powerpoint shortcut for presentation mode

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• PowerPoint Tutorials

How to Use the Presentation Modes and the Screen Recording Features in PowerPoint

After designing all the slides for your presentation, the next and last step is presenting in front of your audience. In this new Slidesgo School tutorial, you’ll see how the presenter view works and how you can record your presentation .

Presentation Modes

Presentation modes — set up slide show, presentation modes — record slide show.

• There are different presentation modes in PowerPoint, besides the one you can find at the bottom of the screen.
• To access the presentation modes, go to the Slide Show tab.
• The first two options allow you to start the presentation from the beginning or from the currently selected slide.

• If you choose Present Online, an URL will be generated, which you can then share with your potential online viewers. After clicking this button, a new window will open, displaying info about the Microsoft Office online presentation service and a checkbox to enable remote download for your online audience. To enjoy this service, you need an Office 365 account. When you’re ready, click Connect to generate the URL.
• If you choose Custom Slide Show, you can select which slides to display in your presentation.  First, create a new custom slide show and select the slides that you want to display. Then, click Add, enter the name of the presentation and click OK. This new custom presentation will appear on the list. Select it and click Show to begin the presentation.
• In the Set Up group you’ll find options to set up the presentation, hide slides, rehearse your presentation and even record it.
• Click Set Up Slide Show to adjust several settings regarding your presentation. You’ll find more information in the next section of this tutorial .
• If you click Hide Slide, the selected slide won’t show up during your presentation. Hidden slides will appear faded out on the list and their numbers will be crossed out.
• If you click Record Slide Show, you’ll be able to record your presentation from the beginning or from the current slide. We’ll go into detail in the last section of this tutorial.
• There are several checkboxes regarding whether to play narrations, use timings and show media controls.

• In the Monitors group you can choose which screen to display your presentation.
• The last group, Captions & Subtitles, is only available in Office 365. You’ll find options to enable subtitles, which will be generated out of your speech (so you’ll need to have a mic). There are settings to change the language and the position of the subtitles.
• Open your presentation in PowerPoint.
• Go to the Slide Show tab.
• In the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show. A new window will open, where you’ll find several options.
• In the top-left corner, under “Show type”, you can choose whether the presentation will be in fullscreen with speaker notes, windowed, or in fullscreen without speaker notes or the menu bar.

• Under “Show options” you can choose whether to show the presentation without narration or animations, or disable the hardware graphics acceleration (for better performance). You can also set the pen and laser pointer color.

• Under “Show slides”, you can choose which slides to show in your presentation. You can select all of them, a specific range or a custom slideshow.
• There are other settings to determine how to advance slides (manually or using timings), what the resolution will be and whether to use the presenter view.
• Click Record Slide Show. From the drop-down menu, select From the Current Slide or From the Beginning.
• A new window will open, along with the presentation in fullscreen mode. At the top-left you’ll find a button to start recording.

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Powerpoint Assist

Tips for Powerpoint by Regina Griffin

How To Get Into Presentation Mode In PowerPoint

Are you looking to take your PowerPoint presentations to the next level?

Presentation Mode in PowerPoint is a powerful tool that can help you create engaging and professional presentations.

We will discuss why you should use Presentation Mode, how to enter it, its key features, and how to navigate through your slides.

Explore the ins and outs of Presentation Mode in PowerPoint, brought to you by teacher Regina Griffin from Oregon, US. Enhance your presentation skills!

Key Takeaways:

• Presentation mode in PowerPoint allows for a more engaging and organized presentation, resulting in a better experience for both the presenter and the audience.
• To enter presentation mode, simply click on the “Slide Show” tab and select “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide”.
• Presentation mode offers features such as a full-screen display, laser pointer/pen tool, and presenter view with notes and slide previews, making it easier to navigate through slides and deliver a professional presentation.

What Is Presentation Mode in PowerPoint?

Presentation Mode in PowerPoint refers to a feature that allows presenters to display their slides in a full-screen view, enhancing the visual impact of their presentation.

This mode is particularly useful during formal presentations, as it eliminates distractions and ensures that the audience’s focus remains on the content being discussed. In Presentation Mode , presenters can navigate through their slides smoothly, interact with their content, and make annotations in real time. One notable advantage of this mode is the Presenter view , where speakers can see upcoming slides, and speaker notes, and even manage time effectively without disrupting the flow of the presentation.

Why Use Presentation Mode in PowerPoint?

Using Presentation Mode in PowerPoint offers numerous advantages, such as creating a more engaging and professional presentation experience for both the presenter and the audience.

When in Presentation Mode, your PowerPoint transforms into a seamless slide show that eliminates distractions and focuses solely on your content. This feature optimizes the screen view for your audience, ensuring they stay engrossed in your message.

Presentation Mode allows the presenter to navigate slides effortlessly, maintaining a smooth flow of information that keeps the audience’s attention intact. The ability to preview slides on a separate monitor while presenting ensures that the speaker remains in control of the presentation pace and content delivery.

Allows for a more engaging and professional presentation

One of the key reasons to use Presentation Mode in PowerPoint is that it allows presenters to deliver a more engaging and professional presentation by providing advanced control over their slides, including features like a laser pointer .

With Presentation Mode, presenters can seamlessly navigate through their slides, controlling the flow of information and keeping the audience’s attention focused. The ability to access advanced controls such as animations, transitions, and speaker notes enhances the overall delivery quality.

The built-in laser pointer feature enables presenters to highlight specific points on the slides, emphasizing crucial information and guiding the audience’s focus. This interactive element adds a dynamic touch to the presentation, making it more engaging and memorable.

Helps the presenter stay on track and organized

Presentation Mode in PowerPoint aids presenters in maintaining focus, organization, and efficiency throughout their presentation by offering tools like Presenter View, where notes and slide previews can be accessed.

This feature is particularly useful as it allows presenters to keep an eye on upcoming slides while also referring to their speaking notes discreetly, enhancing the flow of the presentation. The ability to adjust display settings such as screen mirroring or extending desktops simplifies the setup process, ensuring that the presentation runs smoothly. The note-taking capabilities within Presentation Mode enable presenters to jot down important points or reminders directly within the application, eliminating the need for external notes and promoting a more organized approach to presenting.

Provides a better experience for the audience

Engaging Presentation Mode in PowerPoint not only benefits the presenter but also enhances the audience’s experience by ensuring a seamless and visually appealing display of the content.

When toggling to Presentation Mode, the display settings undergo a transformation that optimizes the presentation for viewer interaction. The ability to seamlessly swap displays allows the presenter to effortlessly navigate through slides, ensuring a smooth transition between different sections of the presentation. This elegant integration of features not only captivates the audience but also enables a more fluid and engaging delivery of the content. The visual appeal of the slides is enhanced, making it easier for viewers to follow along and grasp the key points being presented.

How to Enter Presentation Mode in PowerPoint?

To enter Presentation Mode in PowerPoint, follow these simple steps: open your presentation, click on the ‘Slide Show’ tab in the menu bar, and select ‘From Beginning’ or ‘From Current Slide’ to start your presentation.

If you want to ensure a seamless transition into Presentation Mode, it’s essential to set the right display options. First, check your display settings by going to the ‘Slide Show’ tab and clicking on ‘Set Up Slide Show.’ Here, you can choose whether to present your slides on the primary monitor, a secondary monitor, or in a window. Make sure to select the appropriate display mode based on your setup to guarantee a professional and effective presentation.

Step 1: Open your PowerPoint presentation

The first step to enter Presentation Mode in PowerPoint is to ensure that your presentation file is open and ready for display.

To do so, open PowerPoint and locate the file containing your presentation. Click on the file to open it. Review that the slides are arranged in the correct order and that any speaker notes or animations are set up as desired. Check the slide sorter view to confirm the flow of your presentation. Ensure that the current slide is the one you want to begin with when Presentation Mode is activated. This initial setup is crucial for a seamless transition into your presentation.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Slide Show’ tab in the top menu bar

Once your presentation is open, navigate to the ‘Slide Show’ tab located in the top menu bar of PowerPoint to access presentation controls and features like zooming into specific slides.

Once you’re on the ‘Slide Show’ tab, you’ll find a variety of essential controls that aid in delivering a seamless presentation experience. Here, you can click on ‘From Beginning’ to start the slide show from the very first slide. You can choose ‘From Current Slide’ to begin from the slide you’re currently on.

You’ll notice the ‘Slide Show’ tab offers options to toggle various functionalities like accessing presenter view or setting up custom slide shows. This tab is a hub of useful tools that elevate your presentation delivery.

Step 3: Select ‘From Beginning’ or ‘From Current Slide’ to start the presentation

After accessing the ‘Slide Show’ tab, choose between the ‘From Beginning’ or ‘From Current Slide’ options to initiate your presentation in Presentation Mode, ensuring the desired display settings and presenter view are selected.

When you opt for ‘From Beginning,’ your presentation will start from the very first slide, whereas selecting ‘From Current Slide’ allows you to start your presentation from the slide you are currently on. This choice depends on whether you want to begin at the start of the presentation or jump in at a specific point.

It is crucial to carefully review and adjust the display settings to ensure that your content appears as intended on the screen during the presentation. Make sure to enable the presenter view option for a more dynamic and organized delivery of your content, offering you control over what the audience sees and what you see on your screen.

What Are the Features of Presentation Mode in PowerPoint?

The features of Presentation Mode in PowerPoint are designed to enhance the presenter’s experience and engage the audience, offering functionalities such as Presenter view with notes, laser pointer integration, and slide previews.

Presenter view with notes allows speakers to refer to their talking points discreetly, ensuring a seamless delivery. The incorporated laser pointer feature permits highlighting key areas on slides, directing the audience’s focus effectively. Slide previews provide a comprehensive overview of the presentation flow, aiding in smoother transitions between topics. The option to hide or reveal slides as needed enhances the element of surprise and control during the presentation, captivating the audience’s attention. These combined features transform the presenter’s performance into a dynamic and engaging experience for all participants.

Full-screen display of slides

Presentation Mode in PowerPoint offers a full-screen display of slides, ensuring that the audience can focus solely on the content being presented.

This feature eliminates distractions and directs attention to the key points of the presentation. By seamlessly transitioning between slides, the flow of information is maintained, keeping the audience engaged throughout the talk. The full-screen view enhances the visibility of multimedia elements, such as images and videos, making them more impactful.

Ability to use a laser pointer or pen tool

Presentation Mode enables presenters to use a laser pointer or a pen tool to highlight key points on slides, enhancing the clarity and impact of their presentation.

The laser pointer, a staple in traditional presentations, offers a precise way to direct attention to specific details, aiding in engaging the audience. On the other hand, the pen tool, usually found in digital platforms like smartphone apps or presentation software, allows for more creativity and flexibility in drawing emphasis without the need for physical devices like remote controls. This versatility caters to different presenter preferences and presentation styles, ensuring a dynamic and interactive delivery of content.

Presenter view with notes and slide previews

Presenter view in PowerPoint provides presenters with a comprehensive overview of their slides, including notes and slide previews, facilitating better organization and seamless delivery.

When utilizing the Presenter view, presenters gain the advantage of accessing notes discretely without them being displayed to the audience, allowing for a more professional and polished delivery. In addition, having a live preview of the upcoming slides enables the presenter to seamlessly transition between points, enhancing the flow of the presentation. Through system preferences or the displays app, customization options such as adjusting the layout to suit individual preferences or toggling between speaker notes and slide previews can be easily configured, providing a tailored experience for each presenter.

Option to hide the presentation controls

One convenient feature of Presentation Mode is the ability to hide presentation controls , providing a cleaner and more immersive viewing experience for both the presenter and the audience.

By opting to hide presentation controls, presenters can focus on delivering their content without any distractions or overlays obstructing their view. This is especially beneficial when engaging in live demonstrations, showcasing visual content, or utilizing mirror displays for a seamless and professional presentation.

In scenarios where presenters are utilizing a two-monitor setup for advanced display configurations, such as showing notes on one screen while presenting on the other, hiding presentation controls on the main display ensures that only the essential content is visible to the audience, maintaining a neat and streamlined appearance.

How to Navigate Through Slides in Presentation Mode?

Navigating through slides in Presentation Mode can be done efficiently using keyboard shortcuts, mouse controls, or specific commands within PowerPoint.

One handy method to quickly move to the next slide during a presentation is by pressing the Spacebar or Enter key on your keyboard. Conversely, to go back to the previous slide, you can use the Backspace key. You can effortlessly jump to a specific slide by entering the slide number followed by pressing the Enter key. For a more visual approach, you can click on the slide thumbnails on the left sidebar or use the scroll wheel to navigate through the slides.

Use the arrow keys on your keyboard

Utilize the arrow keys on your keyboard to seamlessly advance through slides in Presentation Mode, ensuring a smooth and controlled flow of your presentation.

With the simple and intuitive collaboration of the arrow keys, you can effortlessly navigate through your slides, enabling precision in delivering your content. The arrow keys allow you to move forward or backward with ease, keeping the focus on your message during the presentation. This feature is especially useful in Presenter View, where you can see upcoming slides and speaker notes, maintaining a seamless delivery. When you record a slide show, the arrow keys help you pace your narration perfectly, ensuring synchronization between your speech and slide transitions.

Click on the arrows in the bottom left corner of the screen

For a more interactive navigation experience, users can click on the directional arrows located in the bottom left corner of the screen to progress through their presentation while having access to speaker notes and animations.

Users can enhance their presentation experience by utilizing the fullscreen mode . By entering fullscreen, viewers can keep the focus solely on the presentation content, removing any distractions from the surrounding interface elements. This feature is particularly useful when showcasing detailed slides or when presenting to a larger audience, allowing for a more immersive and engaging delivery.

Use the scroll wheel on your mouse

Another seamless way to navigate through slides in Presentation Mode is by utilizing the scroll wheel on your mouse, providing smooth and intuitive control over slide transitions and content progression.

The scroll wheel allows users to effortlessly advance slides without the need to click buttons or use keyboard shortcuts, enhancing the overall presentation experience.

With its responsive nature, the scroll wheel ensures quick and precise movements, enabling presenters to fluidly transition between slides with the utmost ease.

This feature is particularly handy when presenting slides with high resolution , allowing for a seamless display of detailed content in a visually appealing manner.

How to Exit Presentation Mode in PowerPoint?

Exiting Presentation Mode in PowerPoint is a simple process that involves pressing the ‘Esc’ key on your keyboard, clicking on the ‘End Show’ button, or selecting ‘End Show’ from the drop-down menu to return to the normal viewing mode.

To exit Fullscreen mode in PowerPoint, you can simply press the ‘Esc’ key, the keyboard shortcut that is universally used to escape full-screen views across various applications. This action will promptly take you out of the immersive mode and back to the regular interface.

Another convenient way to exit the Presentation Mode is by navigating to the bottom left corner of the screen and clicking on the ‘End Show’ button. This button serves as a quick exit route from the full-screen display, offering an immediate transition back to the standard PowerPoint screen.

Step 1: Press the Esc key on your keyboard

The first step to exit Presentation Mode is to press the ‘Esc’ key on your keyboard, which will promptly exit the full-screen display and return you to the standard PowerPoint interface.

Exiting Presentation Mode using the ‘Esc’ key is a simple maneuver that can swiftly transition you back to your familiar workspace. Once you press the ‘Esc’ key, the fullscreen effect will dissolve, and any Speaker Notes you might have been glancing over will no longer dominate your screen, ensuring a seamless flow as you exit the presentation. This action provides an effortless way to shift the focus back to the general view of your PowerPoint, facilitating a smooth continuation of your usual workflow.

