Using the Backstage

Quick reference

• 00:04 In this lesson, we're going to explore the Backstage.
• 00:07 Actually, when you run Microsoft Project for the first time,
• 00:10 you'll get this recent Backstage window.
• 00:12 This allows you to open projects, create a blank project, or
• 00:16 import projects from existing, from Excel, from SharePoint, or
• 00:21 even select other sample project templates that Microsoft provides.
• 00:25 In this example,
• 00:26 we're going to choose the Software Development Plan project template.
• 00:30 So double click on this file.
• 00:34 To get to the Backstage,
• 00:36 remember we click on the File tab at the top left hand side of project.
• 00:40 Along the left we have menu items, and
• 00:42 on the right hand side is the Backstage window.
• 00:46 Right now, we're looking at the Info window.
• 00:49 And this provides us with an ability to manage our
• 00:52 accounts if we're using Microsoft Project Server.
• 00:55 We're not using Project Server in this fundamentals course,
• 00:59 so I'll skip over that.
• 01:01 The organizer allows us to copy our favorite views,
• 01:05 report settings from one project to another.
• 01:08 I'll cover that in a future lesson.
• 01:11 The New menu item allows us to create new projects very similar to that recent
• 01:16 Backstage that we receive when we run Microsoft Project for the first time.
• 01:22 Open, Save and Save As does what you'd expect,
• 01:25 allows you to open a file and save files.
• 01:28 Let's click on the Print Backstage menu item and take a look at this one.
• 01:35 The print Backstage allows us to print our project and
• 01:38 see how it's going to look before it's printed.
• 01:42 So for example, over here on the bottom right-hand side of the screen,
• 01:46 I can click these arrows to see what each page will look like.
• 01:50 And I like to use this icon at the bottom right hand corner
• 01:54 that says multiple pages.
• 01:56 If you mouse over this box here that has the four boxes in it, just click on that.
• 02:02 And now you can see every page your printer will print.
• 02:07 If you have different paper types, you can change that here.
• 02:13 And if you decide that maybe this is printing too much,
• 02:17 you can also change the dates.
• 02:21 And now I have it fitting on one page.
• 02:24 There's also a page setup menu item here that allows me to be
• 02:28 more granular in configuring how my project prints.
• 02:33 So the print Backstage menu item is actually very powerful in that it allows
• 02:38 us to see exactly what we're going to get before we waste our paper and
• 02:42 print our project.
• 02:44 For just one moment, I'm going to skip over Share and
• 02:47 Export as these are the last two items I'm going to cover.
• 02:50 Close allows us to simply close our project file.
• 02:54 Account is a place where you can change your account information, any picture that
• 02:59 might show up, but also you can change the background of project and the theme.
• 03:05 So you can play around with these at your own leisure.
• 03:07 We're not going to cover these in this lesson.
• 03:10 One other item that we'll cover in another lesson is the Options menu item.
• 03:15 I'm just going to click that.
• 03:17 And you can see in this case, I get a pop up dialog.
• 03:20 I don't actually receive the standard Backstage window.
• 03:25 And here we have a whole other set of menus and settings and configurations for
• 03:30 projects.
• 03:30 And we'll cover some of these in a future lesson.
• 03:33 We'll click Cancel for now.
• 03:36 Let's go back to the File tab and click the Share menu item.
• 03:42 The Share menu has two options.
• 03:44 One is to synchronize with SharePoint and
• 03:46 the other is to send a copy of your project via email.
• 03:50 The sync with SharePoint is actually very interesting.
• 03:53 Depending on which version you have, usually the pro or professional version,
• 03:58 you can put your project up onto a SharePoint site and
• 04:01 other people can modify it and send those changes back.
• 04:04 If you have the Standard version,
• 04:06 you can at least put your project up into SharePoint so other people can read it.
• 04:11 I'm not going to cover SharePoint because that is
• 04:14 a more advanced topic that I will not cover in this fundamentals course.
• 04:18 Email opens up Outlook and sends the attachment via email.
• 04:23 Now when you send the attachment via email,
• 04:26 please note it's going to create what's called an MPP file.
• 04:30 That's the standard file format for project and stands for
• 04:34 a Microsoft Project Plan, MPP.
• 04:36 Now when you send this file out to someone,
• 04:39 it is not a synchronized version, what you're sending is a copy.
• 04:44 So whenever you send this if someone else makes a change,
• 04:47 you cannot synchronize it back to your original copy.
• 04:50 There's also an Export option.
• 04:53 And this allows you to create a PDF or XPS document.
• 04:57 PDF is an Adobe format that's very popular and
• 04:59 most people have what's called the Adobe Reader on their computer.
• 05:03 XPS is a Microsoft format that not as many computers can read.
• 05:08 So I'd suggest you use the PDF format.
• 05:10 And when you do this, Microsoft Project has the built-in ability to create a PDF.
• 05:15 And it basically provides you with a similar user interface
• 05:19 as the print dialog.
• 05:21 So this is basically how you get around the Backstage.
• 05:25 As you can see, this is helpful for setting the configuration for
• 05:31 your project which we'll cover later, creating new projects,
• 05:36 saving your project, closing your projects, and
• 05:41 also printing and sharing your project.

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