- Hey everyone.
Paul here from the Analyst Academy.
And in this video,
I'm going to cover eight PowerPoint hacks used
by consultants at places like McKinsey Bain and BCG.
Consultants are well-known
for being absolute PowerPoint wizards.
So we're going to talk about what they do to save time,
work more efficiently, and build beautiful slides.
(upbeat music)
The very first hack on our list is a keyboard
shortcut that allows you to quickly copy objects on a slide.
It's really simple.
All you need to do is just hold the Control key
and click on the object you want to copy.
Then just drag it away like this.
And before you start thinking to yourself,
wow, what a waste of a video,
I already know how to copy and paste.
Thank you very much.
Remember that, although this is a very small action.
It's something you'll do over and over
if you're building your slide right.
Plus I'll show you how to combine this
with other shortcuts to make it even more powerful.
Hack number two.
This one builds on the first one.
It's a keyboard shortcut
for moving your objects in a straight line.
It's similar to our copy shortcut
except this time you'll hold Shift.
And then again, just drag the object away
and notice how it stays exactly in a straight line.
And the real power here comes when you combine
these first two together.
So with this object right here
I can hold Control and Shift at the same time,
then click and drag my mouse away like this.
And it's going to create an exact copy
of the object directly below it.
Okay. Again,
yes, I know this seems really boring, but stick with me,
it's about to get a lot more interesting.
Well, as interesting as PowerPoint it can get.
So now that we can copy objects
in a straight line really quickly,
we're ready for hack number three,
which is to use the F4 key to repeat commands.
So, for example, if I decide
I want to change this box to green,
I can do that up here,
but then if I want to change this second box,
I can just click on it and hit F4,
and it'll repeat exactly what I just did.
This is helpful enough,
but check out what happens when we combine
all three of the shortcuts we've learned to actually
start building a slide.
Let's say I'm trying to build a slide
with four subtitle boxes on the left.
Once I have my first box in place,
I can just hold Control and Shift,
then click and drag this down
to make my second box like this.
But then watch this.
if I just hit F4 a few times,
PowerPoint is going to repeat what I just did.
And not only that,
but it's going to space them all evenly apart.
So, already in just a few seconds
I've got a main chunk of my slide completed
and it's already formatted and spaced exactly how I want.
Okay. But hang on, it's about to get even better.
But real quick,
if you're getting any value out of this video,
please give it a like.
It helps us to know what kinds of videos you like,
and what we should make more of.
Plus it also helps us here on YouTube.
So, thanks for your help.
Oh, and if you're interested in more stuff like this,
check us out at theanalystacademy.com,
where we've got lots of great courses
and even some free stuff as well,
like our top 50 PowerPoint shortcuts cheat sheet
which you can download right now.
I'll include a link to that below.
All right.
Now, the next hack is to use ribbon shortcuts,
which are going to help us format shapes
and objects really quickly.
So the ribbon is this bar of commands right up here
where you've got most everything you need.
Like for example, on the Home tab,
you can change the size of your font
or in the Insert tab,
you can add new objects like a box or a table.
This is all stuff you already know,
but what's genius about the way Microsoft
has set this all up,
is you can actually access all of these commands
with your keyboard without having to memorize anything.
Which can really save you a lot of time.
All you have to do is hit the Alt key
and see how all these letters appear up in your ribbon.
Just hit the letter for the tab you're trying to open.
So let's say we want to go to the Home tab,
we can just hit H
and now all the options in the Home tab appear.
So if I want to do something like change the font color,
I can hit FC and then select the font color I want.
Now, before you fall asleep
because this is the world's most boring hack.
Let me show you how much time it can really save you.
So, I have my box on the left here,
and let's say I wanna take one of these boxes
and turn it into a regular text box
with bullets that I can put in this column.
Remember the name of the game
when it comes to efficient slide building
is using what you already have on the slide.
So, I'm going to take this box,
copy it over using our Control and Shift shortcuts.
And now I'm ready to format.
But instead of using my mouse
to come up to the ribbon every single time,
I'm just going to use my ribbon shortcuts to format the box.
And this looks like I'm going lightning fast.
But what I'm doing is actually really simple.
I'm just following the shortcuts
it shows me when I hit the Alt key
and I promise you getting to this level is not hard at all.
So. there you go.
We've now got a box formatted, exactly how we want.
This only took a few seconds,
whereas if I were to use the mouse
it probably would have taken a lot longer.
Okay. And now here's where the magic really happens.
Remember our shortcuts from earlier?
I'm going to take this text box and copy it over.
Then select all of these at once and hold Control and Shift
Copy them down.
Then just hit F4.
And now we have the meat of our slide,
but not only that it's perfectly aligned.
But hang on, it's about to get even better.
This next hack is probably my absolute favorite
of the bunch,
because it's gotten me out of a lot of sticky situations.
The hack is copy and paste formatting.