Step 2: Click on the ‘End Show’ button on the top left corner of the screen

To exit Presentation Mode, users can also click on the ‘End Show’ button located in the top left corner of the screen, providing a direct and visible method to conclude the presentation.

Once you are ready to end your presentation and exit the immersive Presentation Mode, simply direct your attention to the top left corner of the screen where the ‘End Show’ button awaits your command. By clicking on this button, you seamlessly transition back to the regular view, enabling you to navigate your presentation’s content, check additional details, or record the slide show for future reference. This function provides an effortless way to not only conclude your speech but also to review or amend content from the current slide onward, ensuring a smooth transition and accessibility for your audience.

Step 3: Select ‘End Show’ from the drop-down menu

For a more detailed exit process, users can select ‘ End Show ‘ from the drop-down menu within PowerPoint, ensuring a controlled and comprehensive conclusion to their presentation.

Once ‘End Show’ is chosen, users can seamlessly transition back to PowerPoint’s standard interface, bidding farewell to the presenter view. Exiting this mode allows presenters to access additional options to end their presentation smoothly and efficiently.

Upon choosing ‘End Show’, users can review their content, make final adjustments, and conclude their presentation with confidence, maintaining professionalism throughout the process. This method ensures a polished and professional exit from Presentation Mode, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i enter presentation mode in powerpoint.

To enter presentation mode in PowerPoint, click on the Slideshow tab in the top menu and then select “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide” depending on where you want to start your presentation.

Can I customize the way I enter presentation mode in PowerPoint?

Yes, you can customize the way you enter presentation mode by going to the Slideshow tab and selecting “Set Up Slide Show.” From there, you can choose options such as looping, presenter view, and more.

Is there a shortcut to enter presentation mode in PowerPoint?

Yes, you can press the F5 key on your keyboard to enter presentation mode in PowerPoint. You can also press Shift+F5 to start from the current slide.

Can I use a different display for presentation mode in PowerPoint?

Yes, you can use a different display for presentation mode by going to the Slideshow tab and selecting “Set Up Slide Show.” From there, you can choose to present on a secondary monitor or projector.

How do I exit presentation mode in PowerPoint?

To exit presentation mode in PowerPoint, press the Escape key on your keyboard or right-click and select “End Show.” You can also press the B key to go back to the previous slide.

Can I add speaker notes while in presentation mode in PowerPoint?

Yes, you can add speaker notes while in presentation mode by clicking on the Notes section at the bottom of the screen. This will allow you to add notes that only you can see while presenting.

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How-To Geek

All the best microsoft powerpoint keyboard shortcuts.

Even if you’re familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint, you might be surprised by the number and variety of keyboard shortcuts you can use to speed up your work and generally make things more convenient.

Quick Links

General program shortcuts, selecting and navigating text, objects, and slides, formatting and editing, helpful slideshow shortcuts.

Now, does anyone expect you to memorize all these keyboard combos? Of course not! Everyone’s needs are different, so some will be more useful to you than others. And even if you pick up a few new tricks, it’s worth it. We’ve also tried to keep the list clean and simple, so go ahead and print it that helps!

Also, even though our list of shortcuts here is pretty long, it’s by no means a complete list of every keyboard combo available in PowerPoint. We’ve tried to keep it to the more generally useful shortcuts. And, you’ll be happy to know that almost all of these shortcuts have been around for a long time, so they should be helpful no matter what version of PowerPoint you’re using.

Note: We present keyboard combos using the following convention. A plus means you should press those keys together. A comma means you should press keys in sequence. So, for example, "Ctrl+N" means to hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the N key and then release both keys. On the other hand, "Alt+N,P" means you should hold the Alt key down, press the N key, release the N key, press the P key, and then release all keys.

First, let's review some general keyboard shortcuts for opening, closing, and switching between presentations, as well as navigating the Ribbon.

• Ctrl+N: Create a new presentation
• Ctrl+O: Open an existing presentation
• Ctrl+S: Save a presentation
• F12 or Alt+F2: Open the Save As dialog box
• Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4: Close a presentation
• Ctrl+Q: Save and close a presentation
• Ctrl+Z: Undo an action
• Ctrl+Y: Redo an action
• Ctrl+F2: Print Preview View
• F1: Open the Help pane
• Alt+Q: Go to the “Tell me what you want to do” box
• F7: Check spelling
• Alt or F10: Turn key tips on or off
• Ctrl+F1: Show or hide the ribbon
• Ctrl+F: Search in a presentation or use Find and Replace
• Alt+F: Open the File tab menu
• Alt+H: Go to the Home tab
• Alt+N: Open the Insert tab
• Alt+G: Open the Design tab
• Alt+K: Go to the Transitions tab
• Alt+A: Go to the Animations tab
• Alt+S: Go to the Slide Show tab
• Alt+R: Go to the Review tab
• Alt+W: Go to View tab
• Alt+X: Go to the Add-ins tab
• Alt+Y: Go to the Help tab
• Ctrl+Tab: Switch between open presentations

You can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate throughout your presentation easily. Try these shortcuts for quick and easy ways to select text within text boxes, objects on your slides, or slides in your presentation.

• Ctrl+A: Select all text in a text box, all objects on a slide, or all slides in a presentation (for the latter, click on a slide thumbnail first)
• Tab: Select or move to the next object on a slide
• Shift+Tab: Select or move to the previous object on a slide
• Home: Go to the first slide, or from within a text box, go to the beginning of the line
• End: Go to the last slide, or from within a text box, go to the end of the line
• PgDn: Go to the next slide
• PgUp: Go the previous slide
• Ctrl+Up/Down Arrow: Move a slide up or down in your presentation (click on a slide thumbnail first)
• Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down Arrow: Move a slide to the beginning or end of your presentation (click on a slide thumbnail first)

The following keyboard shortcuts will save you time so you can edit and format in a snap!

• Ctrl+X: Cut selected text, selected object(s), or selected slide(s)
• Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert: Copy selected text, selected object(s), or selected slide(s)
• Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert: Paste selected text, selected object(s), or selected slide(s)
• Ctrl+Alt+V: Open the Paste Special dialog box
• Delete: Remove selected text, selected object(s), or selected slide(s)
• Ctrl+B: Add or remove bold to selected text
• Ctrl+I: Add or remove italics to selected text
• Ctrl+U: Add or remove underline to selected text
• Ctrl+E: Center a paragraph
• Ctrl+J: Justify a paragraph
• Ctrl+L: Left align a paragraph
• Ctrl+R: Right align a paragraph
• Ctrl+T: Open the Font dialog box when text or object is selected
• Alt+W,Q: Open the Zoom dialog box to change the zoom for the slide
• Alt+N,P: Insert a picture
• Alt+H,S,H: Insert a shape
• Alt+H,L: Select a slide layout
• Ctrl+K: Insert a hyperlink
• Ctrl+M: Insert a new slide
• Ctrl+D: Duplicate the selected object or slide (for the latter, click on a slide thumbnail first)

When you're ready to start a presentation, the following keyboard combos should come in handy.

• F5: Start the presentation from the beginning
• Shift+F5: Start the presentation from the current slide (this one is great when you want to test out how the slide your currently working on will look in your presentation)
• Ctrl+P: Annotate with the Pen tool during a slideshow
• N or Page Down: Advance to the next slide during a slideshow
• P or Page Up:  Return to the previous slide during a slide show
• B: Change the screen to black during a slideshow; press B again to return to the slideshow
• Esc: End the slideshow

The more you use keyboard shortcuts, the easier they are to remember. And no one expects you to memorize all of them. Hopefully, you've found a few new ones you can use to make your life in Excel a little better.

Need more help with keyboard shortcuts? You can access Help anytime by pressing F1. This opens a Help pane and allows you to search for help on any topic. Search for "keyboard shortcuts" to learn more.

The 48 best PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts for making great presentations quickly and easily

• There are many PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts that you can use to work faster and more efficiently on the platform.
• You can use a long list of keyboard shortcuts for common tasks, along with PowerPoint's Access Key shortcuts.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories .

Microsoft PowerPoint is a complex program with a vast number of features, so it's worth your time to learn all its secrets. Some of these secrets include keyboard shortcuts, which can seriously speed up your workflow.

Not only can keyboard shortcuts save you a lot of time, but knowing important shortcuts when delivering a presentation can help everything run more smoothly. 

Here's a guide to the most useful keyboard shortcuts in the Windows 10 version of Microsoft PowerPoint .

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Windows 10 (from $139.99 at best buy), acer chromebook 15 (from $179.99 at walmart), microsoft office (from $149.99 at best buy), how to use powerpoint's access key shortcuts.

The ribbon at the top of PowerPoint gives you access to virtually all the program's countless features, and you don't need to use your mouse to use it – every ribbon command has its own keyboard shortcut. 

To use the ribbon entirely using your keyboard, do this:

1. Press and release Alt. You should see an overlay called Access Keys appear. 

2. Press the Access Key indicated to switch to the Ribbon tab you want to use.  

3. Press the Access Key for the command you want to use. Some Access Keys are more than one key press – just press the keys in sequence. If there is yet another layer of choices, continue to press the appropriate keys. For example, if you wanted to rehearse the timing of a presentation, you would press Alt and release it, then press S, and then press T. 

Every PowerPoint keyboard shortcut you need to know

You can use the ribbon shortcuts to perform virtually any task in PowerPoint, but you might often find the more traditional keyboard shortcuts more convenient to use. 

Here are the most important keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint.

Delivering a presentation

Start a presentation from the beginning: Press F5 to start playing a presentation from the first slide. 

Start a presentation from the current slide: Press Shift + F5 to start playing a presentation from whatever slide is currently on screen.

Start a presentation in Presenter View: Press Alt + F5 to start a presentation in Presenter View, which lets you see your notes on the main computer screen while the audience sees only the slides on a separate screen. 

Go to the next slide or start the next animation: To advance to the next slide, you have several options. You can press any of these keys: N, Enter, Spacebar, Right Arrow, or Down Arrow.

Go back to the previous slide or animation: To go back to the previous slide, you also have several options. You can press any of these keys: P, Page Up, Left Arrow, or Up Arrow.

Go to the first slide: Press Home to restart the presentation at the first slide.

Go to the last slide: Press End to go directly to the final slide. 

Stop or start an automatic presentation: Press S to toggle an automatic, timed presentation between start and stop. 

Go to a specific slide: To go to a specific slide within the presentation, enter the slide number followed by Enter, such as 15 + Enter to go to slide number 15. 

Open the All Slides dialog box: To see a list of all the slides in your presentation, press Ctrl + S.

End a presentation: Press Esc to exit a presentation. 

Toggle between presentation and a blank screen: To temporarily display a blank screen in the middle of a presentation, press B to see a black screen or W to see a white screen. 

Start the laser pointer: Press Ctrl + L to change the pointer into a virtual laser dot. 

Draw on the presentation with a pen: Press Ctrl + P to change the pointer into a pen that you can use to annotate the screen. 

Hide the pointer and navigation controls: Press Ctrl + H to hide the pointer (or laser dot or pen) and the navigation controls. 

Erase annotations: Press E to erase any annotations you've made with the pen.

Creating a presentation

Open a presentation: Press Ctrl + O to open an existing PowerPoint presentation. 

Create a new presentation: Press Ctrl + N to create a new presentation. 

Add a new slide: Press Ctrl + M to add a new slide to a presentation in progress. 

Save the presentation: Press Ctrl + S to immediately save a presentation with its current file name. 

Save a presentation with a new filename: Press F12 to open the Save As dialog box and save your presentation. 

Close a presentation: Press Ctrl + W to close the current presentation. If it hasn't been saved, PowerPoint will give you the opportunity to save it first. 

Editing slides

Copy a slide, text, or other object: Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected item, which can be text, a graphic, or even an entire slide. 

Cut a slide, text, or other object: Press Ctrl + X to cut the selected item, which can be text, a graphic, or even an entire slide. 

Paste a slide, text, or other object: Press Ctrl + V to paste the content of the clipboard at the cursor location. 

Delete a selected slide, text, or other object: Select the item you want to remove and then press Delete.

Insert a hyperlink: Select text or object in a slide and then press Ctrl + K to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box to turn it into a link. If you press Ctrl + K without selecting anything first, then you will need to specify the link text as well. 

Go to the next or previous slide: Press Page Down to advance to the next slide; press Page Up to go back to the previous slide. 

Change the order of a slide: Press Ctrl + Up Arrow to move the selected slide one position earlier in the presentation; press Ctrl + Down Arrow to move it one later in the presentation. 

Move a slide to the start of the presentation: Press Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow to move the selected slide to the start of the presentation. 

Move a slide to the end of the presentation: Press Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow to move the selected slide to the end of the presentation.

Editing text

Bold: Press Ctrl + B to bold the selected text.

Italics: Press Ctrl + I to italics the selected text.

Underline: Press Ctrl + U to underline the selected text.

Make the font bigger: Press Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow to increase the size of the selected text a little at a time. 

Make the font smaller: Press Ctrl  + Shift + Left Arrow to decrease the size of the selected text a little at a time.

Center text: Press Ctrl + E to center the selected paragraph.

Left align text: Press Ctrl + L to left-align the selected paragraph.

Right align text: Press Ctrl + R to right-align the selected paragraph.

Justify text: Press Ctrl + J to justify the selected paragraph. This causes the text to auto-fit to the left and right margins of the slide. 

Superscript: Press Ctrl and the Plus sign to turn the selected text into superscript.

Subscript: Press Ctrl + = to turn the selected text into subscript. 

Check spelling: Press F7 to run PowerPoint's built-in spell checker.

General tasks

Search within a presentation: Press Ctrl + F to open the Find dialog box, where you can search for specific text within the presentation. You can also search and replace text using this dialog box. 

Undo: Press Ctrl + Z to undo your last action. 

Redo: Press Ctrl + Y to redo the last action, if possible. If it's not possible for PowerPoint to redo the action, nothing will happen. 

Help: Press F1 to open the Help and Support pane. 

Cancel: Press Esc to abort any task you don't want to complete. In some cases, you may also need to click "Cancel."

Related coverage from  Tech Reference :

How to do a voiceover on a powerpoint presentation and add pre-recorded audio to your slides, how to add a border to slides in powerpoint, and give your slideshow a sleek design, how to change and format the background of your powerpoint slides to custom designs, how to change your language settings in microsoft powerpoint in 3 different ways, how to copy or duplicate a powerpoint slide and put it anywhere in your slideshow.

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10 Keyboard Shortcuts to Use When Presenting PowerPoint Slideshows

In business meetings, you can use Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows to highlight important information and capture audiences’ attention. During a slideshow , clicking through various options with the mouse can throw off your timing. Plus, the audience can see you perform these actions.

A better approach is to use keyboard shortcuts . Besides being faster, you will look like a more experienced presenter. Here are 10 keyboard shortcuts that you can use when presenting slideshows using PowerPoint 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007. You can also Google some other keyboard shortcuts!

Keyboard Shortcuts For PowerPoint

Pressing the F5 key begins the slideshow from the first slide.

2. Shift+F5

To begin the slideshow from the current slide , press Shift+F5. In other words, press the Shift and F5 keys at the same time.

3. Spacebar, N, or Right Arrow

When you are ready to advance to the next slide or perform the next animation, you can press any of the following: the Spacebar , the N key, or the right arrow key.

4. Backspace, P, or Left Arrow

If you need to backtrack , press the Backspace, P, or left arrow key to go back to the previous slide or animation.

