Like all software, PowerPoint has keyboard shortcuts — in fact a lot more than I will cover here. It's always worthwhile to learn a few shortcuts that you'll use often because you'll save time and aggravation.
I am still surprised at how many people save by going to the File tab and click the Save item. Or copy by right-clicking and choosing Copy. The keyboard shortcut is so much faster!
I don't set a good example when I teach, because I try to use methods that people can see on the screen that I'm sharing. So I'll right-click and choose Copy so my students can see what I'm doing but when no one is looking, I always use Ctrl+C!
The Shift and Ctrl keys are especially useful in PowerPoint, so here are my favorite PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts. Please add yours in the comments!
Ctrl+D: Duplicate selected objects. If you do this additional times, PowerPoint remembers the distance and direction and creates a line of equidistant objects.
Ctrl+drag: Copy and move the selected object at the same time. This is a real timesaver.
Ctrl+Shift+C: Copy formatting. This is a gem. It's the same as Pick Up and often works better than the Format Painter, which is similar.
Ctrl+Shift+V: Paste formatting. This is the same as Apply.
Shift+resize with a handle: Constrains the object you're inserting to a square, circle, equilateral triangle, etc.
Ctrl+Z: Undo your most recent action. This doesn't work all the time, but it works most of the time.
Tab: Indent selected text. I know, this doesn't involve Ctrl or Shift but the next related item does.
Ctrl+S: Save. Use this often!