When we approach creating a presentation, for many of us, it's a daunting and sometimes frustrating task. We work hard to create, design, and reposition objects in every slide and wonder in frustration, "There must be a simpler way to do what I'm doing right now." Well, you're not wrong.
Indeed, there are ways and methods to shorten and simplify our work processes, and fortunately, many of them are available through thoughtful use of the keyboard keys. There are numerous keys (and combinations of two or three of them) that assist us in designing presentations, but few serve us better than the Shift key. It alone serves as the hub for numerous actions that can make our design tasks easier and faster.
Object Movement on an Axis – Created a shape and now struggling to move it precisely along a vertical or horizontal axis? Shift comes to your rescue here as well! Hold down the Shift key while dragging the shape with the mouse, and it will move along a fixed axis, whether it's vertical or horizontal.
Drawing a Straight Line – Trying to draw a perfectly straight line either vertically or horizontally and finding that it's slightly off each time? Again, a continuous press of the Shift key will ease the task.
Shift also helps us select multiple objects on a slide without trying to encompass them all within a selection rectangle created by the mouse. In addition to these, there are many other actions that can be performed by combining a press on the Shift key with another key. Among the most commonly used are switching between languages (Alt+Shift) and typing different characters on the same key (Shift+2=@).
These are just some examples, and there are many more cases where the Shift key comes to our aid in design work (and there are plenty). It is one of the most useful keys in the designer's toolkit, used by beginners and professionals alike.