Pressing Ctrl+P changes the mouse pointer from an arrow to a pen. You can then use the pen to add a note to a slide or call attention to an item.

6. W or Comma

During a presentation , you might want to pause the slideshow so that you can discuss a certain point. Pressing the W or comma key pauses it and displays a white screen. Pressing the W or comma key again resumes the slideshow. When the slideshow is paused, you can use the pen to write on the white screen. If you do not already have the pen activated, though, you will need to do so with the mouse (Pressing Ctrl+P to activate the pen does not work – it simply prompts the slideshow to resume.) Anything you write on the white screen will not be saved when you resume the slideshow .

7. B or Period

Pressing the B key or period key pauses the slideshow and displays a black screen, which you can write on. Press the B or period key again to resume the slideshow.

8. Ctrl+E or E

If you need to erase a mark you made with a pen on a slide, you can change the pointer to an eraser by pressing Ctrl+E. You can erase all the marks you made to a slide at once by pressing the E key. (The pointer will not change in the latter case.) You cannot use Ctrl+E or E to erase marks on a white or black screen created when pausing a slideshow.

Pressing Ctrl+A changes the pointer to the default arrow.

Another way to change the pointer to the default arrow is pressing the Esc key. If the pointer is already an arrow, pressing Esc exits the slideshow.

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5 PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts to Start a Slide Show

Try These Useful PowerPoint Shortcuts to Start a Slide Show

by Avantix Learning Team | October 16, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft ® PowerPoint ® 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (Windows)

You can start a slide show in PowerPoint using several keyboard shortcuts. In this article, we'll review shortcuts to start a show using function keys or by using key tips.

Recommended article: How to Strikethrough or Cross Out Text in PowerPoint (4 Ways with Shortcuts)

If the function key shortcuts don't work, you may need to press the Fn key on your keyboard at the same time.

Typically, you would start a slide show from Normal View or Slide Sorter View. To exit a slide show, press ESC.

If Presenter View is selected on the Slide Show tab in the Ribbon, the show will start in Presenter View. If you have two monitors and Automatic is selected as the Monitor setting on the Slide Show tab, the show will display as a standard slide show on the second monitor and will display Presenter View on the presenter's screen by default.

1. Start a presentation from the beginning using a function key

2. start a presentation from the current slide using a function key.

Press Shift+F5.

3. Start the presentation in Presenter View using a function key

Press Alt + F5.

4. Start a presentation from the beginning using key tips

Press Alt > S > B (press Alt, then S, then B).

5. Start a presentation from the current slide using key tips

Press Alt > S > C (Alt, then S, then C).

There are many shortcuts you can use during a PowerPoint slide show as well. Check out the article PowerPoint Slide Show Shortcuts (50+ Keyboard Shortcuts).

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How to Insert or Type E with an Accent Mark in PowerPoint (È, É, Ê, Ë, è, é, ê, or ë)

You can insert or type e with an accent mark in PowerPoint using built-in tools or keyboard shortcuts (including Alt code shortcuts). The letter e can be inserted with an accent in both upper or lower case in text boxes or placeholders on slides, the slide master or layouts. The following are common accents in upper or lower case – È, É, Ê, Ë, è, é, ê, or ë.

How to Fade a Picture or Part of a Picture in PowerPoint (Using a Gradient)

You can fade a picture in PowerPoint by drawing a rectangle shape on top of the picture and then filling the rectangle with a gradient from opaque to transparent. This technique is often used to fade an image into the background of a slide. Since the rectangle is placed on top of the image and then text may be placed on top of the rectangle, you may need to reorder the objects.

How to Lock an Image, Shape or Other Object in PowerPoint

You can now lock an image, shape or other object in PowerPoint. Objects can be locked in Normal View or Slide Master View. Only PowerPoint 365 users can lock objects to prevent moving and resizing. This is helpful if you want to select and move other objects on the slide or prevent others from moving or resizing an object. You can lock items using the context menu or the Selection Pane.

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Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view

Using Presenter view is a great way to view your presentation with speaker notes on one computer (your laptop, for example), while only the slides themselves appear on the screen that your audience sees (like a larger screen you're projecting to).

If you're using a newer version of PowerPoint, just connect the monitors and PowerPoint automatically sets up Presenter View for you.

If Presenter view appears on the wrong screen, you can swap the display quickly .

Turn off Presenter view if you prefer not to use it.

Start presenting

On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, select From Beginning .

Use the controls in Presenter view

To move to the previous or next slide, select Previous or Next .

To view all the slides in your presentation, select See all slides .

Tip:  You’ll see thumbnails of all the slides in your presentation (as shown below), making it easy to jump to a specific slide in the show.

To view a detail in your slide up close, select Zoom into slide , and then point to the part you want to see.

For more details on zooming in, see Zoom in to part of a slide .

To point to or write on your slides as you present, select Pen and laser pointer tools .

Press the Esc key when you want to turn off the pen, laser pointer, or highlighter.

To hide or unhide the current slide in your presentation, select Black or unblack slide show .

You can use PowerPoint on your smartphone as a remote control to run your presentation and view your speaker notes. See Using a laser pointer on your smartphone when presenting in PowerPoint for more information, including a brief video.

Swap the Presenter view and Slide view monitors

To manually determine which screen shows your notes in Presenter view and which shows only the slides themselves, on the task bar at the top of Presenter view, select Display Settings , and then select Swap Presenter View and Slide Show .

What the notes look like in Presenter view

Tip:  You can add notes either while you’re presenting, directly from Presenter view, or as you’re editing your presentation. For information on how to add speaker notes to your presentation see  Add speaker notes to your slides.

The notes appear in a pane on the right. If you need to add or delete something, simply click in the text box to edit it. The text wraps automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary. You can change the size of the text in the Notes pane by using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes pane:

To change the size of the panes in Presenter View, point your mouse at the vertical line that separates them, then click and drag.

Tip:  If you don't need to see the current slide in Presenter View at all, and would like your notes to be larger, drag that vertical separator line all the way to the left.

Turn off Presenter view

If you want Presenter view turned off while you are showing your presentation to others:

On the Slide Show tab of the ribbon, clear the check box named Use Presenter View .

Keep your slides updated

If you're working with a team of people to create your slide deck it may be that changes are being made to the slides right up to the last minute. Traditionally once you've started your presentation your slides wouldn't update. If you're using PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 you have the option to let your slides be updated by your team even as you're presenting so that you always have the up-to-the-minute changes.

You can turn this on by going to the Slide Show tab of the ribbon, selecting Set Up Slide Show , and checking the box for Keep slides updated .  

If you've already started your presentation and you want to make sure that setting is on, you can do that from Presenter view. Select the More slide show options button (which looks like three dots) and on the menu make sure Keep Slides Updated is checked.

Using a laser pointer on your smartphone when presenting in PowerPoint

To start using Presenter view, select Slide Show > Presenter View .

To move to the previous or next slide, select the Previous or Next arrow.

To turn off the pen, laser pointer, or highlighter, press the Esc key.

To make the screen black or to un-black the screen, Press b on the keyboard.

Extend your Mac desktop to the second monitor

On the Apple menu, select System Preferences .

Open the Displays app.

Click the Arrangement tab in the dialog box.

Clear the Mirror Displays check box.

By doing this process, you now have a two-monitor setup. You can present a PowerPoint slide show on one screen while having other applications open on the other screen, keeeping those other apps private to yourself.

To manually determine which screen shows your notes in Presenter view and which shows only the slides themselves, on the task bar at the top left of Presenter view, select Swap Displays .

When your computer is connected to a projector and you start Presenter View, it appears on your computer's screen, while only the slides appear on the projector screen.

The notes appear in a pane on the right:

The text wraps automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary.

You can edit the text in the Notes pane.

You can change the size of the text in the Notes pane by using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes pane:

You can adjust the size of the current slide, and notes and next slide panels, by using your mouse to grab and drag the vertical line that separates the two panels.

Turn off Presenter view before a presentation begins

On the PowerPoint menu, select Preferences .

In the PowerPoint Preferences dialog box, under Output and Sharing , click Slide Show .

In the Slide Show dialog box, clear the Always start Presenter View with 2 displays check box.

Close the dialog box.

Turn off Presenter view during a presentation

At the top of the Presentation view window, click Use Slide Show .

This button closes Presenter view. As a result, both your personal computer screen and the projector screen show the slide show.

If you're working with a team of people to create your slide deck it may be that changes are being made to the slides right up to the last minute. Traditionally once you've started your presentation your slides wouldn't update. If you're using PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac you have the option to let your slides be updated by your team even as you're presenting so that you always have the up-to-the-minute changes.

You can turn this on by going to the Slide Show tab of the ribbon, and checking the box for Keep Slides Updated .  

Create a self-running presentation

Record your slide show

Keep slides updated

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91 PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Download PowerPoint Shortcut Keys PDF

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Most Used PowerPoint Shortcuts
• 1.2 Edit Text Shortcuts
• 1.3 Tab Selection Shortcuts
• 1.4 Navigation Shortcuts
• 1.5 Outlining Views Shortcuts
• 1.6 Presentation Windows Shortcuts

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials Essential Shortcuts for PowerPoint Presentations

Essential Shortcuts for PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint is an indispensable tool for business professionals, aiding in creating impactful presentations that can make or break a deal. However, creating and delivering presentations can be time-consuming. To help you speed up your presentation slide design and delivery performance, here are 30 essential PowerPoint shortcuts every user should master.

Table of Contents

Reasons to Learn PowerPoint Shortcuts

Frequently used shortcuts, apply character formatting, ribbon navigation, select and edit text and objects, control slides during a presentation.

Time Efficiency and Productivity: Mastering PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts can significantly reduce the time spent creating and editing presentations, allowing users to focus on content and delivery.

Enhanced Focus: By eliminating the need to search for functions in menus, presenters can maintain their focus on the task at hand, leading to better quality work.

Professionalism: Quick and seamless operation during a presentation can make a user appear more professional and in control.

Ease of Use: Once mastered, keyboard shortcuts become second nature, making the software easier and more enjoyable.

Accessibility: For users with disabilities, PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts can provide an easier and more accessible way to use software.

This selection of shortcuts represents the most commonly used tools by PowerPoint users. Applying these shortcuts to our workflow will significantly speed up our performance.

• Insert a new slide: CTRL + M / CMD + M
• Duplicate a selected object or slide: CTRL + D / CMD + D
• Change the zoom for the slide: ALT + W + Q / OPTION + W + Q
• Cut selected object, text, or slide: CTRL + X / CMD + X
• Copy selected object, text, or slide: CTRL + C / CMD + C
• Paste selected object, text, or slide: CTRL + V / CMD + V
• Undo the last action: CTRL + Z / CMD + Z
• Start Slide Show: ALT + S + B / OPTION + S + B
• End Slide Show: Esc / Esc
• Insert a Picture: ALT + N + P / OPTION + N + P

This set of shortcuts will help us to edit our copy text in PowerPoint slides.

• Open the Font dialogue box: CTRL + T / CMD + T
• Apply bold formatting: CTRL + B / CMD + B
• Apply an underline: CTRL + U / CMD + U
• Apply italic formatting: CTRL + I / CMD + I
• Apply subscript formatting: CTRL + = / CMD + =
• Apply superscript formatting: CTRL + SHIFT + ‘+’ / CMD + SHIFT + ‘+’
• Insert a hyperlink: CTRL + K / CMD + K

Instead of manually switching between tabs in the Ribbon, we can do it via PowerPoint shortcuts.

• Open the File page: ALT + F / OPTION + F
• Open the Home tab: ALT + H / OPTION + H
• Open the Insert tab: ALT + N / OPTION + N
• Open the Design tab: ALT + G / OPTION + G
• Open the Transitions tab: ALT + T / OPTION + T
• Open the Animations tab: ALT + A / OPTION + A
• Open the Slide Show tab: ALT + S / OPTION + S
• Open the Review tab: ALT + R / OPTION + R
• Open the View tab: ALT + W / OPTION + W

Most of these shortcuts are handled with the arrow keys of your keyboard in combination with CTRL/CMD and SHIFT/OPTION. We will list a few other shortcuts, but you can find the full list in the infographic shown at the end of this guide.

• Send object back one position: CTRL + [ / CMD + [
• Send object forward one position: CTRL + ] / CMD + ]
• Select another object (when one is selected): TAB or SHIFT + TAB / OPTION + TAB
• Send an object to the back: CTRL + SHIFT + [ / CMD + OPTION + [
• Bring an object to the front: CTRL + SHIFT + ] / CMD + OPTION + ]

Ideally, these shortcuts are handled by the person in charge of the slides during the presentation rather than the speaker. Still, since both roles sometimes are done by the same presenter, it’s best to familiarize ourselves with these shortcuts.

• Stop or restart an automatic presentation: S
• End a presentation: ESC
• Erase on-screen annotations: E
• Display a blank slide or return to the presentation: W
• Hide the pointer and navigation button immediately: CTRL + H

Mastering PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts is not just about saving time; it’s about transforming your work process to be more efficient, professional, and focused. The benefits are clear, from increased productivity and ease of use to enhanced professionalism during presentations.

We invite you to take the time to learn and practice these shortcuts. Incorporate them into your daily work routine and watch as they become second nature, significantly improving your presentation design and delivery. Remember, the small investment of time and effort you put into mastering these shortcuts will pay off in the long run, giving you a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout your professional journey. So, start today and unlock the full potential of your presentations with the power of keyboard shortcuts!

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Microsoft Office PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Cheat Sheet

Save your time and Boost Your Productivity

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular tools for creating and delivering presentations, but a lot of people are still unaware of how to use it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If you’re a frequent user of Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you know that there are a lot of different features and functions to master. One way to make your workflow more efficient is by using keyboard shortcuts.

Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint:

Ctrl + N: Create a new presentation.\ Ctrl + O: Open an existing presentation.\ Ctrl + S: Save your presentation.\ Ctrl + P: Print your presentation.\ Ctrl + Z: Undo your last action.\ Ctrl + Y: Redo your last action.\ Ctrl + C: Copy selected text or object.\ Ctrl + X: Cut selected text or object.\ Ctrl + V: Paste copied or cut text or object.\ Ctrl + A: Select all objects on a slide.\ Ctrl + F: Find and replace text.\ Ctrl + B: Apply or remove bold formatting.\ Ctrl + I: Apply or remove italic formatting.\ Ctrl + U: Apply or remove underline formatting.\ Ctrl + E: Center align text.\ Ctrl + L: Left align text.\ Ctrl + R: Right align text.\ Ctrl + M: Insert a new slide.\ Ctrl + D: Duplicate currently selected slide.\ Ctrl + H: Show or hide the Ribbon.

These shortcuts can save you a lot of time and effort, especially if you’re working on a large presentation. To view a full list of keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint, you can access the “Keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint” help article on the Microsoft website. In addition to keyboard shortcuts, you can also create your own custom shortcuts by assigning a keyboard shortcut to a specific command or function. To do this, select “Options” from the “File” tab, then select “Customize Ribbon” and “Keyboard Shortcuts.” From there, you can select the command you want to assign a shortcut to and create your custom shortcut.

By utilizing keyboard shortcuts and custom shortcuts, you can streamline your PowerPoint workflow and become a more efficient presenter.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint – Keyboard Shortcuts and Cheat Sheet

Shortcuts are a quick and easy way to elevate your design skills and improve your overall presentation. Take the time to memorize them I promise it’s worth it.

