Displaying a Tab as a Side Panel
Introduction
Displaying a tab as a side panel allows you to display your Main tab and one other tab at the same time by splitting the Form Layout vertically into two sections. This makes navigating through records in Workbooks much faster for your Users, as you can set one of the frequently visited tabs to display immediately upon opening the record alongside the Main tab. The specified tab will still retain all features that the tab normally would have – e.g. creating new Activities, opening and viewing emails, adding related items, etc.
A panel can be displayed to the left or right of the main record and you can specify the default ratio of the panel to the rest of the record. End-users can change the tab displayed in the panel and can drag the divider between the main record and the panel to change the relative dimensions but when they click Save, the record will return to the defaults set by the System Administrator.
For example, displaying the Overview tab in a panel on your Opportunity records encourages best practice within your Sales team as it makes it much easier for them to see their Next Steps as well as details of the people involved in the decision-making process. Similarly, displaying the Emails tab displayed alongside the Main tab of your Case records is beneficial for your Customer Service team.
Tip
It is possible to use the Side Panel to show a Report Tab or Dashboard Tab, like the Account Management tab on Organisations in the above video.
Setting up a Side Panel
Open the Form Layout for which you want to display a Panel and use the Form Style picklist to make your selection.
You can then choose what tab you want to display alongside the Main tab, and what ratio you would like them to appear in.
Tip
If the window is too narrow (below 727px), the side panel will not appear and the tab will show across the top as normal.
You can also specify whether the side panel appears when you open any of the available tabs or if it only shows when you have the Main tab open.
Once you have made the desired changes, Save the Form Layout, and load up a record that has this Form Layout applied to it so you can see if the tab left/right ratio, and window size are to your liking.
With a record open, you can manually adjust the size of the specific tab by dragging the divider bar in the middle as shown below:
Best Practice
iFrames
You can display an iFrame in a Side Panel (for example, the CreditSafe tab if you’re using that integration), alongside the Main tab of a record. It is worth noting however, that iFrames which include processes that update the record will not automatically do so within the Side Panel – you will need to manually reload the record.
When this is the case, there will be an information message at the top of the record reminding you to reload the page for the changes to take effect.
Changing the tab in the Side Panel
A User can change which tab is displayed in the Side Panel using the hamburger button in the top right of the panel. When the record is saved, the default tab set by your System Administrator will show.