Info Tab of Backstage View in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Information is power. In PowerPoint, all information that you need about your currently active presentation is available in a single easily accessible location. This is the new Info panel of the Backstage view. This panel gives you information about permissions set for the active presentation, helps you prepare your content for sharing, and also lets you recover older versions of unsaved files. In addition, the Info tab also provides access to many more properties that we will discuss on this page.

Follow these steps to explore options within the Info tab of Backstage view in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. To access the Info panel, open the File menu, and choose the Info option, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Info option within File menu selected

3. File menu or Backstage view?

   When you click the File menu, you essentially summon PowerPoint 2010 for Windows Backstage view.

2. Doing so brings up the Info panel, as shown in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Info panel in Backstage view
3. All the options marked in Figure 2, above, are explained below:

   A. Permissions

   Provides several options for protecting your presentation. You can mark your presentation as "final", apply a password, make your presentation read-only, apply a digital signature, or use Information Rights Management (IRM) to control presentation access. The links below provide detailed information:

   Mark as Final
   Remove Mark as Final
   Encrypt with Password
   Remove and Change Passwords

   Sign Up for Windows Rights Management
   Using Windows Rights Management
   Advanced WRM Permissions
   Opening WRM Protected Files

   Get Started with a Digital Signature
   Acquire or Create a Digital Signature
   Creating Digital Certificates Outside PowerPoint 2010
   Enable Trusted Certificates
   Removing Certificates in Internet Explorer
   Remove Digital Signatures

   Media Options

   If you have some media files (audio or video) contained within your presentation, then you will see an additional option within the Info tab of Backstage view. This option, called Compress Media lets you optimize any media files so that they take less space. More about this is explained in our Video Compression Options in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial.

   B. Prepare for Sharing

   If you are planning to share your presentation with others, you should consider doing a quality check such as, inspect your presentation for confidential information, validate its accessibility, and check for compatibility with previous versions. You can also do a spell check, and examine the presentation for hidden data and personal information stored in comments, notes, or document properties. All these tasks can be performed within this area. The links below provide detailed information:

   Inspect Document
   Check Accessibility
   Check Compatibility

   C. Versions

   In this section, you can recover your unsaved presentations (if you have closed your file without saving it, or if your computer or application crashed). This link below provides detailed information:

   Recovering Presentations Manually

   D. Properties

   Here, you can create and modify many of the presentation’s properties. The links below provide detailed information:

   Properties of a Presentation
   Advanced Presentation Properties

4. We will explore all these options individually in subsequent tutorials of this series.
4. Save your presentation often.