New Tab of Backstage View in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

When you launch PowerPoint, you are provided with an option to create a new blank presentation. Further, if you are already working on an open presentation and want to create a new presentation at that point, you can do so using the New tab within the Backstage view.

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Follow these steps to explore options with the New tab of Backstage view in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows:

1. Launch PowerPoint. Doing so opens a new presentation.
2. Click the File menu, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: File menu
3. This action opens Backstage view. Select the New tab, as shown in Figure 2, below.
4. 
   Figure 2: New option selected within Backstage view
5. Options to open a new presentation are explained below, as marked in Figure 2, above:

   A. Search for online templates and themes

   Here, enter any keyword(s) as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below, and click the Search button to search for online templates and Themes. You can see the results, as shown in Figure 3. Click on any of the thumbnails to open a new presentation based on the template. You can also pick up any other category to search for the templates, from the Category pane, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3.

   
   Figure 3: Result of searched keyword

   B. Suggested searches

   Here, you'll find some suggested searches based on keywords and categories. These include: Presentations, Business, Industry, Education, Labels, Charts, and Personal. Click on any of these keywords to get relevant results, and also to access the Category pane, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3, above.

   C. Personal

   Here, you'll find templates and Themes created by the user, or placed by your system administrator in a designated folder. If you haven’t created or placed any custom templates or Themes, you will not see this Personal option, as well as the Featured option we discuss next.

   D. Featured

   This section header is only visible if you have Personal content, as explained in the preceding section, thus necessitating the distinction between Personal and Featured content. Either way, you will get access to locally available default templates. If you click on any template other than Blank Presentation, you will bring up a window with the selected template, as shown in Figure 4, below.

   
   Figure 4: Selected template

   Within this window, you will get to choose from variations of the selected Theme, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, above. The More Images arrows, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 4, show some of the layouts available in the selected Theme. And the arrows highlighted in green within Figure 4, browse previous and next Themes.

   When you have selected the required Theme and the layout, click the Create button, as shown highlighted in orange within Figure 4, above, to open a new presentation based on the selection.

   Create a Barebones Slide

   Do you want to create a basic barebones slide without any content template? Choose the Blank Presentation option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, previously on this page.