How to Customize Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word
- Power-user
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Customizing keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Office can drastically speed up your workflow. But while Word offers built-in support for custom shortcuts, PowerPoint and Excel are far more limited—unless you use the right tools.
In this article, we break down the native options in Office, and introduce a powerful solution that unlocks full shortcut customization across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Table of Content
✅Word: Native Keyboard Shortcut Customization
Microsoft Office has a number of default keyboard shortcuts for Word. But it also includes a built-in feature to let users assign or change keyboard shortcuts for virtually any command.
How to customize shortcuts in Word:
Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon.
Click "Customize..." next to Keyboard shortcuts.
Select a command and assign your preferred shortcut.

You can override default shortcuts, add new ones, or remove existing mappings.

❌ PowerPoint and Excel: No Native Shortcut Customization
Unlike Word, PowerPoint and Excel do not allow users to customize keyboard shortcuts natively.
This means you are limited to:
Default shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl + C, Ctrl + Z).
Learn all keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint
Learn all keyboard shortcuts for Excel
Some custom macros or Quick Access Toolbar commands (with cumbersome Alt + Number sequences)
External workarounds like AutoHotkey (not user-friendly, especially in corporate environments)
So if you want to create a shortcut for aligning objects in PowerPoint, switching tabs in Excel, or triggering a custom command—it seems at first that you’re out of luck.
⌨ Create custom keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint, Excel or Word with Power-user
Keyboard shortcut customization capabilities
The Power-user add-in bridges this gap, enabling custom keyboard shortcuts for any command, including:
Built-in PowerPoint, Excel, or Word features
Buttons from the ribbon (even native ones)
Custom macros or add-in commands
Key features:
Works in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word
Assign shortcuts to any command
Detects conflicts with existing shortcuts
Easy UI to manage, edit, or reset shortcuts
✅ How to set up custom keyboard shortcuts
Download Power-user, install it and activate your license (see instructions).
Open the "Command Center" at the top left of the ribbon, and set up your custom keyboard shortcuts

🔍 Exemples of custom shortcuts
All this means that with Power-user you are free to:
Create custom keyboard shortcut to Align Left, Align Right, Align Top, Align Bottom, Align Middle and Align Center
Create custom keyboard shortcut to Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically
Create custom keyboard shortcut to add Bullets or a Numbered List
Create a custom keyboard shortcut to Autofit columns and rows in Excel
Create a custom keyboard shortcut to apply Borders
Etc.

🚀 Why it matters
Time is money. Keyboard shortcuts reduce repetitive clicks and let you work faster.
Power-user is especially valuable for:
PowerPoint users who want shortcuts for alignment, formatting, or grid tools
Excel users who want quick access to navigation or formatting features
Word users looking to go beyond the default shortcut manager