Editor shortcuts and gestures

This page is the full key map and gesture reference for the deck editor, plus the rules that keep the keys out of your way. For the everyday summary, see Edit slides and elements; a running show has its own keys, covered in Present.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press Ctrl, or Cmd on a Mac.

Keys that follow your focus

• Undo, redo and save work even while your cursor is in a field, such as a Properties input or the notes.
• Every other shortcut stands down while you are typing, including in the notes and the AI panel, so the keys edit your text instead of the slide.
• The canvas keys also stand down inside dialogs, menus and popovers. There, Esc closes the dialog instead of clearing your selection.
• Ctrl+C copies your elements only when elements are selected and no page text is highlighted; with text highlighted, the browser's copy takes it.
• Ctrl+X is always left to the browser. Cut is not a Slides command, so use copy and delete, or duplicate.
• Ctrl+S saves the deck. When the editor has no save to run, the key is left to the browser instead of being captured.

Keys for slides in the rail

Focus a slide in the rail, then:

After a delete, the next slide becomes active and focus returns to the rail. Drag a thumbnail to reorder the slides, and shift-click a transition chip to apply that transition to every junction; see Animations and transitions.

Crop and chart grid keys

• In crop mode, Enter applies the crop as a single edit and Esc cancels it and leaves the picture as it was. The session also ends when the element leaves the canvas or you select something else; a crop you never changed adds no undo step. See Images, video and deck assets.
• In the Chart data grid, the arrow keys and Enter walk between cells, and Tab moves to the next cell, row by row. A horizontal arrow leaves a cell only after the caret has run out of text in it. See Charts and tables.

Mouse and trackpad gestures

A locked element has no hit area at all: clicks, drags and the selection rectangle skip it until you unlock it in the Arrange section.

How undo groups your changes

• One gesture is one undo step: a drag, a resize and a rotation each land as a single change when you release.
• Typing, slider drags and colour picks merge: changes to the same thing within half a second count as one step, and a longer pause starts a new one.
• Structural changes never merge: adding or removing a chart row or series, restacking the layers, grouping, a crop, a rename, a theme preset or an applied layout are each their own step.
• A shortcut that would change nothing adds no step. Sending an element that is already at the back further back costs no undo.
• The history keeps up to 100 steps, and it restores the selection that went with the change, so undoing a delete brings the slide or element back and selects it.

Questions, answered

Why did Ctrl+C copy text instead of my elements?

Ctrl+C copies your slide elements only when the elements are selected and no page text is highlighted. If text is highlighted, the browser's copy takes it. Clear the highlight, select the elements, and copy again.

How do I move an element exactly 10 px?

Select it and press an arrow key to move it by 1 px, or hold Shift with the arrow to move it by 10 px.

How do I apply or cancel a crop with the keyboard?

In crop mode, press Enter to apply the crop as a single edit, or Esc to cancel it and leave the picture as it was. The session also ends if the element leaves the canvas or you select something else, and a crop you never changed adds no undo step. See Images, video and deck assets.

Do the editor shortcuts work while a dialog is open?

No. The canvas keys stand down inside dialogs, menus and popovers, so the dialog keeps its own keys: Esc closes the dialog instead of clearing your selection. Undo, redo and save still work while your cursor is in a field such as a Properties input or the notes.

Why doesn't Ctrl+X cut my element?

Cut is not a Slides command. Ctrl+X is always left to your browser, so it cuts the text you have highlighted and does nothing to slide elements. To move an element, copy it with Ctrl+C and delete the original, or press Ctrl+D to duplicate it.

Do these shortcuts work during a presentation?

No. The editing keys apply on the deck editor's canvas. A running show and its speaker view have their own key map; see Present.

Can I paste a picture onto a slide with Ctrl+V?

Yes. Copy a picture on your computer and press Ctrl+V with the slide open; it lands as an image element. A picture from your computer wins over anything copied inside Slides. Pasting a picture stands down while a dialog is open or while you are cropping.

How do I redo a change?

Press Ctrl+Shift+Z, or Ctrl+Y. Both work while your cursor is in a field, the same way undo does.

How do I select everything on a slide?

Press Ctrl+A. It selects every element on the open slide, so you can move or restyle them together.

How do I apply a layout with the keyboard?

Focus a slide in the rail and press Alt+L to open Apply layout. See Slide layouts for what each layout keeps and drops.