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• Presentation Hacks

5 PowerPoint Shortcuts Every Presenter Should Know

• By: Camille Holden

We all know there’s no easy button for becoming a successful public speaker. It takes hard work, lots of practice, and a unique blend of science and artistry.

That’s why it’s all the more heartbreaking when you see a good presenter get derailed by their technology. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having to apologize for your missed cues and misfires.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Presentation technology can be a blessing, rather than a curse, as long as you know how to use it to your benefit. And while there is no easy button for that either, there are certain buttons that can make your presentations more seamless and make your delivery a lot smoother.

To make sure you’re not letting technology get in your way, here are the 5 PowerPoint shortcuts* every presenter needs to know.

*I’m omitting the truly basic ones that work across all of your applications, like copy/paste and save.

Key PowerPoint Shortcut #1 – Blacking / White-ing the Screen Sometimes you may need to pause the presentation for a lunch break or to answer a question unrelated to the presentation. In these situations, you can use shortcut keys to display a blank screen and keep your audience’s attention focused on you.

Here are the shortcuts you need to know: W or comma (while in Slide Show Mode) will turn the screen completely white. Hit either shortcut once more, and you will return to your slide.

B or period (while in Slide Show Mode) will turn the screen completely black. Hit either shortcut once more, and you will return to your slide.

Key PowerPoint Shortcut #2 – Activating the Laser Pointer When giving your talk, you may have specific elements on your slide that you want to point out to your audience. One great way to do that is to use a laser pointer – and PowerPoint provides one directly within the software.

While in Slide Show Mode, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and click and drag with your mouse. Doing so turns on the laser pointer, allowing you to point out things on your slide and focus your audience’s attention.

Here are the shortcuts you need to know: Hold the Ctrl key and click with your mouse (in Slide Show Mode).

Key PowerPoint Shortcut #3 – Inking Your Slides Some of the best tools native to PowerPoint when presenting in front of an audience – whether on a webinar or in a room – are the inking tools.

You can use these tools to highlight parts of the slide, add notes, diagram elements in, etc.

The inking tools include the pen and the highlighter.

Here are the shortcuts you need to know: Ctrl + P (while in Slide Show Mode) will activate the pen, allowing you to write / draw on your slides. Hitting CTRL + P a second time will turn the Pen off.

Ctrl + I (while in Slide Show Mode) will activate the highlighter, allowing you to highlight / draw on your slides.

Ctrl + M (while in Slide Show Mode) will hide all the ink on your slide. If you use the shortcut a second time, you will make the ink re-appear.

E (while in Slide Show Mode) will erase all the ink on your slide.

Pro Tip: Be careful when erasing the Ink on screen as there is no way to un-erase that ink. If you typically want to save the ink on yours, memorize the CTRL + M shortcut instead as it merely hides the ink.

Key PowerPoint Shortcut #4 – Launching Presenter View Presenter View is a great alternative to Slide Show Mode, allowing you to play your presentation for an audience.

I love using Presenter View, because it allows you to do several things: 1. See the slide that your audience is viewing so that you can address that slide, 2. See the notes you have for that slide, 3. Preview the next slide to prepare you for what’s to come, 4. View the time and duration of your presentation, and 5. Use the laser pointer and ink features to mark up your presentation.

Knowing how to jump straight to Presenter View from a shortcut allows you to launch it on the fly and be ready to start your talk at any point.

Here are the shortcuts you need to know: Alt + F5 to launch Presenter View from the first slide.

Additional Pro Tips: 1. This is a great view for reviewing your slides before a presentation to spot check them for errors. 2. Best practice is not to overly rely on this view, as you want to be looking at your audience – not looking at your screen, which is just as bad as reading your slides.

Key PowerPoint Shortcut #5 – Jumping to a Slide in Your Presentation When you give a presentation, your talk doesn’t always end up going according to plan. And you want to be prepared in case that happens.

There are some situations when you will need to jump around in your presentation. For instance, say you are on slide 50, and your audience puts a question that requires you to jump back to slide 20.

Pressing Page Up 30 times is time-consuming and looks unprofessional. That’s why PowerPoint has two handy methods for doing so efficiently.

The first method is to simply type the slide number in, and then hit Enter (Ex. “20 Enter”).

The second method is to use the All Slides dialog box. This feature allows you to visually see all the slides within your presentation so you can immediately jump to the correct one. This is handy when you want to move forward or backward quickly within your presentation and you don’t know what the slide number is.

Here are the shortcuts you need to know: Slide number + Enter (while in Slide Show Mode) will jump you to that slide.

Ctrl + S (while in Slide Show Mode) will launch the All Slide dialog box.

Why Shortcuts Matter Creating a PowerPoint presentation is no small task! It requires juggling all sorts of PowerPoint stuff like charts, tables, pictures, object formatting, text, and shapes, and then there is the delivery of the presentation itself. On top of that, you’re expected to have it all done yesterday!

It’s all about trying to get more done in less time. And that’s where PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts come in handy.

With a little bit of practice, PowerPoint shortcuts will seriously cut down your build time, make your slides look more polished and professional, and get you to Happy Hour faster.

For more of the top PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts, check out my in-depth Favorite 80 PowerPoint Shortcuts article.

About the Author: Camille Holden is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nuts & Bolts Speed Training , where she helps busy professionals save PowerPoint hours and gain peace of mind. As an expert trainer and coach, she is passionate about empowering people who are short on time but big on ideas with the tools to truly master PowerPoint and create presentations that work.

Camille Holden

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How To Get Free Access To Microsoft PowerPoint

E very time you need to present an overview of a plan or a report to a whole room of people, chances are you turn to Microsoft PowerPoint. And who doesn't? It's popular for its wide array of features that make creating effective presentations a walk in the park. PowerPoint comes with a host of keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation, subtitles and video recordings for your audience's benefit, and a variety of transitions, animations, and designs for better engagement.

But with these nifty features comes a hefty price tag. At the moment, the personal plan — which includes other Office apps — is at $69.99 a year. This might be the most budget-friendly option, especially if you plan to use the other Microsoft Office apps, too. Unfortunately, you can't buy PowerPoint alone, but there are a few workarounds you can use to get access to PowerPoint at no cost to you at all.

Read more: The 20 Best Mac Apps That Will Improve Your Apple Experience

Method #1: Sign Up For A Free Microsoft Account On The Office Website

Microsoft offers a web-based version of PowerPoint completely free of charge to all users. Here's how you can access it:

• Visit the Microsoft 365 page .
• If you already have a free account with Microsoft, click Sign in. Otherwise, press "Sign up for the free version of Microsoft 365" to create a new account at no cost.
• On the Office home page, select PowerPoint from the side panel on the left.
• Click on "Blank presentation" to create your presentation from scratch, or pick your preferred free PowerPoint template from the options at the top (there's also a host of editable templates you can find on the Microsoft 365 Create site ).
• Create your presentation as normal. Your edits will be saved automatically to your Microsoft OneDrive as long as you're connected to the internet.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that while you're free to use this web version of PowerPoint to create your slides and edit templates, there are certain features it doesn't have that you can find on the paid version. For instance, you can access only a handful of font styles and stock elements like images, videos, icons, and stickers. Designer is also available for use on up to three presentations per month only (it's unlimited for premium subscribers). When presenting, you won't find the Present Live and Always Use Subtitles options present in the paid plans. The biggest caveat of the free version is that it won't get any newly released features, unlike its premium counterparts.

Method #2: Install Microsoft 365 (Office) To Your Windows

Don't fancy working on your presentation in a browser? If you have a Windows computer with the Office 365 apps pre-installed or downloaded from a previous Office 365 trial, you can use the Microsoft 365 (Office) app instead. Unlike the individual Microsoft apps that you need to buy from the Microsoft Store, this one is free to download and use. Here's how to get free PowerPoint on the Microsoft 365 (Office) app:

• Search for Microsoft 365 (Office) on the Microsoft Store app.
• Install and open it.
• Sign in with your Microsoft account. Alternatively, press "Create free account" if you don't have one yet.
• Click on Create on the left side panel.
• Select Presentation.
• In the PowerPoint window that opens, log in using your account.
• Press Accept on the "Free 5-day pass" section. This lets you use PowerPoint (and Word and Excel) for five days — free of charge and without having to input any payment information.
• Create your presentation as usual. As you're using the desktop version, you can access the full features of PowerPoint, including the ability to present in Teams, export the presentation as a video file, translate the slides' content to a different language, and even work offline.

The only downside of this method is the time limit. Once the five days are up, you can no longer open the PowerPoint desktop app. However, all your files will still be accessible to you. If you saved them to OneDrive, you can continue editing them on the web app. If you saved them to your computer, you can upload them to OneDrive and edit them from there.

Method #3: Download The Microsoft PowerPoint App On Your Android Or iOS Device

If you're always on the move and need the flexibility of creating and editing presentations on your Android or iOS device, you'll be glad to know that PowerPoint is free and available for offline use on your mobile phones. But — of course, there's a but — you can only access the free version if your device is under 10.1 inches. Anything bigger than that requires a premium subscription. If your phone fits the bill, then follow these steps to get free PowerPoint on your device:

• Install Microsoft PowerPoint from the App Store or Google Play Store .
• Log in using your existing Microsoft email or enter a new email address to create one if you don't already have an account.
• On the "Get Microsoft 365 Personal Plan" screen, press Skip For Now.
• If you're offered a free trial, select Try later (or enjoy the free 30-day trial if you're interested).
• To make a new presentation, tap the plus sign in the upper right corner.
• Change the "Create in" option from OneDrive - Personal to a folder on your device. This allows you to save the presentation to your local storage and make offline edits.
• Press "Set as default" to set your local folder as the default file storage location.
• Choose your template from the selection or use a blank presentation.
• Edit your presentation as needed.

Do note that PowerPoint mobile comes with some restrictions. There's no option to insert stock elements, change the slide size to a custom size, use the Designer feature, or display the presentation in Immersive Reader mode. However, you can use font styles considered premium on the web app.

Method #4: Use Your School Email Address

Office 365 Education is free for students and teachers, provided they have an email address from an eligible school. To check for your eligibility, here's what you need to do:

• Go to the Office 365 Education page .
• Type in your school email address in the empty text field.
• Press "Get Started."
• On the next screen, verify your eligibility. If you're eligible, you'll be asked to select whether you're a student or a teacher. If your school isn't recognized, however, you'll get a message telling you so.
• For those who are eligible, proceed with creating your Office 365 Education account. Make sure your school email can receive external mail, as Microsoft will send you a verification code for your account.
• Once you're done filling out the form, press "Start." This will open your Office 365 account page.

You can then start making your PowerPoint presentation using the web app. If your school's plan supports it, you can also install the Office 365 apps to your computer by clicking the "Install Office" button on your Office 365 account page and running the downloaded installation file. What sets the Office 365 Education account apart from the regular free account is that you have unlimited personal cloud storage and access to other Office apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Read the original article on SlashGear .

Critical PowerPoint Shortcuts – Claim Your FREE Training Module and Get Your Time Back!

Our 80 Favorite PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Shortcuts & Hacks
• May 16, 2017

We pulled together this list of our 80 favorite PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts together because…

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is no small task!

It requires juggling all sorts of PowerPoint stuff like charts, tables, pictures, object formatting, text and shapes just to create your slides in the first place. Then there is the delivery of the presentation itself.

On top of that, companies, bosses and clients want everything done yesterday. For you as an employee (or contractor) that means expectations are rising. Getting more done in less time. That’s where PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts come to your rescue.

With a little bit of practice, these PowerPoint shortcuts will seriously cut down your build time, make your slides look more polished and professional and get you to Happy Hour.

The Benefits of Using Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the main reasons to learn your keyboard shortcuts is they eliminate mental stress and anxiety.

Studies show that one of the main sources of modern stress and anxiety in the workplace is what researchers call  Cognitive Load . The point being that your brain can only make so many decisions a day before it basically shuts down.

That’s why high-profile leaders like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, and Superman focus on wearing one or two outfits every day. It cuts down on the decisions they need to make, allowing them to focus on higher priority tasks.

How do keyboard shortcuts help you out here? They eliminate a bunch of micro-decisions and mental hoops your brain otherwise has to process to get a task done.

So instead of playing hide-n-seek in the ribbon for your command –  let me see…where was that command again? –  your fingers just hit the keys and get the task done. Decreasing your cognitive load.

In that sense, your keyboard shortcuts not only decrease your cognitive load, freeing up your mind for higher priority tasks, they also blast through your otherwise repetitive and annoying tasks for you, getting you to Happy Hour.

To see a list of our favorite Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts,  read our guide here .

3 Tips for Mastering Your Shortcuts

If learning your PowerPoint shortcuts was easy, everyone would already have their black belt in PowerPoint, but they don’t. So the very first rule is simply – COMMIT.

Here are a few other tips to make learning your PowerPoint shortcuts as easy as possible:

A. Set learning goals

Define your goals. If there are 100 keyboard shortcuts you want to learn and you can only learn 2 or 3 a day, break it up. Don’t worry about the 100, just worry about the 2 or 3 you want to learn that day (or that week).

B. Put your shortcuts to use

When you first learn a new keyboard shortcut, the most important thing is to start using it every single time you want to complete that task. A common learning mistake is not consistently using the shortcut right off the bat because it’s not comfortable.

Disclaimer:  When you first start learning your keyboard shortcuts (for whichever program in which you are working), you might not feel any faster, or you might even feel slower. That’s because it’s new and uncomfortable.

But trust me, the fastest people in PowerPoint use shortcuts. And that can be you.  Don’t give up.

C. Not all keyboard shortcuts are worth learning

Just because a shortcut exists doesn’t mean you should learn it.

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts and thousands of commands you can set up as shortcuts in PowerPoint that you’ll never need to use.

That’s why I recommend that instead worrying about all of the available shortcuts, just focus on learning the keyboard shortcuts around the core activities you perform every single day.

PowerPoint Slide Shortcuts

1. display the all slides dialog box (slideshow mode).

After starting a slideshow, you can open the All Slides dialog box by hitting  CTRL + S  on your keyboard.

This dialog box allows you to visually see all the slides within your presentation and quickly jump around between them.

This is handy when you want to quickly move forwards or backwards within your presentation and you don’t know what the slide number is.

2. Go to slide number (in slideshow mode)

Slide Number + Enter Key

When you give a presentation, your topic never goes in the order you planned. There are some situations when you require going to nonadjacent slides in your presentation.

For instance, say you are on slide 50, and your audience puts a question that requires you to jump to slide 20. Pressing Page Up 30 times doesn’t seem professional.

To easily jump to the 20 th  slide in your presentation, after you start your slideshow, simply hit the slide number on your keyboard and then hit  Enter .

Note:  This only works while after you start  Slideshow  (F5) or start  Presenter View  (Shift + F5). This shortcut will not work in the normal slide editing view of your presentation.

3. Display a black or white slide (in slideshow mode)

For a black slide, press B or . (period)

For a white slide, press W or , (comma)

Sometimes you may need to pause your presentation for a lunch break or to answer a question unrelated to your topic.

In these situations, B and W shortcut keys to display a blank screen. Pressing B or W second time will pick up the show where you left it.

4. Select all slides

You can select the slides all at once if your presentation is in slide sorter view simply hit  CTRL + A .

Remember, this PowerPoint shortcut will work only if your presentation is in Slide Sorter View. To learn more about the Select All shortcuts throughout the Microsoft Office Suite,  see our guide here .

5. Duplicate active slides

To add the copy of the current slide in your presentation, press  CTRL + SHIFT + D .