And just like it sounds,
this lets you copy the formatting of one object
onto another object.
Take a look at this box right here.
Let's say I decided instead I wanted it to be bullet points.
Like what you see right here.
I select the bullet points, hit Control Shift C
and then select the box and hit Control Shift V
and check that out.
The box is no longer a box.
It's a set of bullet points.
I can't tell you how helpful this really is.
Especially when you start doing multiple objects at once.
Like, if I wanted to turn all of these boxes
into bullet points.
Just select them all, do the same thing, Control Shift V.
Another situation where this is really helpful
is when you're trying to adjust the formatting
to look the exact same on every object.
But for some reason, the formatting of the objects
look a little bit different from each other.
Maybe, the margins are off or the line spacing is different
or the font size is off by half a point, whatever.
Rather than trying to find and fix what's different,
you can just copy the formatting from one object
and paste it onto the other.
And seriously, this will really save you in a pinch.
At this point in the video,
you might be thinking to yourself
that there can't possibly be any more hacks
that are this good.
Well my friends, buckle up because I've got three more.
With our slide in place here,
let's say we wanted to make this five rows
instead of the current four.
Well, easy enough, right?
We just select this entire row and drag it down like this.
Well, obviously that creates a problem
because not only are we out of room down here,
but our spacing is all off.
And if there's anything consultants hate,
it's a misaligned slide.
If you're a consultant and you're watching this
let me know if you agree, but it personally drives me crazy
and it drives most other consultants, I know, crazy too.
So, what we're going to do is use our distribution command,
which is going to allow me to take these boxes
and distribute them evenly.
To do that, select all the boxes you want to distribute,
then go up to the Home tab,
then arrange down to a line
and select distribute vertically.
And see how the spacing
between each of these is perfect now.
And I can do the same thing with these two columns
but instead of going up to the ribbon again,
I'm going to use ribbon shortcuts.
Like we learned earlier.
I'll hit Alt H G A
then select V to distribute these vertically.
Then we'll do the same thing for this last column.
Only this time, I'll do it at normal speed.
And check out how fast that is.
And these are all lined,
but let's say one of these boxes was sticking out like this.
If I wanted to make sure these are all aligned
along the left edge here,
I could follow the same path to get into my align menu,
but then rather than distributing the boxes,
I'll just hit L for align left,
and notice how all these boxes are now aligned.
So, now we have five rows like we want instead of four
and they're all evenly distributed
and aligned and I can sleep peacefully at night
knowing everything is placed, where it should be.
All right. Now I'm going to show you
how to speed up that process just a little bit.
Then we have one more mega hack at the end
and we'll be done.
So, it was kind of a pain
to have to distribute each of these columns individually.
I'd rather just distribute all the rows at once
and save myself some time.
Well, the way to do this is by using the group command.
And basically what that does
is it allows you to treat a bunch of objects
as one single object.
What that's gonna do is let me select an entire row,
group it together, which you can do by hitting Control G
then distribute the whole thing at once.
So, let me quickly do it in these other rows.
And now I can select them all
as if they're their own objects,
use my ribbon shortcut to distribute,
and there you go.
There's a whole lot more you can do with the group command
that we don't have time to cover here,
but it really is a neat shortcut
that will help you in your slide building.
And that brings us to our final hack
the Quick Access Toolbar or the QAT.
Remember back when we were using ribbon shortcuts
to align and distribute objects,
you know, like one minute ago?
Commands like that are great
but sometimes can be a hassle
because you have to hit like five keys
to get where you want sometimes.
Well, here's where the Quick Access Toolbar comes in.
It allows you to take whatever command you want
and create a really simple shortcut for it.
Let's take the distributed command for example.
If I go there with my mouse,
I can right click on the command
and then add it to the Quick Access Toolbar,
which is this row of commands right here,
that's always showing no matter what ribbon tab you're on.
So, when I need to distribute vertically,
I can just click on this icon right here.
But then not only that,
I can access this just like I do my ribbon shortcuts
by hitting Alt and then whatever number shows up.
So then rather than having to hit Alt H G A V,
I can just hit alt 1 or alt 5 or whatever the number is.
Once you've customized your QAT how you want,
you can cut your slide building time in half.
The trick is to add commands that you use often
but are also a little tricky to get to with your mouse.
Which is why a lot of people like to add the align
and distribute commands we just talked about.
All right.That's going to do it for today's video.
Thanks again for watching.
And I hope you found it helpful.
If you have any questions about what we talked about today,
be sure to leave a question in the comments
and I'll do my best to get to it.
And if you're interested in stuff like this,
be sure to check us out at theanalystacademy.com.
We have lots of really great courses there.
Plus our free download the top 50 PowerPoint shortcuts
cheat sheet.
And as always remember to stay connected
with us here on YouTube for lots more free stuff
and be sure to follow our other social media channels.
I'll include links to all that in the description below.
Thanks again for watching and best of luck.