File Menu and Backstage View in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

If you explore how people use PowerPoint, you will discover that people are successful finding options that are intuitive and easy-to-discover. They fail when options are hidden in drop-down menus or dialog boxes. Fortunately, Backstage view is from the former category of options. Let us explore existing features within Backstage view.

You access Backstage view from the File tab, which is placed at towards the extreme left of the Ribbon, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: File tab in PowerPoint 2016

Although it looks like a tab, clicking the File tab header brings up a menu on the left side of Backstage view, as shown in Figure 2. Notice that there are no other menus in the PowerPoint 2016 interface. Within Backstage view, you'll find frequently used features for managing your PowerPoint presentation files. This view is also used to manage files and the data about the files, such as creating and saving files, looking for hidden metadata or personal information, printing slides, and setting file options.

Figure 2: PowerPoint 2016 Backstage view

When Backstage view is open, you can find eleven options on the left side. Each of these options open individual tabs. When you launch PowerPoint, or when PowerPoint has been launched but there are no presentations open, you'll see the Open tab visible within Backstage view (see Figure 2, above). If you access Backstage view with a presentation already open, you will see the Info tab instead of the Open tab. Here is a list of all eleven tabs:

1. Info
2. New
3. Open
4. Save
5. Save As
6. Print
7. Share
8. Export
9. Close
10. Account
11. Options

To go back from Backstage view to Normal view, you click the Back arrow placed on the top left of the interface, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Back arrow within Backstage view