Troubleshooting Menu Activation in PowerPoint for Mac

It really does not matter which program you are using on a Mac. Your Menu Bar remains constant irrespective of the program being used. Yes some menus do change but some such as the Apple menu are retained all the time. To activate the Menu Bar without a mouse, you can press the Ctrl+F2 key combination (or Ctrl+Fn+F2, if you use a smaller keyboard on a Mac laptop). Thereafter you access various menu options by typing their first couple of letters. Sometimes, this feature may suddenly stop working. You may not be able to activate the Menu Bar using the key combination Ctrl+F2 (or Ctrl+Fn+F2).

One approach to solve this issue is restarting the system. Another solution is to check the settings within System Preferences, as explained in this tutorial. Follow these steps to learn more:

1. Access the Mac (Apple Menu) | System Preferences menu option as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Mac | System Preferences menu option
2. This opens the System Preferences dialog, as shown in Figure 2. Here, click the Keyboard option (highlighted in red within Figure 2).
3. 
   Figure 2: Keyboard option within the System Preferences dialog
3. This opens the Keyboard dialog, as shown in Figure 3. Make sure that the Keyboard Shortcuts tab is selected as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3. Select the Keyboard & Text Input option within the sidebar (highlighted in blue within Figure 3). Among the list of checkboxes towards the right, you will find that the Move focus to the menu bar checkbox is unchecked (highlighted in green within Figure 3).
4. 
   Figure 3: Keyboard dialog
4. Select the Move focus to the menu bar checkbox as shown in Figure 4. Then, close the Keyboard dialog box and get back to the PowerPoint interface.
5. 
   Figure 4: Move focus to the menu bar checkbox selected
5. This will ensure that the Ctrl+F2 (or Ctrl+Fn+F2) key combination works hereafter.