Keyboard shortcuts, transitions, and presenting reference for Apple Keynote.
| Group | Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Slides | New slide | ⇧ + ⌘ + N |
| Slides | Duplicate slide | ⌘ + D |
| Slides | Skip / unskip slide | ⇧ + ⌘ + H |
| Slides | Indent slide in the navigator (group) | Tab in navigator |
| Present | Play from first slide | ⌥ + ⌘ + P |
| Present | Play from current slide | ⌥ + ⌘ + R |
| Present | Rehearse the slideshow | ⌥ + ⌘ + R |
| Present | Exit the slideshow | Esc |
| View | Show presenter notes | ⇧ + ⌘ + P |
| View | Toggle the Format sidebar | ⌥ + ⌘ + I |
| View | Light table view | ⌥ + ⌘ + 3 |
| View | Show / hide rulers | ⌘ + R |
| View | Zoom in / out | ⌘ + > / ⌘ + < |
| Objects | Group / ungroup | ⌥ + ⌘ + G / ⌥ + ⇧ + ⌘ + G |
| Objects | Lock / unlock | ⌘ + L / ⌥ + ⌘ + L |
| Objects | Bring forward / send backward | ⌥ + ⌘ + ⇧ + F / B |
| Objects | Constrain proportions while resizing | ⇧ + drag |
| Objects | Duplicate by dragging | ⌥ + drag |
| Format | Copy / paste style | ⌥ + ⌘ + C / ⌥ + ⌘ + V |
| Format | Paste and match style | ⌥ + ⇧ + ⌘ + V |
Choose the theme and slide size first
The theme chooser sets both. Document → Slide Size offers 16:9 (standard) or 4:3, and changing it later rescales everything — decide before you build.
Edit the masters, not the slides
View → Edit Master Slides. Set fonts, background, and placeholder positions here. Add a new master for any recurring slide shape you use more than twice.
Use real placeholders
On a master, select an object and tick Define as Text Placeholder or Define as Media Placeholder in the Format sidebar. Dragging an image onto a media placeholder auto-fits and crops it — much faster than manual sizing.
Apply and reapply masters
Right-click a slide → Reapply Master to Slide discards per-slide overrides and snaps it back to the master. The fix for a deck that has drifted.
Group slides in the navigator
Tab indents a slide under the one above, creating a collapsible group. Long decks become navigable, and you can collapse a whole section while working elsewhere.
Save it as a theme
File → Save Theme adds it to the theme chooser. The right way to make a house deck template that other people start from.
- Yellow alignment guides appear automatically while dragging; hold
⌘while dragging to temporarily disable snapping. - Arrange in the Format sidebar has Align and Distribute for precise multi-object layout.
- Set exact position and size numerically in the Arrange tab — better than eyeballing when matching across slides.
- Add persistent guides by dragging from the rulers (
⌘ + R). - Instant Alpha (Format → Image) removes a flat background from an image without leaving Keynote.
| Type | What it animates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Transition | Between one slide and the next. | Set in the Animate tab with a slide selected. Keep to one or two across a whole deck. |
| Magic Move | Matching objects morphing between two slides. | Duplicate the slide first so objects genuinely match. Also morphs text if the words match. |
| Build In | An object appearing on the slide. | Set delivery to "By Bullet" on a text box to reveal points one at a time. |
| Build Out | An object leaving the slide. | Useful for swapping one diagram for another in place. |
| Action build | An object moving or changing while staying on the slide. | Move, Rotate, Scale, Opacity. Chain several for a motion path. |
| Build Order | The sequence everything happens in. | Animate tab → Build Order. Set items to start "After Build X" to run automatically rather than on click. |
- Pick one transition and use it throughout. A different effect on every slide reads as amateur, regardless of how good each one looks alone.
- Dissolve and Magic Move are the two that almost always work. Most of the rest are novelty.
- Builds that reveal bullets one at a time help pacing; builds for their own sake distract.
- Keep durations short — 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. Default lengths often feel sluggish in a live room.
- Test on the actual presenting machine. Complex builds can stutter on older hardware or when mirroring to a projector.
| During a slideshow | Does |
|---|---|
→ / Space / N | Next build or slide. |
← / P | Previous slide. |
Number + Return | Jump to that slide number. |
B | Black the screen. Press again to resume. |
W | White the screen. |
C | Show or hide the pointer. |
X | Swap the presenter and audience displays — the fix when they land the wrong way round. |
S | Pause and show the current slide. |
Esc | Exit the slideshow. |
H | Hide Keynote and show the desktop — Keynote stays running in the Dock. |
In rehearsal mode, the layout button lets you choose what the presenter screen shows — current and next slide, notes, clock, and timer — and resize each. Set it up once and it persists.
Keynote on iPhone or Apple Watch controls a Mac presentation over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, showing notes and next slide in your hand. Enable it under Keynote → Settings → Remotes.
Play → Record Slideshow captures narration and slide timing. Export the result as a movie — the simplest route to a self-running demo or a recorded talk.
Live Video sources put a camera feed on a slide. Multi-Presenter Slideshows let several people share control of one deck remotely — genuinely useful for panel sessions.
Export to PDF before you travel. If the Mac, the adapter, or the room's setup fails, any machine can open a PDF. Animations are lost but the talk survives.
File → Advanced → Copy audio and movies into document. Otherwise linked media stays external and a deck moved to another Mac loses its video.
Gotchas
- Keynote exports to
.pptx, but Magic Move and most action builds have no PowerPoint equivalent and are lost or crudely approximated. - Fonts not installed on the recipient's machine will substitute and reflow the layout.
- Don't round-trip repeatedly. Each conversion loses more.
- If the audience needs to edit it in PowerPoint, build it in PowerPoint. If they only need to view it, send a PDF or a movie.
.keyfiles are packages and are generally unusable on Windows without conversion.
- Changing slide size after building rescales every object, and text rarely rescales gracefully.
- Skipped slides still export to PDF unless you exclude them — check before sending a deck with hidden slides.
- Linked media isn't embedded by default; use "Copy audio and movies into document" before moving the file.
- iCloud collaboration needs the file in iCloud Drive, and works in a browser for non-Apple collaborators.
- Keynote is free on all current Apple devices and at icloud.com/keynote.
Tips
The Magic Move workflow in one line: ⌘ + D the slide, reposition or resize objects on the copy, set the transition to Magic Move. Never rebuild the objects.
Copy a chart from Numbers and paste into Keynote — it remains editable, and chart data can be animated to build in by series.
⌘ + L on logos and backgrounds. Prevents the accidental nudge that leaves one slide subtly misaligned.
⌥ + ⌘ + 3 shows every slide as a thumbnail grid — the fastest way to reorder a long deck and spot inconsistent slides.
File → Export To → Movie preserves every transition and build, with either recorded timing or a fixed interval. The only export format that keeps the animation.
File → Revert To → Browse All Versions for iCloud documents — recovers a deck after an over-enthusiastic redesign.