + V > N

Slide Sorter View: Alt + V > D

Slide Show View: Alt + V > W (also F5)

Notes Page View: Alt + V > P

Additionally, you can use the Alt + V > Z sequence to bring up the Zoom dialog box. This keyboard sequence works in most views but will not work in Slide Show view.

Tip: To go from Slide Show view to Normal view, press the Esc key.

Do note that all these keyboard sequences work in Windows versions of PowerPoint.

So why did Microsoft not create proper keyboard shortcuts for these views, and why do they have these sequences instead?

I don’t know the answer for the first part of the question, but yes there is an answer for the second part: these keyboard sequences were essentially for using the menu options in older versions of PowerPoint that had no Ribbon interface. And they continue to work in the newer versions of PowerPoint.