Nobody opens PowerPoint thinking, I hope this takes all afternoon. You want to get in, build your slides, communicate your point, and move on.

Yet for many professionals, PowerPoint still feels slow, repetitive, and frustrating.

The difference between a deck that takes 4 hours and one that takes 40 minutes is rarely creativity.

It’s efficiency.

And that efficiency starts with shortcuts.

Why shortcuts matter more than people think

If you click through the ribbon (PPT toolbar) for every small action, you are constantly interrupting your thinking.

Align a shape.
Resize a box.
Copy a style.
Paste an image.

Each click costs seconds and breaks focus. Shortcuts remove this friction. Once a shortcut becomes muscle memory, you stop thinking about the tool and stay focused on the message and the slide in front of you.

In my full YouTube walkthrough video, I break down and demonstrate the shortcuts I use every day to speed up my workflow. If you want to see them in action, the complete tutorial is available on my channel.

My shortcut rule of thumb

If a task feels repetitive, there is almost always a shortcut for it. Repeat this every slide, for years and the time-savings add up very fast. That is why I created a printable shortcuts poster with only high-impact shortcuts.

Not random shortcuts. Just the ones that I use every single day.

👉 CLICK HERE to download the free PowerPoint Shortcuts PDF

Print it out, put it on your desk & turn them into a habit.

Shortcuts save seconds. Systems save hours.

Here is the important shift.

Shortcuts help you work faster inside PowerPoint. Systems reduce the amount of work PowerPoint needs from you in the first place. A proper PowerPoint system includes things like:

• Solid slide masters

• Pre-defined layouts that already work

• Theme colors and fonts that stay consistent

• Structure that scales across decks, teams, and companies

When that foundation is in place, many manual fixes disappear entirely.

You stop correcting slides. You stop fighting consistency. You stop rebuilding the same structure over and over again.

That is why shortcuts are powerful, but they are not the end game. If you want speed at scale, across projects and teams, you need a system. If you are ready to move beyond quick wins and build a real foundation 👉 you can learn about PowerPoint Systems here.

Shortcuts save you seconds. Systems save you hours.

Stay creative,
Sander