Recent Tab of Backstage View in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows

The Recent option within the Home or Open tabs of Backstage view provides you with a list of recently opened presentations, so that you can quickly select the one that you want to work on. Additionally, the Recent option offers a few more useful functionalities.

Follow these steps to explore recent files and folders in Backstage view in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows:

1. When launched, PowerPoint typically opens with Backstage view. If you are already working on another presentation and want to access a recent file, you can bring up Backstage view by clicking the File tab, which is the leftmost tab of the Ribbon, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
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   Figure 1: File menu
2. Doing so brings up Backstage view, with the Home tab active, as shown in Figure 2, below. You will find recent files within the Home tab, highlighted in green, and both recent files and folders in the Open tab, highlighted in blue.
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   Figure 2: Backstage view in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows
3. Within the Home tab, you will find the Recent files, where you can find a list of your recently accessed presentations. However, there may be presentation files that you need to access frequently, even if they don't show in your Recent list. You can easily do so by pinning these files so that they show in the Pinned list.
4. To pin a presentation, hover your cursor over any file within the Recent list, and click the Pin this item to the list icon, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, above. You can see a more detailed explanation of this process in our Home Tab of Backstage view in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows tutorial.
4. To bring up the Open tab of Backstage view, you can either click the More presentations link, highlighted in orange within Figure 2, shown previously on this page, or you can click the Open tab, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2. Doing so brings up the Open tab, as shown in Figure 3, below.
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   Figure 3: Recent files and folders in the Open tab of Backstage view
5. As you can see in Figure 3, above, the Open tab also has a recent Folders list, highlighted in red. You can access recent folders, and also pin them in the same way as you can pin files. You can learn more about options within the Open tab in our Open Tab of Backstage view in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows tutorial.