How to Use Backstage View in Microsoft Publisher 2013

The Backstage View is an important component of Publisher’s interface, available through the Ribbon’s File Tab and enabling file Management. It replaces the traditional Office button and also displays pertinent file data.

The Backstage View features a menu on the left, populated by various Header options including: New, Open, Computer, Add a Place, Save, Save As, Print, Share, Export, and Accounts. Additionally, the Backstage View contains an Info Area which allows users to set business information, manage embedded fonts and execute the Design Checker function.

The various options in the left-hand menu enable both the creation and opening of publication files.

Watch the free video here, transcripts for the entire video follow:

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Video transcripts:

Before you get started with using any new software application, it’s important to understand the elements of the application’s interface. In this video, we will complete a brief overview of the “Backstage View” portion of the Publisher 2013 interface.

If you’re a user of other Microsoft Office 2013 software applications, chances are the interface looks familiar to you. The graphic user interface of Publisher 2013 utilizes the ribbon that has been present in most office products since the 2007 release.

Let’s click on the File tab in order to take a look at what Microsoft calls the “Backstage View” of Publisher. The Backstage view is where you manage your files and the data about them such as creating, saving, inspecting, and setting personal or business information. If you’re familiar with using Microsoft Office 2007 products, you’ll want to note that the File tab or Backstage View has replaced the Office Button.

We’re going to work through the options on the left hand menu. First, you’ll notice the Info area. The info area is where you can set your business information, run the design checker, and manage embedded fonts – all of which we’ll talk about in later videos.

Clicking on the New heading will take you to a screen that should look familiar. When you’d like to create a new publication, this screen will allow you to choose from a new blank publication, search for a template, or choose a popular template that is featured in the gallery displayed. This screen is much like the Publisher start screen that was discussed in the previous video.

Clicking on the Open heading will take you to the Open section where you have the option of opening an existing publication. The left hand side of this screen is a new look for Publisher 2013. Clicking on the Recent Publications option will display a list of shortcuts to recently opened publications. You can do a few things from here. First, you can select one of the publications in the list and open it quickly. Second, you can simply make note of the filepath that is displayed below the publication’s name. Finally, you also have the option to “Pin” recent publications that to this list. Why would you want to do that? As you open more and more publications, the list is going to change. If you haven’t opened one of these publications for awhile or you open many different publications over time, some of the publications that you frequently use will be pushed off of the recent publications list. If one of these publications, such as the GCC Membership Cards publication, is a file that I’d like to remain on this list, I can “pin” it to the top so that it will always remain at the top. To do so, I would simply hover my mouse over the publication’s name and click the small pin icon that appears to the right. Now notice that the membership card publication displays above a line that sits above all the other recently opened publications. If I wanted to unpin this publication from the list, I would simply click on the pin icon again.

Within the Open area, we also have a few other options. The next option is to open a publication within someone’s SkyDrive folder. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud system, which we’ll discuss in more detail later in this chapter.

If you select Computer from the left hand menu, you will see the current and most recently access folders on your computer where you can search for a publication to Open. If the folder you want is not listed, you could click the Browse button to search through your computer or network folders for the publication you want. Within the Recent Folders area, you have the ability to “pin” a folder location, much like we pinned recent publications a few moments ago.

Clicking on the Add a Place option will allow you to configure your SkyDrive or Office 365 SharePoint server as a location to access your publications.

From the left hand menu, clicking on the “Save” option will save changes made to your publication since that last time you saved.

The “Save As” option will allow you to save this publication with a different name. The original publication will remain intact, but a copy of the changes you’ve made to your publication since the last save will be represented in the newly named version. Save As also gives you the option to save the publication as a file type that is not a regular Microsoft Publisher format such as a .jpeg image, plain text document, or PDF to name a few.

Clicking on Print will allow you to set your printing options for this publication. We’ll discuss the printing options in detail in a later chapter.

Clicking on Share will give you options for sending the current publication through email as an attached publication file, an attached PDF, or an attached XPS attachment. If we click on “Email Preview”, you’ll have the opportunity to see what your publication would look like in an HTML format that can be sent via email. Marketing messages to current or prospective clients or customers are the biggest reason why you might want to send your publication as an HTML message via email.

Clicking on Export will provide you will numerous exporting options such as creating a PDF, publishing the publication as HTML, changing the file type, saving for photo printing, saving for a commercial printer, or saving for another computer. These options will be discussed in more detail in a later chapter when our publication is completed.

Clicking on the Close option will allow you to close the publication that you currently have open while keeping the Microsoft Publisher 2013 application running.

Clicking on Account will allow you to configure different accounts, change background and theme preferences, and change your update options. We’ll discuss these options a bit more in detail in a later video as well.

Finally, clicking on Options will allow you to view preferences or “options” for Microsoft Publisher, the application, rather than just preferences and options for the publication that is currently open. We’ll discuss the most popular options in this area in a later video in this chapter.

Once you’re finished in the Publisher backstage view area, click the Left Arrow in the upper left hand corner of the screen to return to the publication.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!