6. Start Slideshow (from beginning)

When you are ready to start your Slide Show from the very first slide in your presentation, in all versions of PowerPoint, simply hit  F5 on your keyboard.

To learn all the different ways to start a PowerPoint slideshow,  see our guide here .

7. Start Slideshow (from current slide)

To view your presentation from your current slide (all versions of PowerPoint) in Slide Show Mode, hit  SHIFT + F5 .

8. Go to the previous / next slide

To move to the next slide in your presentation, hit  Page Down .

To move to the previous slide in your presentation, hit  Page Up .

PowerPoint Pointer Shortcuts

9. using the built-in laser pointer.

While in Slide Show Mode, hold down the  CTRL  key   on your keyboard and click and drag with your mouse.

Holding the  CTRL  key and dragging around with your mouse turns on the laser pointer to draw your audiences’ attention to different aspects of your slide.

Note:  To learn how to change the  color of your laser pointer shortcut in PowerPoint (Between red, green and blue),  read our guide here .

10. Writing on your slide with a pen (inking)

After you start your Slide Show, you can write on your slides with a pen by hitting CTRL + P  and use your mouse (or pen if you have a touch screen) to write and/or draw on your slides.

Hitting  CTRL + P  a second time turns the Pen off..

11. Writing on your slide with a highlighter (inking)

After starting a Slideshow, to write on your slides with your highlight, hit  CTRL + I  and use your mouse (or pen if you have a touch screen) to highlight and draw on your slides.

12. Hide and erase ink onscreen (inking)

While in slideshow mode, after using the pen or highlight shortcuts to add into your slides in Slide Show mode you can either:

Hit  CTRL + M  to hide the ink. And if you do so a second time, you will make the ink re-appear.

Press  E  at any time to erase all of the ink on that slide.

PowerPoint Shortcut Tip

Be careful when erasing the Ink on screen as there is no way to un-erase that ink. If you typically want to save the ink on yours, memorize the CTRL + M shortcut instead as it merely hides the ink.

13. Hide the pointer and navigation buttons

To hide your pointer and navigation immediately, hit  CTRL + H .

To hide your pointer and navigation after 15 seconds, hit  CTRL + U .

Pointers and navigation button could be annoying to the audience. So it’s important to hide while giving presentation.

PowerPoint Menu Shortcuts

14. display the shortcuts menu.

SHIFT + F10

After you start your Slide Show, Shift + F10   is the equivalent of right-clicking on the screen, displaying the different presentations options available to you.

15. Display the Slideshow Help shortcuts

While in Slideshow mode, this command display all the different slide show shortcuts you can use to quickly navigate your presentation. If you ever forget your shortcut, just hit  F1 .

16. Display the taskbar

While in Slide Show mode, you can display the task bar at the bottom of your screen by hitting  CTRL + T .

Displaying your taskbar is a fast and easy way to navigate between different documents and files on your computer without closing out of your presentation.

PowerPoint Hyperlink Shortcuts

17. insert a hyperlink.

Select the text or object on your slide that you want to add the hyperlink too, then hit  CTRL + K  to open the  Insert Hyperlink  dialog box.

For details on how to use hyperlinks in PowerPoint to create interactive presentations,  click here .

Note:  Your hyperlinks and zoom slides will properly carry over when you convert your presentation to the PDF file format. See details  here .

18. Select a hyperlink

While in Slide show mode, to go to the first or next hyperlink on a slide hit the  TAB  key.

While in Slide show mode, to go to the last or previous hyperlink on a slide, hit  SHIFT + TAB .

19. Open a hyperlink

Once you’ve navigate to a hyperlink (using the above keyboard hot keys) you can activate it by hitting the  ENTER  key.

PowerPoint Font & Paragraph Shortcuts

20. align a paragraph.

First, select the your text or paragraphs, then hit:

Left alignment, hit  CTRL + L

Right alignment, hit  CTRL + R

Center alignment, hit  CTRL + E

Justify alignment, hit  CTRL + J

21. Jump to the end / beginning of a line

Hit the  END  key  move to the end of a line.

Hit the  HOME  key to move the beginning of a line.

22. Increase or decrease text list levels

To promote a paragraph, hit  ALT + SHIFT + Left Arrow.

To demote a paragraph, hit  ALT + SHIFT + Right Arrow .

These List Level Shortcuts are extremely effective when filling in company templates as it properly uses the bullet spacing set on your Slide Master. This is entirely different than the Promote and Demote paragraph shortcuts.

To see how to use these List Level Shortcuts to properly fill in a company PowerPoint template (and see how they are COMPLETELY different than the  TAB  and  SHIFT + TAB  shortcuts) see the short YouTube video below.

23. Promote and demote paragraphs

To promote a paragraph, hit the  TAB  key.

To demote a paragraph, hit  SHIFT + TAB .

24. Move selected paragraphs

To move selected paragraphs up, hit  ALT + SHIFT + Up Arrow .

To move selected paragraphs down, hit  ALT + SHIFT + Down Arrow .

25. Select all text

When within a shape or text box (the blinking cursor), hit  CTRL + A  to select all text.

Note: There are a wide variety of ways you can use the Select All shortcut in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. To learn all about it,  read our guide here .

26. Delete text (towards the left)

To delete one character to the left, hit the  BACKSPACE  key.

To delete an entire word to the left, hit  CTRL + BACKSPACE

Note: Instead of deleting text, you can instead create the strikethrough text effect using your keyboard shortcuts. To expand your knowledge and learn the strikethrough shortcuts for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, read our guide here .

27. Delete text (towards the right)

To delete one character to the right, hit the  DELETE  key.

To delete one word to the right, hit  CTRL + DELETE .

28. Change the font size

To increase the font size, hit  CTRL + SHIFT + , (comma) .

To decrease the font size, hit  CTRL + SHIFT + . (period) .

29. Open the Font dialog box

If you want to open the font dialogue box to performing font or font size changing operations, do the following:

To open font dialogue box to change formatting of the characters, hit  CTRL + T .

30. Change case shortcut (uppercase, lowercase, etc.)

While making a presentation, you frequently need to change your text between uppercase, lowercase, sentence case, etc. That is why knowing the SHIFT + F3 shortcut is such a timesaver in PowerPoint.

31. Make text subscript / superscript

Hit CTRL + = (equal)  too apply subscript formatting with automatic spacing.

Hit CTRL + SHIFT + = (equal)  to apply superscript formatting with automatic spacing.

32. Make text bold

Select the text, and hit  CTRL + B  to make it bold.

33. Make text italic

Select the text, and hit  CTRL + I  to make text italic.

34. Make text underlined

Select the text, and hit  CTRL + U  to give it an underline.

35. Open the spell check engine

To open up the spell check engine to double-check your spelling and grammar, hit the  F7  function key.

36. Launch the thesaurus

To open thesaurus, hit  SHIFT + F7 .

PowerPoint Text & Object Shortcuts

37. select all objects on a slide.

To select all the objects on a slide, with the slide space active (click somewhere on the slide to be sure), hit  CTRL + A .

38. Format Painter shortcut #1 of 2: Pick Up Style

To copy the formatting of text or of an object, select it and then hit  CTRL + SHIFT + C .

39. Format Painter Shortcut #2 of 2: Apply Style

To paste the formatting of text or of an object onto another object, hit  CTRL + SHIFT + V .

Format Painter Shortcuts in Action

The Format Painter is one of the fastest ways to pick up and apply formatting styles throughout your presentation.

And what is so great about these specific shortcuts is that they are SUPER easy to learn. That’s because they mimic the standard  CTRL + C  to Copy and  CTRL + V  to Paste shortcuts. All you need to do is add the Shift key:

• Ctrl + Shift + C  to copy your formatting
• Ctrl + Shift + V  to paste your formatting

40. Open the Paste Special dialog box

CTR L + ALT + V

The Paste Special shortcut gives you a variety of pictures format paste options for your content. To use the shortcut first CTRL + C to copy something in PowerPoint, then hit  CTRL + ALT + V  to open up the Paste Special options.

PowerPoint Tip

The Paste Special dialog box is where you can find the WMF and EFM file formats for breaking apart your copied PowerPoint Tables and PowerPoint charts.

41. Group objects on a slide

To group selected objects on a slide, hit  CTRL + G .

42. Ungroup objects

To ungroup objects (including grouped objects, SmartArt graphics, EMF and WMF objects), select them and hit  CTRL + SHIFT + G .

To learn other cool things you can group and ungroup in PowerPoint,  see our guide here .

43. Regroup ungrouped objects

To reform an ungrouped set of objects, simply select a single object from the previous group, hit  CTRL + SHIFT + J .

44. Rotate objects or text boxes

To rotate an object by 15° to the right, with an object selected, simply hit  ALT + Right arrow .

To rotate an object by 15° to the left, hit  ALT + Left arrow .

PowerPoint Table Shortcuts

45. moving the cursor from cell to cell.

To move to the next cell, hit the  TAB  key.

To move to the previous cell, hit  SHIFT + TAB .

46. Moving the cursor from row to row

To move to the next row, hit the  Up arrow  key.

To move to the previous row, hit the  Down arrow  key.​

47. Add a new row (to the bottom of the table)

To add a new row at the bottom of the table, move your cursor to somewhere on the bottom row of your table and hit the  TAB  key.

48. Add an indent within a table cell

PowerPoint Charting Shortcuts

49. format the selected chart element.

With a charting element selected (such as the data labels or columns), hit  CTRL + F1  to jump to the formatting options for that specific element.

This charting shortcut works in both PowerPoint and Excel, and is one of the fastest ways to drill down to the specific formatting options for your charts.

50. Moving a chart (nudging it) with your keyboard

To move your chart like any other object, simply hold the  CTRL  key down, and then click the chart with your mouse.

Doing so selects your chart like any other object, allowing you to use the  Arrow keys  to move it around on your slide.

PowerPoint View Shortcuts

51. switch between the outline view and the normal view.

Hit CTRL + SHIFT + TAB to switch between the Outline and Normal View in PowerPoint.

52. Switch between the Slide Master View and the Normal View

Holding the SHIFT key and clicking on the Normal View icon  in the lower right-hand corner of your screen will take you to the Slide Master View of your presentation.

Hit the shortcut again to come back to the Normal View.

53. Switch between the Handout Master View and the Normal View

Holding the SHIFT key and clicking on the Slide Sorter View icon  in the lower right-hand corner of your screen will take you to the Handouts Master View of your presentation, where you can customize the handouts for your presentation.

54. Open the Set Up Slide Show dialog box

Holding the SHIFT key and clicking on the Reading View icon  in the lower right-hand corner of your screen will open up the Set Up Slide Show dialog box, where you can choose to show your presentation in a resizable window, run custom slide shows, etc.

55. Close the Thumbnail View

Holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys, and clicking on the Normal View icon  in the lower right-hand corner of your screen will close the Thumbnail View and  give you more work space for your presentation.

56. Open the Outline View in full screen

Holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys, and clicking on the Slide Sorter View icon  in the lower right-hand corner of your screen will open up the Outline View in full screen.

57. Run a mini presentation

In Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 and 2010,  hold down the CTRL key , and in 2013 and 2016  hold the ALT key , and then select the  Slide Show View icon  in the lower right-hand of your screen to run a mini presentation in the upper left-hand corner of your deck.

Hit  ESCAPE  to move to that slide.

58. Switch between open presentation

If you have multiple presentations open on your device, you can switch among them by hitting  CTRL + F6 .

59. Switch between open PowerPoint windows

To switch between your active windows, hit CTRL + TAB.

60. View all active windows

To see all open and active windows on your computer, hit WINDOWS + TAB .

61. Cycle through content placeholders

To cycle through the content placeholders on your slide (built on the Slide Master), first click into a placeholder and then hit CTRL + ENTER .

Once you have cycled through your content placeholders, hitting  CTRL + ENTER  again creates a new blank slide, based on the slide layout you were just previously on.

62. Insert new slide shortcut

This shortcut adds a new blank slide to your presentation, based on the slide layout you were just on.

Note:  After hitting  CTRL + M  to insert a new slide, you can immediately start typing the title of your new slide. This makes creating a quick draft outline of your presentation easy.

To see how to do this using the Outline View in PowerPoint,  read our guide here .

62B. New Slide Shortcut (Optional)

Ctrl + Enter  is a unique little shortcut.

While working in the normal PowerPoint view, hitting  CTRL+ENTER  cycles through the content placeholders in your layout allowing you to quickly type text or add content.

Once it cycles through all the available placeholders in your layout, hitting the shortcut again adds a new slide to your presentation.

So, the way the  CTRL+ENTER  shortcut is different than the  CTRL+M  shortcut, is that before it creates a new blank slide, it first cycles through all the content placeholders on your slide.

Instead of ending up with a new blank slide, you instead create a duplicate of the slide you were working on (making it easy to save your work).

What type of new slide is added? When using the New Slide shortcuts in PowerPoint, the slide layout that is inserted is based on the slide layout you were just on when you used the shortcut.

For example: If you are on the Section Header layout, using the New Slide shortcuts inserts a new blank Section Header layout. If you are on a Comparison layout, using either of the New Slide shortcuts inserts a blank Comparison layout.

The only time this rule doesn’t hold true, is if you use these shortcuts while on the Title slide layout. If you are on the Title Slide layout (for your template), instead of inserting a new Title Slide, the next layout in your slide master will be inserted (most likely a Title and Placeholder layout).

This makes sense too, right?

In a normal presentation you will only have one title slide. So, the New Slide shortcuts are smart enough not to insert a second title slide layout, and instead take you to your first content slide layout.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about how Ctrl+M and Ctrl+Enter are different, read our guide here .

63. Open the Save As dialog box

Hit the F12  function key to save your presentation with a different name, in a different location on your computer, or in a different file format.

Save As Shortcut Pro Tip

The Save As shortcut is the secret to quickly converting your presentation into the PDF file format as we discuss  here , or turn your presentation into a picture presentation as we discuss  here .

64. Open the Save As options in the File area

Hitting CTRL + F12  will immediately open the Save As dialog box to open a file on your computer, without having to navigate through the back-stage view.

65. Open the Find & Replace dialog box

This shortcut opens the Find and Replace dialog box, allowing you to quickly replace text throughout your presentation. Be careful when using the ‘Replace All’ option, as it not only will cycle through the Normal View of your presentation, but all your Slide Master Views.

66. Repeat the last find action

If you have closed the find dialogue box and now want to repeat the last find action, hit  SHIFT + F4 .

67. Capture a clipping of the screen as an image

To take a screen capture of the current screen to the clipboard, hit the  PrtSc (Printscreen)  key.

68. Capture the entire screen as an image

To copy the picture of a selected window, hit ALT + PrtSC (Printscreen) .

69. Launch the Print dialog box

To launch the Print dialog box, hit  CTRL + P . If you don’t need to adjust the settings, you can immediately hit  EN TER  to print your presentation.

The print shortcut works across the entire Microsoft Office suite (and most other software programs you use). So I HIGHLY recommend learning this one.

To learn how to print multiples slides on one page in PowerPoint,  read our guide here .

Note:  A common printing mistake you can avoid is printing your files collated and then manually uncollating the documents.

The reason this is a mistake is because Microsoft Office can automatically print your files uncollated, saving you from a bunch of tedious work.

To learn more about the difference between collated vs. uncollated printing,  read our guide here .

70. Open the Header & Footer dialog box

ALT + SHIFT + D

This dialog box allows you to add and remove your date and time, slide numbers and footers.

PowerPoint Slide Number Pro Tip

To properly add your headers and footers to your slides, you need to add them in twice.

