PowerPoint 2010: I Installed Lion and Now My Shortcuts Don't Work!

by AJ George

Recently I updated my iMac to OS X Lion. I do a lot of work in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 on the Mac by using Parallels. In a previous article I covered how to move objects in PowerPoint less than the standard 6 points using the arrow keys. By holding down the [Ctrl] key in conjunction with a directional arrow key you can move objects 1.25 points at a time instead.

If you, like me, recently upgraded to Lion you may have noticed that this shortcut will no longer work in PowerPoint. Pressing [Ctrl] plus the left arrow key will now move your screen left, to Mission Control. Pressing [Ctrl] plus the right arrow key won't do anything (in PowerPoint anyway). Pressing [Ctrl] plus the up arrow key will take you to Mission Control and pressing [Ctrl] plus the down arrow key will show the desktop.

To reset your shortcuts to the way things worked previously, you will need to adjust your Mac's Preferences.

1. From the top menu bar on your Mac, choose Apple > System Preferences.
2. From the Hardware area, select Keyboard.
3. At the top of the Keyboard dialog box, click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
4. Select Mission Control at the left.
5. On the right, deselect both instances of Mission Control as well Show Desktop.
   
   
   
   Alternately, you could double-click each shortcut and hold down new keys to reset the keyboard shortcut to something that won't interfere with PowerPoint's shortcuts.
   
   Note: If you change your mind about deactivating (or changing) the shortcuts, simply click the Restore Defaults button to put everything back the way it was.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Comments

[Pamela Covington]

Could anyone tell me why I possibly keep getting loud bursts of volume at the entry of a slide when I playback? I've looked at the wave of both my audio and background files and don't see (or hear) anything unusual there when I play them individually. It just keeps happening on certain slides, often so loud it makes you jump out of your seat! What else might I check? Please help!

[Carrie]

thanks for this. I really depended on that control key to fine-tune adjust in Powerpoint.