Open and Close Tabs of Backstage View in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows

When launched, PowerPoint typically opens with Backstage view, that has several tabs to be used for various functions, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Open and Close tabs

In this tutorial, we explore two of those tabs, as shown in Figure 1, above. If you want to create a new presentation, you can do so using the New tab. If you want to work on any of the already created presentations, you can open them by using the various options in the Open tab.

Open
Close

Open

Follow these steps to open an existing file on your computer in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows:

1. Launch PowerPoint, and click the File menu, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
2. 
   Figure 2: File menu
2. This action opens Backstage view. Select the Open tab, as shown in Figure 3, below.
3. 
   Figure 3: Open tab selected within Backstage view
4. Options within the Open tab are explained below, as marked in Figure 3, above:

   A. Recent

   In this section, you'll find two tabs. The Presentations tab is where you can find a list of your recently accessed presentations. Similarly, the Folders tab shows a list of recently accessed folders. Both of these tabs provide options to pin your files and folders. The pinned content shows up right on top. To pin a presentation or folder, just hover your cursor over any file or folder within the Presentations or the Folders tab, and click the Pin this item to the list icon, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. It's a good idea to pin your most frequently used files and folders so that you can access them quickly.

   
   Figure 4: Pin this item to the list icon

   Within the Recent section, you will also find the Recover Unsaved Presentations button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, previously on this page. Click this option, and PowerPoint will try to recover unsaved presentations that may have been lost to unexpected PowerPoint or computer crashes.

   B. OneDrive

   Within this tab, you'll find a list of online files stored on your OneDrive. To view and open these files, you need to sign in to your OneDrive account from within PowerPoint or any other Microsoft Office 365 program. As you can see in Figure 5, below, we can navigate our OneDrive like a local folder.

   
   Figure 5: OneDrive

   C. This PC

   This tab lets you explore files and folders from your local system. You just access the folder where your file is saved, select the file, and open it. In Figure 6, below, you can see a list of folders from where we could open a file.

   
   Figure 6: This PC

   Atop the list of files and folders, you'll also find the Search bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6, above. Type in a file name or even part of a file name. Results will look through your recent files and folders, and also files shared with you on cloud locations.

   D. Add a Place

   You can also choose the Add a Place option, as shown in Figure 7, below. You can choose to add multiple OneDrive and OneDrive for Business accounts. These added accounts will show up in multiple places within the Open tab of Backstage view. Learn more in our Add a Place tutorial.

   
   Figure 7: Add a Place

   E. Browse

   To open a presentation in an old-fashioned way, click the Browse option. Doing so brings up the Open dialog box, as shown in Figure 8, below. Navigate to wherever your presentation files are saved, and you can open any of them. You'll find that PowerPoint can open files of various formats (types).

   
   Figure 8: Open dialog box

5. Select the presentation or file you want to open, and then click the Open button. Remember that the Open button has a down-arrow next to it. Clicking this down-arrow provides more Open options, as shown in Figure 9, below. Choose any of them; an explanation of these options follows.
6. 
   Figure 9: Open options
7. Here's a brief explanation of these options:

1. Open

8. Open, the default option is the same as clicking the Open button.

2. Open Read-Only

9. Open Read-Only lets you open a read-only copy of the presentation. This is great if you don't want to make changes and overwrite the original presentation.

3. Open as Copy

10. Open as Copy lets you open a copy of the presentation, almost like creating a new presentation while leaving the original unaltered.

4. Open in Browser

11. Open in Browser works only with certain file formats, such as MHT. See file formats PowerPoint can open.

5. Open in Protected View

12. Open in Protected View lets you open a presentation with restrictions to protect your computer from damage. You can open potentially dangerous files, such as those downloaded from an unknown source on the Internet, in the Protected View.

6. Open and Repair

13. Open and Repair allows PowerPoint to attempt repair of a file that is possibly corrupt.