When you’re running a slide show in Microsoft PowerPoint, a few well-chosen shortcut keys can make you feel like a seasoned pro. Forget fumbling with the mouse or searching for options on the fly—these shortcuts are your secret weapon for smooth and professional presentations.
If you ever feel lost in a maze of commands or need a quick refresher, PowerPoint has a built-in lifesaver. Just press the F1 key while in Slide Show view, and PowerPoint will present you with a magical cheat sheet of all its shortcuts, as shown in Figure 1, below. Do note that what you see below is just one tab, General. You can navigate to other tabs and find so many more shortcut keys that will help you while presenting your slides.
Figure 1: Slide Show Help in PowerPoint
Yes, this is like having a personal assistant whispering tips in your ear! But let’s be real: you don’t want to memorize an encyclopedia of shortcuts during your coffee break. Instead, let’s focus on the most useful ones—the shortcuts you’ll actually want to use.
The Best PowerPoint Shortcuts for Slide Shows
Here are the shortcuts that will make your presentations shine, keep your audience engaged, and help you avoid any embarrassing slip-ups:
Slide Number, followed by Enter: Go to that Slide
Is there a slide you want to visit often? You can jump to it instantly by using Slide Number + Enter during the slide show. For example, if the slide you need to revisit is slide number 8, you would press the 8 + Enter keys in quick succession.
Alternatively, you can also navigate through the presentation normally to go to that slide. However, the Slide Number + Enter option looks more professional because the audience does not know what keys you pressed to go to the slide!
B: Turn the screen black (and back again!)
Imagine this: you’re deep into your presentation, but you want to grab your audience’s attention for a quick announcement or explanation. Press the B key, and the screen will go completely black. Now, the focus is on you, and not the visuals. When you’re ready to continue, just press B again, and your presentation will pop back up exactly where you left off. Brilliant, right?
W: Turn the screen white
Want the same effect but prefer a clean white screen instead? No problem! Just press the W key, and your slide show will turn into a bright white canvas. Perfect for making a statement or drawing attention to yourself.
Also, if you are using your whiteboard as a projector screen, this approach lets you get back from a projected view to a whiteboard with one click. Make sure you wipe clean your whiteboard before switching back to the PowerPoint slides with the W key.
What About Blue, Green, and Purple?
In PowerPoint, the default screen toggle shortcuts are B for black and W for white. These shortcuts only allow black or white screens during a slide show. These are built-in features designed to quickly hide the current slide and refocus attention.
Predictably, PowerPoint does not provide shortcuts for other colors like blue or green. However, you can achieve colored screens by using a simple workaround:
Workaround: Use a Blank Colored Slide
- Create a Colored Slide:
- Insert a blank slide into your presentation.
- Set the slide’s background to your desired color (e.g., blue or green). To do so, right-click on the slide, select Format Background, and choose a solid fill color.
- Place the Slide Where You Need It:
- Insert the colored slide before or after the slides where you might need it during your presentation.
- Navigate to the Colored Slide:
- Use your keyboard shortcuts like Slide Number + Enter to jump directly to the colored slide when needed.
You can use the same approach to create branded slides with your company’s colors, logo, or any other branding elements. These slides can act as placeholders or transition screens that match your corporate identity.
A: Toggle the pointer on and off
Sometimes, you actually need the pointer—for example, to highlight a specific chart or image. But when you’re done, it’s important to get rid of it quickly. Enter the A key, your shortcut superhero! Pressing A toggles the pointer on or off. Just be careful not to press the Escape key by mistake—that’ll end your presentation entirely.
Ctrl + H: Turn off the pointer
Ever notice that pesky pointer showing up on your slides when you move the mouse by accident? Don’t let it steal the show! Press Ctrl + H to make the pointer disappear entirely. Voilà! No more distractions from rogue cursors.
Is the Ctrl + H not working for you? If you are using a much older version of PowerPoint, you can press Ctrl + L instead. This is true for PowerPoint 97 and earlier versions.
PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts
Do you want more keyboard shortcuts?
Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.
Geetesh Bajaj is an awarded Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional), and has been designing and training with PowerPoint for more than two decades. He heads Indezine, a presentation design studio and content development organization based out of Hyderabad, India.
Geetesh believes that any PowerPoint presentation is a sum of its elements–these elements include abstract elements like story, consistency, and interactivity — and also slide elements like shapes, graphics, charts, text, sound, video, and animation. He explains how these elements work together in his training sessions. He has also authored six books on PowerPoint and Microsoft Office.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.