Once on your Slide Master and once in the Normal View using the Header and Footer dialog box. For help navigating your headers, footers and slide numbers like this,  see our detailed blog post here .

71. Close an active presentation

This PowerPoint shortcut closes the active file you are using, without closing the PowerPoint application itself. This is an operating system shortcut and works in all the Microsoft Office programs.

72. Close PowePoint

This is a Windows-level operating-level shortcut and can be used with any program you are running on your computer. After closing out of all your active applications, this shortcut can shut down or restart your computer too.

To expand your knowledge and learn other important Windows 10 shortcuts, see our guide here .

Newer PowerPoint Shortcuts (2013, 2016, 2019 and Microsoft 365)

Use the following shortcuts for the given tasks in the new PowerPoint 2013 version. Note, these PowerPoint 2013 shortcuts all work in PowerPoint 2016 as well.

73. Increase / decrease the font size

Hit CTRL + ]  to increase the font size

Hit CTRL + [  to decrease the font size

Although these are new shortcuts, the old font size shortcuts still work: CTRL + SHIFT + , to decrease the font size and CTRL + SHIFT + . to increase the font size. However, because the shortcuts above work in a wider variety of programs, I recommend memorizing them instead.

74. Show / hide the Notes pane

75. Duplicate an active presentation

To make a copy of your current open presentation in PowerPoint 2013, you need to hit  CTRL + SHIFT + N .

76. Add a section to your presentation

To add a new section in your presentation, hit  CTRL + , (comma) .

77. Zoom out of a slide in Slideshow View

To zoom out of a slide or to see all slides in Slideshow View, simply hit CTRL + – (minus) . Once zoomed out, you can use your  Arrow keys  to navigate around.

78. Zoom into a slide in Slideshow View

To zoom into a slide in Slideshow View, simply hit  CTRL + = (equal) . Once zoomed in, you can use your  Arrow keys  to navigate around.

79. Hide the Ribbon

Hitting Ctrl + F1  once collapses your Ribbon commands into the top of your screen, giving you more uncluttered workspace in PowerPoint. Hitting  CTRL + F1  a second time un-collapses your Ribbon commands.

This is Microsoft Office shortcut, so it works in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.

80. “Distraction-Free Mode” – Auto-hiding the Ribon

CTRL + SHIFT + F1

The NEWEST shortcut to hit the Microsoft Office suite delivering Distraction-Free Mode. Hit this keyboard shortcut to auto-hide your Ribbon commands, giving you a 100% clean working space. When you want to see all your Ribbon commands again, just hit this shortcut a second time.

Other Important PowerPoint Shortcuts

While the following shortcuts didn’t make our top 80 favorite PowerPoint shortcuts list, these shortcuts are still extremely value to know (and use).

We consider these MANDATORY shortcuts for any knowledge worker because you they work across the entire Microsoft Office suite (and just about every software program you will ever use).

Copy shortcut

Selecting an option (or group of objects) in PowerPoint and hitting Ctrl + C will copy them, allowing you to reuse them in other parts of your presentation.

This is MUCH faster than trying to recreate and format objects in PowerPoint.

To expand your knowledge and learn all about the Copy shortcut, and how it is different than the Cut shortcut, read our guide here.

Paste shortcut

After you copy an object in PowerPoint, you can then use the Ctrl + V shortcut to paste the object on your slides.

Remember, your goal in PowerPoint is to finish your slide deck, not remake everything from scratch. So, to the extent that you can Copy and Paste objects, slides, and formatting… the more time you will save and the better off you will be.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about the Paste shortcut, and how to use it to control your formatting as you paste into new Microsoft Office documents, read our guide here .

Cut Shortcut

The cut shortcut allows you to pick up (and move) an object.

This is a variation of the Copy Shortcut as instead of copying an object, you cut it out of your presentation that you can then Ctrl + V to paste somewhere else.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about the Cut shortcut (and how to use it), read our guide here .

Note:  If you are trying to delete a table from your presentation, it is often easier to Cut the table out using this Ctrl + X shortcut (and never paste it in anywhere) rather than trying to select the table and delete it.

PowerPoint Shortcuts Conclusion

So that is our list of our 80 favorite PowerPoint shortcuts to speed up your workflow.

Shortcuts are the fastest way to DOUBLE your productivity in PowerPoint. That’s why if you use PowerPoint daily, I highly recommend committing to your keyboard shortcuts.

If you enjoyed this in-depth post and want to learn more about our PowerPoint Speed Training courses and other resources,  visit us here .

What’s next?

Related articles.

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• Bar chart trick: Right aligning categories (PPT, Word, and Excel)
• PowerPoint settings: program level vs. presentation level
• What is a linked Excel chart in PowerPoint?
• Set Up Slide Show: Customize how your PPT presentations run

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請輸入您的資訊以訂閱 Microsoft Fabric 部落格。

Microsoft fabric updates blog.

• 更新

Microsoft Fabric April 2024 Update

• Monthly Update

Welcome to the April 2024 update!

This month, you’ll find many great new updates, previews, and improvements. From Shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage and S3 compatible data sources in preview, Optimistic Job Admission for Fabric Spark, and New KQL Queryset Command Bar, that’s just a glimpse into this month’s update.

There’s much more to explore! Read on and let us know what update you’re most excited about and what you found the most helpful.

Fabric Conference Day 1 Keynote is now available!

Did you miss it, or want to hear it again? We are excited to release the FabCon Day 1 Keynote to the Microsoft Fabric YouTube Channel !

If you aren’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Microsoft Fabric Channel! Check out the amazing announcements & demos from Arun, Amir, Wangui, and other awesome presenters. The Day 3 keynotes will be released later this month, and more content will be released regularly moving forward.

Make sure you check out the blog post from Arun, that highlights the announcements from FabCon you can find that here:  Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

Earn a free Microsoft Fabric certification exam! 

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of  Exam DP-600 , which leads to the  Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate  certification.  

Microsoft Fabric’s common analytics platform is built on the instantly  familiar Power BI experience , making your transition to Fabric Analytics Engineer easier. With Fabric, you can build on your prior knowledge – whether that is Power BI, SQL, or Python – and master how to enrich data for analytics in the era of AI. 

To help you learn quickly and get certified, we created the  Fabric Career Hub.  We have curated the  best   free   on-demand and live training, exam crams, practice tests and more . 

And because the best way to learn is live, we had free live learning sessions  led by the best Microsoft Fabric experts from Apr 16 to May 8, in English and Spanish. Register now at the  Learn Together  page.

Also,  become eligible for a  free certification exam  by completing the   Fabric AI Skills Challenge .  But hurry, the challenge only runs from  March 19 – April 19  and free certs are first-come, first-served! (limit one per participant,  terms and conditions  apply). 

New Visual – 100% Stacked Area Chart

Line enhancements, enhance q&a with copilot-generated linguistic relationships, snowflake (connector update), storytelling in powerpoint – improved image mode in the power bi add-in for powerpoint, storytelling in powerpoint – continuous slide show auto refresh, storytelling in powerpoint – auto populating the slide title, introducing the fabric metadata scanning sample app, dynamic subscriptions for power bi and paginated reports, supporting folders in workspace, new “clear barcode” action in the report footer, open power bi items in full screen mode, new visuals in appsource kpi matrix growth rate chart by djeeni v1.4 aimplan comment visual.

• Financial Reporting Matrix by Profitbase 

Horizon Chart by Powerviz

Drill down scatter pro by zoomcharts, image gallery, horizontal bar chart, multi-pane card 1.1.

• Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview) 
• Shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage and S3 compatible data sources (preview)
• OneLake data access roles – public preview

Tenant level Private Link

Managed private endpoints for microsoft fabric.

• Trusted Workspace Access for OneLake Shortcuts
• Git Integration

Partition elimination performance improvement for tables with a large number of files 

Mirroring (public preview) .

• Optimistic Job Admission for Fabric Spark 
• Single Node Support for Starter Pools
• Container Image for Synapse VS Code 
• Git Integration with Spark Job Definition 
• New Revamped Object Explorer experience in the notebook 
• %run your scripts in Notebook
• Semantic Link is now GA! 

Capacity level delegation for AI and Copilot 

Eu customers can use ai and copilot without cross-geo setting .

• New KQL Queryset Command Bar 
• New Update Command Public Preview 
• Introducing Pause and Resume Feature in Eventstream
• Fabric Real-Time Analytics Integrates with Newly Announced Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview)
• Fast copy 

Service Principal Name authentication kind support for On-Premises and VNET data gateways 

• Certified connector updates

Updated Fabric data pipeline homepage 

• Pipeline support for CI/CD in public preview 
• Data Factory Data Pipelines APIs
• Increase in Pipeline activity limit
• Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity
• Edit column type to destination table support added to Fabric Warehouse and other SQL data stores
• SFTP: performance improvements when writing data to SFTP

Introducing the new 100% Stacked Area Chart, now available in our core visuals gallery. These visuals display the relative percentage of multiple data series in stacked areas, where the total always equals 100%. It’s perfect for showing the proportion of individual series to the whole and how they change over time. Find it in the visual gallery, on-object dialog, or format pane, right next to the Stacked Area Chart. Give it a try and share your feedback with us!

For more detailed information about this new visual, and the new line enhancements you can read our article: PBI Core Visuals

Take your line charts to the next level with our new line control features.

• Adjust line color transparency under Lines > Colors > Transparency.
• Control the color and transparency of each series by selecting them in the ‘Apply settings to’ dropdown.
• Use Monotone and the new Cardinal smooth type for full control of smooth lines.
• Choose from before, center, and after step lines to align your visual with your story.

Try out these new features and enhance your line charts.

These new line enhancements are just the beginning, there is more to come. Try them out and stay ahead of the curve. We would love to hear about your experience and the amazing things you can achieve with these new features.

Improving your linguistic schema is an important step in making sure that the Q&A visual can understand the wide range of questions people might ask about their data. This is why, back in September , we added a new section into the Q&A setup menu to help you add linguistic relationships to teach Q&A about words which qualify or relate your data.  

But we also know that coming up with all the different words people might be using to refer to your data can take time and effort, and we’ve been working on ways to make that process easier for you! In November , we introduced a way for you to quickly generate new synonyms for the names of tables and columns in your model; this month, we’ve introduced the same functionality for linguistic relationships!  

When you open a report with a Q&A visual, if you have Copilot enabled and you’ve already added synonyms, you’ll now see a banner prompting you to get relationships with Copilot as well.  

Unlike with synonyms, Copilot generated relationships will not be used to understand natural language inputs until you have approved them, so make sure you accept the ones which work for your model!  

Allow Copilot to help interpret Q&A questions.

You can also now use Copilot to improve the Q&A engine’s term recognition when you ask questions! This new feature will trigger when you ask Q&A a question which uses words or phrases which Q&A doesn’t recognize, but which it detects might be referring to data entities like tables or columns. Then, Copilot will also check those unknown words or phrases to see if there is any reasonable match and if so, return the answer as a visual as though a suggested synonym had been applied.

This feature is not a replacement for synonyms! In fact, adding synonyms for the entities in your semantic model is even more important to create good matches, as they increase the surface area to check for similarities. It will widen the range of inputs Q&A will recognize, but like a multiplier, it will improve recognition for well modeled data much better than it will for poorly modeled data.  

This feature will be automatically enabled when you choose to get synonyms with Copilot, but you can also turn it on or off manually in the suggestion settings menu in the Synonyms tab in Q&A setup. 

Data Connectivity

The Snowflake connector has been updated to support the use of Snowflake dynamic tables .

We’ve made saving Power BI content as an image more simple and more powerful. 

First, we’ve added a new dropdown menu to the add-in’s footer. In that menu, you can choose whether you want to see live data or a snapshot. So now it is much easier to find where to switch between live data and a static image.

Second, for snapshots, you now have two options:

Public snapshot: Anyone who can view the presentation can view the image.

Snapshot: Only those who have permission to view the report in Power BI will be able to see the snapshot.

Third, we’ve disabled the default snapshot, so that the slide thumbnail doesn’t show the image by default (this also applies when you copy & paste the slide into an email for example), but only after the add-in is loaded and the required permissions have been checked.

And lastly, we honor this setting when you open the presentation in PowerPoint for the web. You still cannot change a live view into a snapshot in PowerPoint for the web, but if you or someone else has changed the view to snapshot in the PowerPoint desktop app, this will be respected, and you will see the snapshot also in PowerPoint for the web.

PowerPoint allows you to continuously playback a presentation. This is especially useful when you want to present information in public displays without any human interaction.

If a presentation that is running continuously has slides that include the Power BI add-in, the data in the add-in might become outdated, since the add-in gets the data from Power BI when the slide is loaded, or when the user manually refreshes the data being presented.

With the new automatic refresh in slide show feature, you can set the add-in to automatically pull fresh data from Power BI while the presentation is in slide show mode, ensuring that the presentation will always show the most recent data.

To enable automatic refresh, go to the add-in footer, select Add-in options, choose Slide show settings, check Automatic refresh in slide show and set the desired frequency.

Note that auto refresh only happens in slide show mode and not while you’re editing the presentation.

When you add the Power BI add-in to an empty slide that doesn’t have a title yet, the Power BI add-in is here to help. It offers you suggestions for the slide title based on the content of you add-in. The title can be the report name, the page/visual name, or both. Just select the desired option and hit Add title.

We’re delighted to announce the availability of the new Fabric metadata scanning app. This sample application builds upon the metadata scanning capabilities of Fabric’s set of Admin REST APIs collectively known as the scanner APIs. This new app can be used as a reference for admins interested in utilizing the Scanner API to catalog and report on all the metadata of their organization’s Fabric items.

The Fabric metadata scanning sample app handles all the steps for calling the scanner API including authentication, parallelism, throttling, and incremental scanning. In addition, it provides a central configuration file which can be easily modified to suit the specific needs of the caller. Currently authentication is supported both by using a service principal and a delegated token.

The app is available as a Microsoft open-source project, and is open for suggestions and improvements here: Fabric Metadata Scanning

We’re pleased to announce that you can now send dynamic per recipient subscriptions to up to 1000 recipients instead of the earlier limit of 50 recipients from the data in the Power BI semantic model. For existing subscriptions, we will automatically send subscriptions up to 1000 recipients if your Power BI semantic model contains that many rows of data. You need to edit the subscription if you don’t want to automatically send subscriptions. Learn more about creating dynamic per recipient subscriptions for Power BI Reports and paginated reports .

This feature will be available in some regions as soon as today, however depending on the geography in which your Power BI tenant is located, it may take up to two weeks to appear.

The Power BI Mobile apps support folders in workspace. So, you can access items that are organized in folders inside of your workspace directly from the mobile app.

Workspace and folders are Fabric entities, which means that you can add items that are not necessarily Power BI items to a workspace. But the Power BI Mobile apps only support a subset of Power BI items. Therefore, only the Power BI item will be accessible when you are browsing the folder content from the app. If a folder contains only non-Power BI items, it will appear empty in the mobile app.

When a field in your model is marked as a barcode, you can use your mobile device camera to scan the barcodes of real objects to filter reports that are built on this model. This feature is extremely useful for retail, where you can scan the barcode on a piece of merchandise to get a report showing data about the item directly in your mobile app (for example, inventory information, product selling data, etc.).

To make it easier and more intuitive to use barcodes and based on feedback we’ve gotten from our users in stores, we’ve added a new button to the report footer that makes it a one-click action to clear any previously scanned barcode from the report’s filter.

