SlideShortcuts for IT teams

What it is

SlideShortcuts adds 70+ consultant-style keyboard shortcuts for aligning, distributing, sizing and grouping to PowerPoint on Windows and Mac, and to Google Slides. It is published by 1183 Ventures LLC, and it comes in four parts:

• Windows: SlideShortcuts.Addin.dll, a compiled COM add-in for PowerPoint (.NET Framework 4.8), installed for one Windows user. No VBA and no macros.
• Mac: SlideShortcuts.app, a menu-bar app that runs the shortcuts while PowerPoint is the front app.
• Windows and Mac: a free PowerPoint panel, an Office add-in on Microsoft AppSource. The keyboard shortcuts come from the Windows or Mac install, not from the panel.
• Google Slides: a Chrome extension, plus an optional Google Workspace add-on with 19 more commands, such as Make Same Size and Swap.

None of them sends the content of slides to us.

Windows

The package

https://slideshortcuts.com/downloads/SlideShortcuts.msi (version 17.0) is a Windows Installer package that installs for the signed-in user. It needs no admin rights, runs no code of its own while installing (its only custom actions set properties), and installs no service and nothing under Program Files. It installs:

• One file: %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlideShortcuts\addin\SlideShortcuts.Addin.dll, a COM add-in for PowerPoint built on .NET Framework 4.8. It is not VBA or VSTO, so macro settings and the attack surface reduction rule Block Win32 API calls from Office macros do not apply to it.
• Its registration, all under HKCU: the class Software\Classes\CLSID\{7C2D4E6F-8A1B-4C3D-9E5F-1183B5700A01} (and the same under Software\Classes\Wow6432Node for 32-bit Office), the ProgID SlideShortcuts.Addin, and Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\SlideShortcuts.Addin with LoadBehavior 3.
• The license: under HKCU\Software\DeckKeys.
• The free panel, queued: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\AutoInstallAddins\PowerPoint\SlideShortcuts, so PowerPoint offers the AppSource panel at its next start. TASKPANE=0 leaves this out.

It replaces an earlier install in place, whether from an older MSI or from Windows_Install.exe, and keeps the license.

How it handles keys

The shortcuts come from a thread keyboard hook inside PowerPoint (WH_KEYBOARD on PowerPoint's own UI thread), not a system-wide hook. It sees keys only while PowerPoint is in front, and acts only on its own shortcut combinations, only in a slide window.

Deploying it

• Intune: add SlideShortcuts.msi as a line-of-business app (Apps > All Apps > Create > Windows > Line-of-business app). Intune takes the install context from the package, which installs per user, and adds msiexec /i itself.
• Any other tool, in the user's context: msiexec /i SlideShortcuts.msi /qn. Optional properties: EMAIL=, LICENSEKEY= and TASKPANE=0.
• The license key: best left out, so each person enters their own: PowerPoint asks for it once it opens. A verbose install log records EMAIL; LICENSEKEY is hidden there.
• Where unmanaged COM add-ins are blocked: allow the ProgID SlideShortcuts.Addin in PowerPoint's List of managed add-ins policy, with the value 1 (always on).
• Uninstall: Settings > Apps, or msiexec /x. The license values stay in the registry. To free the computer's activation, sign out first with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L.

Publisher and certificate

• Publisher: 1183 Ventures LLC
• Issued by: Sectigo Public Code Signing CA R36, valid until May 20, 2027
• SHA-1 thumbprint: B46A0A2517ECB9CEDF8B2D90721B919156147254

This certificate signs SlideShortcuts.msi and SlideShortcuts.Addin.dll (Authenticode). It also signed the earlier versions (up to 16.x), which ran as a VBA add-in.

The PowerPoint panel

A free Office add-in on Microsoft AppSource (WA200010944), served from addin.slideshortcuts.com. To give it to people:

Microsoft 365 admin center > Settings > Integrated apps > Get apps, then SlideShortcuts > Get it now > Deploy, and choose who gets it.

Microsoft documents that this works even when users' access to the Office Store is turned off (Settings > Org settings > User owned apps and services): Microsoft's steps. It adds the panel only: the keyboard shortcuts come from the Windows or Mac install.

Mac

The package

https://slideshortcuts.com/downloads/SlideShortcuts.pkg is signed Developer ID Installer: 1183 Ventures LLC (U9UA6SRH3T) and notarized by Apple. It needs an administrator's password, and it installs:

• /Applications/SlideShortcuts.app, a menu-bar app that starts at login. Bundle id com.1183ventures.slideshortcuts.helper, signed Developer ID Application: 1183 Ventures LLC (U9UA6SRH3T).
• The PowerPoint panel, as a manifest in ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Documents/wef. Placing it is why macOS asks whether Installer may access data from other apps.

