Hello, fellow educators! We all know that creating presentations is a common task for us. And let's be honest, it can be a bit time-consuming. But fear not, wonderful teachers, because I have a secret weapon to share with you: Hotkeys.
Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that can help you navigate through Google Slides more quickly and efficiently. And as busy teachers, we all know how valuable saving time can be.
Most of us already know and use the basics. For example, "CTRL + C" is the Hotkey for copying, while "CTRL + V" is the Hotkey for pasting. But, it's beyond just copy-paste.
Now you might be thinking, "I don't have time to learn all of these Hotkeys." But trust me, my friends, taking a few minutes to learn and practice using Hotkeys can save you a ton of time in the long run. I’m going to share the 10 Hotkeys I use the most on a daily basis.
DUPLICATE:
PC: (CTRL + D)
Mac: (COMMAND + D)
Out of all of the Hotkeys, I might use this one the most. I like all of my text formatting to be the same size and alignment, so I'll duplicate the text box I already made, erase the text, and start typing. This way, I don’t have to make a whole new text box, change the font, resize it (and remember what size I was using anyway), change the color, and the list goes on. Duplicate and that is all done!
I also use this Hotkey to duplicate whole slides! I select the slide on the side, CTRL + D, and it duplicates the whole entire slide! Bonus tip: If you have any links already created linking one slide to another, duplicating slides will not mess up those links! The linked slide will remain on the original, not the new duplicated one! (Thank goodness)
PASTE WITH CURRENT FORMATTING:
PC: (CTRL + SHIFT + V)
Mac: (COMMAND + SHIFT + V)
Nothing is more annoying to me than when I copy something from another document and paste it into my Slides and the formatting is in tiny font, all squished to the left, with line breaks in weird places, and highlighted. (The worst.) Let’s avoid all of that.
This Hotkey is the same as the regular CTRL + V for paste, except when you add the SHIFT in there, it will format your text to match the textbox you are pasting into! This Hotkey is such an instinct now, I actually had to think about which keys I had to hit in order to write this!
SCREENSHOT PART OF A SCREEN:
PC: (COMMAND + SHIFT + S)
Mac: (COMMAND + SHIFT + 4)
I like to take small pictures of my screen often to show other teachers and students exactly what certain things look like, or where to find them! This Hotkey is like the PrintScreen feature, except instead of taking a screenshot of the whole screen, a cursor pops up and you can select a portion of your screen to screenshot! (So no one will see you that have 800 tabs open!) The best part, if you are a PC user, is that you just click CTRL + V to paste where you want your picture to go, and your screenshot appears! On a Mac the image you screenshot saves as a .png on your desktop!
ADD LINKS:
PC: (CTRL + K)
Mac: (COMMAND + K)
This one I used so often when we went virtual, I’m surprised the K on my keyboard is still there. You can basically add links to any element in Google Slides, text, picture, shape, etc. Select or highlight what you want to add a link to, press CTRL + K, and the add link feature pops right up! Paste your link in and done! Easy peasy.
INCREASE OR DECREASE FONT SIZE:
PC: (CTRL + SHIFT + >) increase
(CTRL + SHIFT + <) decrease
Mac: (COMMAND + SHIFT + >) increase
(COMMAND + SHIFT + <) decrease
This Hotkey comes in handy when I want to make the text fit well on a slide. Sometimes so it looks aesthetically pleasing, sometimes so the kids can actually see it from the back of the room! Highlight the text (Bonus Hotkey: (CTRL + A) selects everything!) then use (CTRL + SHIFT + >) to increase or (CTRL + SHIFT + <) to decrease. Each time you click (>) or (<) it will increase or decrease in increments of one. This is typically how I get headers to fit appropriately in a slide!
MOVE OBJECTS FORWARD & BACKWARD:
PC: (CTRL + ↑)
(CTRL + ↓)
Mac: (COMMAND + ↑)
(COMMAND + ↓)
I use this feature every single time I make anything in Google Slides. I always end up having so many elements overlapping one another and end up wanting to put an object behind something else or bring an object forward. You could do this same task with 4+ mouse clicks, but this is so much easier and faster, and you can visualize your design without having a pop-up feature in the way!
Bonus Hotkey: If you do (CTRL + SHIFT + ↑) or (CTRL + SHIFT + ↓) [Mac: (COMMAND + SHIFT + ↑) or (COMMAND + SHIFT + ↓)] that will send an element all the way forward or all the way backward!
Using Hotkeys can also make you look like a tech-savvy pro in front of your colleagues. And who doesn't want to look like a pro, right?
But check it out, there's more! Not exactly a “Hotkey” but did you know that you can create your own custom Typing Shortcuts in Google Slides? You can assign any function to any key combination you want, and it will substitute it for your preferred text, image, or symbol! Just go to the "Tools" menu, select "Preferences," and then click on "Substitutions." From there, you can add, remove, or edit any Typing Shortcuts you like.
In conclusion, my fellow teachers, using Hotkeys in Google Slides is a small but mighty tool that can help us save time and navigate through presentations and activities with ease. Your fingers will thank you, and your colleagues might even be impressed with your new tech skills.
Comments