Learn more about scanning barcode from the mobile app

We continue to simplify the experience of using the Power BI Mobile apps, always keeping in mind the frontline workers who need quick access to their content. In this monthly update we’ve made it possible to open Power BI items in full screen, so users can view their data at its max.

Opening an item in full screen is supported both for launch items and when using a universal link.

A launch item is a Power BI item (report, page, app, etc.) that the user has selected to automatically open when they open the app. Now, you can also tell the Power BI Mobile app to open this item in full screen mode.

To set a launch item to open in full screen mode, go to:

Settings > Launch item and enable the Open in full screen toggle.

Using an MDM tool that supports an AppConfig file, mobile device administrators can also configure a launch item to be opened in full screen mode for their users.

You can also add the query parameter? fullscreen=1 to a Power BI item’s link. When you use a link with this parameter on your mobile device, the mobile app will open the item in full screen mode.

Visualizations

Financial reporting matrix by profitbase.

Making financial statements with a proper layout has just become easier with the latest version of the Financial Reporting Matrix.

Users are now able to specify which rows should be classified as cost-rows, which will make it easier to get the conditional formatting of variances correctly:

Selecting a row, and ticking “is cost” will tag the row as cost. This can be used in conditional formatting to make sure that positive variances on expenses are a bad for the result, while a positive variance on an income row is good for the result.

The new version also includes more flexibility in measuring placement and column subtotals.

Measures can be placed either:

Default (below column headers)

Above column headers

If you have multiple fields showing on your column headers, you can now decide which of these fields you want a column subtotal for.

This is in addition to the already existing features of the Financial Reporting Matrix:

Adding custom rows

Applying company/customer specific themes

Expand/collapse columns

Conditionally hide columns

+ much more

Highlighted new features:

New Format Pane design

Measure placement – In rows

Select Column Subtotals

Row Options

*Get the visual from AppSource (fix link) and find more videos here !

A Horizon Chart is an advanced visual, for time-series data, revealing trends and anomalies. It displays stacked data layers, allowing users to compare multiple categories while maintaining data clarity. Horizon Charts are particularly useful to monitor and analyze complex data over time, making this a valuable visual for data analysis and decision-making.

Key Features:

Horizon Styles: Choose Natural, Linear, or Step with adjustable scaling.

Layer: Layer data by range or custom criteria. Display positive and negative values together or separately on top.

Reference Line: Highlight patterns with X-axis lines and labels.

Colors: Apply 30+ color palettes and use FX rules for dynamic coloring.

Ranking: Filter Top/Bottom N values, with “Others”.

Gridline: Add gridlines to the X and Y axis.

Custom Tooltip: Add highest, lowest, mean, and median points without additional DAX.

Themes: Save designs and share seamlessly with JSON files.

Other features included are ranking, annotation, grid view, show condition, and accessibility support.

Business Use Cases: Time-Series Data Comparison, Environmental Monitoring, Anomaly Detection

🔗 Try Horizon Chart for FREE from AppSource

📊 Check out all features of the visual: Demo file

📃 Step-by-step instructions: Documentation

💡 YouTube Video: Video Link

📍 Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/

✅ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U

ZoomCharts has just launched the latest addition to their suite of user-friendly custom visuals – Drill Down Scatter PRO. It provides all the features you would expect from a great scatter chart visual, but what sets Scatter PRO apart is the ability to easily drill down. Simply click on a data point and see all the values underneath it.

This way, you can quickly find your answers while also gaining a full understanding of where they come from. Furthermore, the visual’s UI is designed to be smooth and user-friendly for PCs and touch devices, and with cross-chart filtering you can use Scatter PRO to build incredible reports for immersive data exploration.

Main features:

Drill Down: Create a multi-level hierarchy and drill down with just a click.

Dynamic formatting: Apply custom marker colors, shapes, or images to each data point directly from data.

Trendlines: Show a linear or polynomial regression line on the chart.

Thresholds: Display up to 4 line or area thresholds on each axis.

Area Shading: Highlight up to 8 custom areas with rectangles or ellipses.

🌐 Learn more about Drill Down Scatter PRO

Documentation | ZoomCharts Website | Follow ZoomCharts on LinkedIn

The Image Gallery is the first visual to be certified by Microsoft that allows for the display of high-quality images and their exportation along with other report content. There is no need to upload images to the Cloud, a CDN, or use any datasets. Simply import your images directly into the visual and share them instantly with your colleagues.

This visual boasts several impressive capabilities:

Microsoft certification ensures that the visual doesn’t interact with external services, ensuring that your images are securely stored and encrypted within the report, consistent with your report’s sensitivity settings.

Automatically saves your selected image in preview mode, allowing your colleagues to view the exact image you have highlighted.

Images can be uploaded or removed exclusively in Edit Mode. Users in View Mode can only view the images.

The visual is compatible with Power BI’s export functionality to PDF and PowerPoint.

Image Gallery Link

A space-saving horizontal bar chart designed with category labels placed inside the bars for clarity.

This horizontal bar chart serves as an efficient filter to navigate through your data more effectively, optimizing space by placing the category labels within the bars themselves.

Adjustable Bar Thickness and Spacing: Offers the flexibility to adjust the thickness of the bars and the spacing between them. This allows for optimal use of space and improves readability, especially when dealing with large datasets.

Tooltip Details on Hover: Displays detailed information about each category when the user hovers over a bar. This feature provides additional context and insights without cluttering the visual.

Data-Driven Category Labels: Automatically updates category labels based on the data source. This ensures that the chart remains accurate and up to date, reflecting any changes in the underlying data.

Support for Hierarchical Data: Allows users to drill down into hierarchical categories within the chart. This functionality enables a more detailed data analysis without leaving the context of the initial visual.

Export Options: Offers the ability to export the chart as an image or PDF, facilitating easy sharing and reporting outside of Power BI.

HorizontalBarChart Link

Introducing the “ Trends ” visual for Power BI – your gateway to leveraging Google Trends data for strategic business analysis. This innovative visual tool allows you to compare brand popularity, monitor market trends, and gain insights into consumer search behaviors directly within your Power BI environment.

With Trends visual, you can:

Analyze the ebb and flow of brand interest over time to identify market opportunities and competitive threats.

Compare the popularity of products to inform marketing strategies and product development decisions.

Understand seasonal trends to optimize your marketing campaigns and inventory planning.

Securely integrated and easy to use, “Trends” transforms your Power BI reports into a dynamic analysis tool, offering a comprehensive view of the market landscape. Dive into data-driven decision-making with “Trends” and stay one step ahead in the competitive business environment.

New visual: Multi-pane Card can be used to group and show data in multiple collapsible panes in Power BI reports. It is an alternative to multi-row card visual, but it can combine columns into a few groups and put each group’s data in each pane. It is suitable to show data in detail with a reduced number of report pages.

Screenshot 1 (Show data in 3 groups: Area and Population, GDP and Foreign Exchange Reserves for countries)

Data can be sorted by a specified column and numbers can be converted to a human readable string. You can also set up how many rows that you want to show on the card. Using these features, it will be very easy to show “Top 10 best performing stores” or “Top 10 worst performing stores” for retail businesses.

Screenshot2 (Combined with drilldown choropleth map to show the top 10 richest countries by GDP per capita for each continent and subregion)

You can go to Microsoft AppSource: Multi-pane Card , to download and try it.

To learn more on how to use it, please read tutorials ( https://www.mylocs.ca/tutorials.html#multi-pane-card ).

Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview)

Earlier this year, we announced preview of Copilot for all customers with Premium/Fabric capacity in Power BI web . We’re thrilled to share that the same Copilot experience for report creation is now available for preview in Power BI Desktop. With our current preview, users can create reports faster and easier in the Power BI Desktop experience. You can now open the Copilot pane in report view and ask Copilot to:

Create a report page – Copilot will create an entire report page for you by identifying the tables, fields, measures, and charts that would help you get started.

Summarize a semantic model – Copilot will help you understand your Power BI semantic model by summarizing the data in your model.

Suggest a topic – Copilot will suggest topics for your report pages.

Click here to learn more about how to get started.

OneLake 

Shortcuts to google cloud storage and s3 compatible data sources (preview) .

We are excited to announce that you can now create OneLake shortcuts to your Google Cloud Storage (GCS) buckets and S3 compatible data sources! 

With the addition of GCS, you can now utilize cross-cloud shortcuts to analyze your data across all three major cloud platforms. Shortcuts in OneLake allow you to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. Just open Lakehouse in Fabric, create a shortcut to GCS, AWS S3 or ADLS Gen2 and immediately start analyzing your data through Spark, SQL and Power BI. 

OneLake is also adding connectivity to data sources that offer an Amazon S3 compatible API, a widely supported API offered by many distributed file systems and services that offer object storage. With this new feature, it’s quick and easy to create a shortcut that references your cloud based S3 compatible data sources. The data source endpoint simply needs to offer S3 compatible APIs, be publicly hosted and accessible, and accept the key/secret credentials you provide during shortcut creation. Once you set up your shortcut, you can access and use your data with the many Fabric engines or other services using OneLake’s open APIs . 

Learn more in our recent blog posts for S3 compatible shortcuts and GCS shortcuts ! 

OneLake data access roles (preview)

OneLake data access roles for folders are a new feature that enables you to apply role-based access control (RBAC) to your data stored in OneLake. You can define security roles that grant read access to specific folders within a Fabric item and assign them to users or groups. The access permissions determine what folders users see when accessing the lake view of the data, either through the lakehouse UX, Spark notebooks, or OneLake APIs. 

OneLake previously managed data access at the Fabric item level. Access to the OneLake data behind a Fabric item could be granted or removed for users or groups. Data access roles now allow for defining security roles that can grant access to individual OneLake folders within a Fabric item. The granted access inherits to any newly added sub-folders in a transparent manner. Role permissions and user/group assignments can be easily updated through a new folder security UX or through API calls. The security also extends to 3rd party access requests made through the OneLake APIs. 

Check out the full announcement blog or jump right into the getting started guide!  

Admin 

Organizations today rely on cloud platforms for storage and analysis of data at scale and need to keep up with the accelerating volume of data while protecting sensitive information.  While enterprises in Banking, Healthcare, and similar domains require strict data security standards by default, securing business-critical data is the highest priority for all enterprises. We are excited to announce the public preview of an enhanced networking feature, Azure Private Link for Microsoft Fabric, for securing access to your sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric by providing network isolation and applying required controls on your inbound network traffic. 

Private Links enable secure connectivity to Fabric by restricting access to your Fabric tenant from an Azure VNet of your choice and blocking all public access. This ensures that only network traffic from that VNet is allowed to access Fabric experiences like Notebooks, Lakehouses, Warehouses in your tenant. 

With Azure Private Link, you can: 

• Restrict traffic from the internet to Fabric and route it through the Microsoft backbone network. 
• Ensure only authorized client machines can access Fabric. 
• Comply with regulatory and compliance requirements that mandate private access to your data and analytics services. 

While Azure private links were supported in Power BI at a tenant level, we are now extending this feature to other Fabric workloads with this release. For example, connecting to your data in Onelake using the OneLake Explorer can be protected through Private Links. Similarly, you can access Warehouses and Lakehouse SQL endpoints in SQL Managed Studio via Private Links. A list of supported scenarios and limitations can be found at Use private link to access Fabric. for detailed instructions, please refer to How to set up private endpoints to access Fabric . 

We are excited to announce the public preview of Managed Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric. This feature allows secure connections to data sources that are behind a firewall or not accessible from the public internet. Managed Private Endpoints enable Fabric Data Engineering items to access data sources securely without exposing them to the public network or requiring complex network configurations. These private endpoints provide a secure way to connect and access data from sources like Azure SQL DB or Storage account blocked from public access from your Fabric Spark Notebooks or Spark Job Definitions. 

Workspaces with managed private endpoints have network isolation through a dedicated managed virtual network. These managed virtual networks (Managed VNETs) separate the Spark compute clusters from the shared virtual network and enable network security features such as private links and managed private endpoints. Microsoft Fabric takes care of the provisioning and management of the virtual networks and private endpoints, so users do not have to create or manage these network infrastructure resources themselves. 

By just providing connection details, your managed private endpoint is instantly provisioned in the Managed VNET and a request for private endpoint access is submitted to the data source administrator for approval.  

Users can track the status and approval process of the managed private endpoints from the Network security section of the Workspace settings. 

Managed Private Endpoints support various data sources, including Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Cosmos DB, Application gateway, Azure Key Vault, and many more. 

Learn more about the data sources supported, please refer to our documentation Create and use managed private endpoints in Microsoft Fabric (preview) – Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn  

Note: Managed private endpoints are only supported for Fabric Trial capacity and Fabric capacities F64 or higher SKUs.  

To learn more about the benefits, detailed steps of setup and limitations of managed private endpoints in Microsoft Fabric, please refer to our documentation Overview of managed private endpoints in Fabric.   

To learn more about network isolation offered by managed virtual networks, please refer to Overview of managed virtual networks in Fabric . 

Trusted Workspace Access for OneLake Shortcuts 

Trusted workspace access allows you to securely access firewall-enabled Storage accounts. With Trusted workspace access, you can create OneLake shortcuts to Storage accounts, and then use the shortcuts in various Fabric items, such as Spark notebooks, SQL analytics endpoints, semantic models, reports, data pipelines, and dataflows Gen2.   

Trusted workspace access is designed to help you securely and easily access data stored in Storage accounts from Fabric workspaces, without compromising on performance or functionality. You can leverage the power and flexibility of Fabric and OneLake to work with data in place without compromising on security. 

How does Trusted workspace access work? 

Trusted workspace access is based on the concept of workspace identity, which is a unique identity that can be associated with workspaces that are in Fabric capacities. When you create a workspace identity, Fabric creates a service principal in Microsoft Entra ID to represent the identity.   

Workspace identity enables OneLake shortcuts in Fabric to access Storage accounts that have resource instance rules configured. Resource instance rules are a way to grant access to specific resources based on the workspace identity or managed identity. You can create resource instance rules by deploying an ARM template with the resource instance rule details.  

To leverage Trusted workspace access in Fabric workspaces, you can create a OneLake shortcut in a Lakehouse, and provide the URL of the Storage account that has been configured with a resource instance rule. While creating the shortcut, you need to select organizational account or service principle for authentication and ensure that the principle used for authenticating to Storage has the appropriate Azure RBAC roles on the Storage account. Once the shortcut is created, you can use it in various Fabric items. 

How to get started with Trusted workspace access?

Trusted workspace access is available for workspaces in Fabric capacities (F64 or higher). To get started with Trusted workspace access, you need to do the following steps:  

• Create a workspace identity for your Fabric workspace if you don’t have one already. If you face issues with creation of the workspace identity, follow the troubleshooting guidelines provided here . 

Create a workspace identity. 

2. Configure resource instance rules for the Storage account that you want to access from your Fabric workspace. Follow the guidelines for configuring resource instance rules for Fabric workspaces here . 

Resource instance rules in a Storage account 

• Create a OneLake shortcut to the Storage account in a Lakehouse and select the organizational account or service principal option for authentication.   

Create an ADLS g2 shortcut in a Lakehouse. 

4. Use the OneLake shortcut in various Fabric items, such as Spark notebooks, SQL analytics endpoints, semantic models, reports, data pipelines, and dataflows Gen2.  

Access data stored in firewall-enabled Storage accounts through OneLake shortcuts. 

For more details and guidance on how to use Trusted workspace access, please refer to the documentation links below.  

• Trusted workspace access in Fabric  
• Workspace identity in Fabric  

Synapse 

Data warehouse , git integration .