Its two permissions

• Accessibility: to recognise its shortcut keys and to press PowerPoint's own menu commands. It acts only while PowerPoint is the front app.
• Automation, Microsoft PowerPoint: to run the shortcuts that drive PowerPoint through Apple events.

Granting them with a profile

A Privacy Preferences Policy Control (PPPC) profile can grant both: Accessibility, and AppleEvents with PowerPoint as the receiver. For the app:

Identifier       com.1183ventures.slideshortcuts.helper
IdentifierType   bundleID
CodeRequirement  identifier "com.1183ventures.slideshortcuts.helper" and anchor apple generic and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = U9UA6SRH3T

For the AppleEvents receiver:

AEReceiverIdentifier       com.microsoft.Powerpoint
AEReceiverIdentifierType   bundleID
AEReceiverCodeRequirement  identifier "com.microsoft.Powerpoint" and anchor apple generic and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = UBF8T346G9

On macOS 27, Apple lists this payload's Accessibility key as deprecated and shows the user a notice once for each app it covers, and users can still switch an Accessibility permission granted this way off in System Settings.

Google Slides

The Chrome extension

SlideShortcuts for Google Slides, ID igionmhfonpbjilfnhdljklckjdidbjo, from the Chrome Web Store.

• Deploying it: force-install it with the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy, or let people install it with ExtensionInstallAllowlist (ExtensionSettings covers both). In the Google Admin console: Devices > Chrome > Apps & extensions > Users & browsers, then Force install or Allow install.
• Where it runs: only on Google Slides pages, docs.google.com/presentation.
• Chrome permissions: storage (its keymap and license), scripting (to start in Slides tabs that were already open when it was installed or updated) and alarms (its regular license check).
• Sites: docs.google.com and slideshortcuts.com (older versions also list api.lemonsqueezy.com). The current version needs only the first two.
• Your Google account: it asks for no access to it. There is no sign-in and no Google permission screen. Pages on slideshortcuts.com can ask it whether it is installed, which version it is, and whether the add-on below has run in a deck.

The Slides add-on (optional)

SlideShortcuts on the Google Workspace Marketplace. It adds 19 more commands, such as Make Same Size and Swap. The extension works without it.

• Deploying it: a super administrator can install it for everyone or for chosen groups or organizational units: Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace Marketplace apps > Apps list > Install app > SlideShortcuts > Admin install. Or allowlist it (Apps list > Allowlist app), so people can install it themselves.
• What it can touch: the presentations.currentonly scope, which is the presentation it runs in and nothing else, and script.container.ui, which lets it show its panel (Open Panel and Slide Templates) beside the slides. Google also gives every Marketplace add-on the user's email address and basic profile (userinfo.email, userinfo.profile); SlideShortcuts never reads, stores or sends them. It runs in the user's own Google account, and its script makes no network requests. Its panel loads the slide templates from slideshortcuts.com and a font from Google Fonts, and sends nothing from the presentation.

Network and data

Everything goes over HTTPS on port 443.

What is sent, as our privacy policy sets out:

• The license check: the email and license key, to slideshortcuts.com, which checks the subscription with Stripe, or with Lemon Squeezy for its keys. Older app versions ask Lemon Squeezy directly (api.lemonsqueezy.com). For a key we issued we also record which app activated it and when; for the Windows add-in, also the computer's name (older versions also send the Windows user name).
• The anonymous usage count: a random install ID, the platform, which app sent it, its version, which service it checks licenses with, and whether a license is active. From 1 November 2026, a new install also sends how many commands it ran on its first day, never which ones. No email, no license key, nothing from the slides.
• Shortcut counts, only if the person says yes: which SlideShortcuts commands ran and how many times each day. Never other keys, the times they were pressed, or anything from the slides.
• The Mac update check: twice a day, a small public file from slideshortcuts.com, with no install ID, email, key or slide content.
• Never sent: slide content, keystrokes, screen captures or clipboard contents.

Where the license is kept: in the Mac app's and the panel's local storage, in the Windows registry for the Windows add-in, and in Chrome's extension storage for the extension (Chrome may sync it between the person's Chrome profiles). The panel also saves the license email and key in the settings of any deck saved while it is open.

Contact

Security questionnaires, packaging questions or anything else: support@slideshortcuts.com.