Dread or love them, presentations are a part of almost every position in business.

The most common tool used to create and show these presentations is Microsoft’s PowerPoint, in fact, many simply call a digital presentation a PowerPoint. Microsoft has implemented a few keyboard shortcuts that may help if you have a tough time giving presentations.

Here are 12 useful shortcuts you can use while presenting with PowerPoint 2010 and 2013.

• F5 – Pressing this key will start the presentation. By default it should start from the first slide. If you want to start from the slide you are currently looking at, hit Shift+F5. In PowerPoint 2013, you should also be able to hit S to start a presentation, as long as you aren’t editing a slide.
• N – Will flip to the next slide, foregoing all animations.
• Right arrow/Down arrow/spacebar – Tapping any of these keys will trigger the next animation. If there are no animations, it will switch to the next slide.
• P – Pressing this will flip to the previous slide.
• Left arrow/Up arrow/backspace – Hitting any of these keys will replay the last animation or switch back to the previous slide if there are no animations.
• Number + Enter – If you enter a number, and hit Enter, you will be taken to that slide. Be sure to hit the numbers in quick succession, or it may not work/move you to the unintended slide.
• B – If you need to display a blank black screen, hit this. Clicking the mouse or tapping the key again should move back to the slide you were previously looking at.
• W – If you prefer to show a blank white screen, hit this key.
• Ctrl + P – Changes the cursor from an arrow to a dot, that you can annotate or draw on slides with. Pressing E will erase any marks made.
• Ctrl + A – Changes the cursor to an arrow.
• Ctrl + H – Will hide the cursor
• Esc – Tapping this will end the presentation.

These keyboard shortcuts should help make the next presentation you have to give go a bit better, and may even help you if you forget your slide, or move forward too quickly. If you are looking to learn more about how PowerPoint, or any of the Office programs can help make business easier, please contact us today.