We are excited to announce the Git integration for the Warehouse! This feature allows you to check in the changes of your Warehouse into an Azure DevOps Git repository as a SQL database project. Git integration enables source control capabilities for developers to integrate their development processes, tools, and best practices directly into the Fabric platform. 

Some scenarios that are enabled by Git: 

• Backup and version development work 
• Revert to previous stages 
• Collaborate with others or work alone using Git branches 
• Apply the capabilities of familiar source control tools to manage your Warehouse 
• Commit changes 
• Sync changes from Git 
• Manage conflict resolutions 
• …and many more! 

The SQL analytics endpoint of a Lakehouse uses partition elimination to read data from only those partitions that are relevant to the query. Recent improvements have boosted performance even more when queries are aimed at a few partitions in a table that has many files. 

We are thrilled to announce Mirroring in Fabric for Azure SQLDB, CosmosDB and Snowflake is in Public Preview!  

Mirroring in Fabric allows users to enjoy a highly integrated, end-to-end, and easy-to-use product that is designed to simplify your analytics needs. Built for openness and collaboration between Microsoft, and technology solutions that can read the open-source Delta Lake table format, Mirroring is a low-cost and low-latency turnkey solution that allows you to create a replica of your Azure SQL DB, Snowflake or CosmosDB data in OneLake which can be used for all your analytical needs. Learn more

Data Engineering 

Optimistic job admission for fabric spark.

We are excited to announce a new feature for Fabric Spark: Optimistic Job Admission. This feature aims to reduce the frequency of throttling errors (HTTP 430: Spark Capacity Limit Exceeded Response) and improve the job admission experience for our customers, especially during peak usage hours.  

Throttling errors on Spark workload occur when the Spark usage exceeds the Fabric capacity limits. In the current job admission policy, Fabric Spark reserves the maximum number of cores that a job may need during its execution, based on the maximum number of nodes that the job can scale up to. This ensures that the job will always have enough resources to run, but it also limits the number of concurrent jobs that can be admitted in the cluster. 

With Optimistic Job Admission, Fabric Spark only reserves the minimum number of cores that a job needs to start, based on the minimum number of nodes that the job can scale down to. This allows more jobs to be admitted if there are enough resources to meet the minimum requirements. If a job needs to scale up later, the scale up requests are approved or rejected based on the available cores in capacity.  

Optimistic Job Admission can significantly increase the max number of concurrent jobs for our customers, especially for those who use large SKUs. For example, if a customer is using F32 SKU, which has 64 Spark VCores (Based on 1 CU = 2 Spark VCores) and 192 Max Burst Cores for concurrency (based on the 3X burst multiplier), they can only run 3 jobs concurrently in the current job admission policy, assuming they have the default starter pool configuration. 

Now with Optimistic Job Admission, they can run up to 24 jobs concurrently with the same configuration. This is an 8x improvement!

We hope that this feature will help you run more jobs faster and more efficiently on Fabric Spark. 

Single Node Support for Starter Pools 

Do you hate waiting for your Spark sessions to start in starter pools with single node configuration? If yes, you will love the update on single node starter pool support. This feature lets you set your starter pool to max one node and get super-fast session start times for your Spark sessions. With this new support that’s been introduced, the system allocates the driver and executor with 4 cores each and 56 GB in memory, so that they fit within a single medium node configuration for Starter Pools. This improves session start times to 5 seconds in single node starter pool configurations. 

How can you use it? 

To use this feature, follow these steps: 

• Go to your Fabric workspace and choose the Workspace settings. 
• Select the Data Engineering/Science option to expand the menu. 

• Select the StarterPool option from the Pool selection and click on Edit. 

• Set the maximum node configuration for your starter pools to 1.

• Save your changes and enjoy super-fast session start times for your Spark sessions.

Container Image for Synapse VS Code

To simplify the development process for Synapse VS Code extension, we have released a container image that contains all the necessary dependencies for the extension ( Microsoft Artifact Registry) . This image is available in Microsoft artifact repository and can be pulled with a single command. By using this image, you do not need to install Java, Miniconda, or any other tools on your local machine. You can work on your Synapse projects inside the container environment, which is isolated and consistent. 

We have also integrated the container image with VS Code dev container feature, which allows you to open a folder or a repository inside a container and use the VS Code editor and extensions as usual. To use this feature, you need to install the Remote – Containers extension and create a devcontainer.json file in your project folder. We have provided a sample devcontainer.json file that you can use as a template or customize according to your needs ( SynapseVSCode/samples/.devcontainer at main · microsoft/SynapseVSCode (github.com) ). The dev container feature will automatically pull the container image, mount your project folder, and launch the VS Code editor inside the container. You can then enjoy the full functionality of the Synapse VS Code extension without any hassle. 

Git Integration with Spark Job Definition

We are excited to announce the Git integration for Spark Job Definition artifacts. This feature allows you to check in the changes of your Spark Job Definitions into a Git repository, which will include the source code of the Spark jobs and other artifact properties. By using Git as a version control system, you can track the history of your Spark Job Definitions, collaborate with other developers, and implement CI/CD workflows for your Spark projects. 

The Git integration for Spark Job Definition artifacts is designed to enhance your development experience and enable CI/CD scenarios for your Spark projects. We hope you find this feature useful, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions. 

When a new Spark Job Definition is made with a PySpark script as the main definition file, the Git status shows that this is an unsaved change that needs to be committed.

Once the change is finalized mich

The structure of the linked git repository and the file containing the source code that was submitted.

New Revamped Object Explorer experience in the notebook  

We are excited to announce the release of a revamped object explorer experience. The new experience is designed to improve flexibility and discoverability of data sources in the explorer and improve the discoverability of Resource folders. 

Try it out and add new Data sources clicking on the +Data sources button and upload new modules or create folders by clicking on the Resources folder and let us know what you think.   

%Run your scripts in Notebook  

Now you can use %run magic command to run your Python scripts and SQL scripts in Notebook resources folder, just like Jupyter notebook %run command. By this way you can easily reuse common modules that developed from your local IDE and use them in your Fabric Notebooks conveniently. We also introduced different command parameters to make sure complex cases such as reference run and high concurrency mode can be covered without friction, stay tuned for the best practice example for the usage! 

Data Science 

Semantic link is now ga  .

Semantic links are now generally available! The package comes with our default VHD, you can now use Semantic link in Fabric right away without any pip installation. Check it out .  

We introduced a new feature in December 2023 that allows tenant admins to enable AI and Copilot in Fabric for certain security groups in addition to the entire organization. Today, we are excited to announce that you can enable AI and Copilot for a specific Capacity. You can test Copilot at a certain capacity without impacting other workloads. This allows you to adapt Copilot to meet the needs of different groups in your organization and manage your capacity more effectively. 

AI and Copilot in Fabric are powered by large language models that are only available in limited datacenters. Previously, users who were not in US and France had to turn on the cross-geo setting to use AI and Copilot. Since mid-March, we updated the cross-geographic mapping logic, EU customers can use AI and Copilot without turning on the cross-geo setting, and their AI and Copilot requests will be processed within EUDB. Check it out ! 

Real-time Analytics

New kql queryset command bar.

Finding the commands for the actions you are trying to perform just got easier with our latest update to the KQL Queryset. Now, it’s easy to distinguish between actions applicable at the Queryset level and the single query level. 

Introducing a secondary command bar within the query editor dedicated to hosting query-level actions. Enjoy smoother navigation and streamlined functionality for a more efficient querying experience. 

New Update Command Public Preview  

The new update command is now in public preview! 

This allows you to update existing records in a Kusto Table.  This can be useful to fix ad hoc data issues or be integrated into a data loading pipeline.  The command has a “what if” mode to try a command before running it on your data. 

.update table Employees on Id <| 

  MyStagingTable 

  | where true 

Introducing Pause and Resume Feature in Eventstream   

We’re excited to introduce a powerful new feature in Fabric Eventstream: The Pause and Resume Feature. This powerful capability empowers you with unprecedented control over your data streams, enabling you to pause data streaming from various sources and destinations within Eventstream. You can then resume data streaming seamlessly from the paused time or a customized time, ensuring no data loss. 

Key Features: 

• Activate/Deactivate All : You can quickly pause and resume all data traffic flowing in and out of Eventstream with the Activate All and Deactivate All options on the menu bar. 
• Toggle Switch Button : Each node has a convenient toggle switch button, allowing you to activate or deactivate any data source from streaming in or out of Eventstream with ease. 

With the Pause and Resume feature in Fabric Eventstream, you can pause traffic from specific sources and destinations whenever needed. Whether it’s for troubleshooting purposes, building proof-of-concepts with test data, or minimizing unnecessary data processing costs, this feature offers unparalleled control over your data streams and leads to more efficient resource allocation.

Fabric Real-Time Analytics Integrates with Newly Announced Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview)  

Azure SQL family users can now take advantage of an enhanced monitoring solution for their databases and leverage Microsoft Fabric integration. With the introduction of the new Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview), users gain access to advanced monitoring capabilities. Through integration with Microsoft Fabric, they can effortlessly stream, store, and analyze monitoring data in real-time using an Eventhouse database in Fabric Real-Time Analytics. This integration enables users to stay informed about their database performance and make timely, informed decisions. 

Database watcher is a new managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family. It supports Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. 

Database watchers collect in-depth workload monitoring data to give you a detailed view of database performance, configuration, and health. Monitoring data from the databases, elastic pools, and SQL managed instances you select is collected in near real time into a central data store. To store and analyze SQL monitoring data, database watcher uses an Eventhouse database in Fabric Real-Time Analytics (as a complement option, Azure Data Explorer is also supported). 

Dashboards in Azure portal provide a single-pane-of-glass view of your Azure SQL estate and a detailed view of each database, elastic pool, and SQL managed instance. 

A conceptual diagram of a database watcher deployment, showing the flow of monitoring data from Azure SQL resources to a database watcher.  The monitoring data is stored in Fabric Real-Time Analytics .  Dashboards in the Azure portal show you a single-pane-of-glass view across your Azure SQL estate, and a detailed view of each database, elastic pool, and managed instance.    

You can query data in your Eventhouse database in Real-Time Analytics using KQL or T-SQL , analyze and model your data using Real-Time Analytics Querysets or Fabric Notebooks , build custom visualizations using KQL built-in visualizations or Power BI . 

To analyze collected monitoring data, the recommended method is to use KQL. KQL is optimal for querying telemetry, metrics, and logs. It provides extensive support for text search and parsing, time-series operators and functions, analytics and aggregation, and many other language constructs that facilitate data analysis. You can find examples of analyzing database watcher monitoring data with KQL in the documentation . 

Summary  

The dashboards, complemented by KQL queries, enable you to delve deep into the performance and configuration of your databases. This means you can detect, investigate, and troubleshoot a wide variety of database performance and health issues. 

Whether you’re tackling resource bottlenecks or fine-tuning your Azure SQL resources for the best balance of cost and performance, Database Watcher equips you with the insights needed to make informed decisions. It’s your pathway to optimizing your Azure SQL setup for peak efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

Next steps  

One effective approach to grasp the potential and the power of Database Watcher is to give it a try yourself. Set up your Azure SQL resources with Database Watcher, explore the dashboards, and start running some queries with KQL.  To read more about Database Watcher, check out the documentation . 

Data Factory 

Dataflows gen2 , fast copy  .

Dataflows help with ingesting and transforming data. With the introduction of dataflow scale out with the SQL DW compute, we are able to transform your data at scale. However, to do this on a scale, your data needs to be ingested first.  

With the introduction of fast copy, you can ingest Terabytes of data with the easy experience of dataflows, but with the scalable back end of Pipeline’s Copy Activity. 

We released support for Azure Service Principals (SPN) as an authentication kind last year. Now we’ve added support for this new authentication kind for on-premises data gateways and VNET data gateways.  

Azure service principal is a security identity that is application based and can be assigned permissions to access your data sources. Service principals are used to safely connect to data, without a user identity. Learn more about service principals.  

You can learn how to leverage the service principal authentication kind from the documentation available and leverage this in multiple connectors such as Azure Data Lake Storage, Dataverse, Azure SQL database, Web connector and more. 

Certified connector updates  

We’re pleased to announce the new and updated connectors in this release: 

• [New] Topcon Aptix Insights 
• [Update] BitSight Security Ratings 
• [New] Zendesk Data 
• [Update] Planview OKR 
• [Update] BQE Core 
• [New] LinkedIn Learning 
• [New] LEAP 
• [New] Samsara 
• [Update] Celonis EMS 
• [New] Supermetrics 
• [New] Exact Online Premium 

Are you interested in creating your own connector and publishing it for your customers? Learn more about the Power Query SDK and the Connector Certification program . 

Data pipelines 

The Data pipeline homepage is now updated with an all-new look! You’ll now find new guidance cards to help you find what you’re looking for more quickly.  

Pipeline support for CI/CD in public preview

When developing workflows with Data Factory’s pipelines it is very important for developers to be able to save their work in a Git repository for versioning, source control, and CI/CD. We are happy to announce the public preview of CI/CD support for Data Factory pipelines! Now, you can connect your Azure DevOps (ADO) projects to your Fabric workspace and commit, merge, and branch your pipelines using Fabric’s Git integration. Additionally, you can now use the built-in Deployment Pipelines inside Fabric to assign workspaces to different environments (dev, test, prod) and promote your changes easily without using ADO! 

Data Factory Data Pipelines APIs 

You can now use our public APIs to create, execute, and monitor data pipelines in Fabric Data Factory. 

Increase in Pipeline activity limit 

As a cloud service for analytics workflows, the Data Factory team has had a limit of 40 activities per pipeline since the early days of Azure Data Factory. The same orchestration engine drives Fabric Data Factory data pipelines and we’ve reacted to your feedback that many times you need more than 40 activities in a pipeline to perform complex workflows that require error checks, branching, and other control flow capabilities. We’ve now updated the limits for the Data Factory pipeline service in both Fabric and Azure (Azure Data Factory & Synapse pipelines) to now allow up to 80 activities per pipeline. 

Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity  

We’re excited to announce that you can now connect to your Fabric Warehouse from Azure Data Factory/Synapse pipeline. You can find this new connector when creating a new source or sink destination in your copy activity.  

This connector is also supported in the Lookup activity, Stored Procedure activity, Script activity, and Get Metadata activity.  

Edit column type to destination table support added to Fabric Warehouse and other SQL data stores 

When moving data from any supported data sources into Fabric Warehouse or other SQL data stores (SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance; Azure Synapse Analytics) via data pipelines, users can now specify the data type for each column under the destination table, as well as customize the precision and scale to certain data types such as decimal, numeric, etc.  

SFTP: performance improvements when writing data to SFTP 

SFTP connector has been improved to offer better performance when writing to SFTP as destination.  

Microsoft Fabric May 2024 Update

Welcome to the May 2024 update.   Here are a few, select highlights of the many we have for Fabric. You can now ask Copilot questions about data in your model, Model Explorer and authoring calculation groups in Power BI desktop is now generally available, and Real-Time Intelligence provides a complete end-to-end solution for ingesting, processing, … Continue reading “Microsoft Fabric May 2024 Update”

Microsoft Fabric March 2024 Update

Welcome to the March 2024 update. We have a lot of great features this month including OneLake File Explorer, Autotune Query Tuning, Test Framework for Power Query SDK in VS Code, and many more! Earn a free Microsoft Fabric certification exam!  We are thrilled to announce the general availability of Exam DP-600, which leads to … Continue reading “Microsoft Fabric March 2024 Update”