Navigate and Personalize Salesforce

At the top of each Salesforce page are tabs and links for navigating to major features.

1. Use the tabs to switch between objects and features. You can customize this list to suit your needs (more on this in a bit).
2. Search to find any type of record.
3. Access user-specific customizations from the drop-down next to your name.
4. Use the Setup menu to customize Salesforce for your whole org. (You must have administrative privileges.)
5. Access help resources and training.
6. A list of apps, each of which contains different features and tabs.

If you don’t see the tabs that you expect to see, select a different app from the app menu.

When you log in to Salesforce, your first view is likely the Home tab. The items displayed vary depending on your edition, layout, and customizations. A default layout includes these items.

1. A sidebar where you can create records, jump to your recently viewed items, add handy links, or restore items that you’ve deleted. The same sidebar appears on most pages.
2. Your Chatter feed, which allows you to collaborate with colleagues in context, all in Salesforce. Your feed can be collapsed (as shown) or expanded by clicking Show Feed.
3. Dashboards showing up-to-the-minute results from several reports. Dashboard information refreshes whenever you reload the page.
4. Your open tasks in Salesforce, with the option to filter by date range or view all open tasks. If you don’t see them right away, scroll down, or collapse the Chatter feed to move Tasks up.
5. Your calendar of events in Salesforce, including options to create events.

We’ve set up the Home tab with some features we think you’ll find useful, but you can customize what’s on your Home tab. For example, Jose, the Cloud Kicks sales manager, wants to see how many opportunities have been open more for more than seven days, so he added a type of visual graph called a dashboard below the Chatter feed on his home page to review his team’s performance at a glance.

Let’s walk through what you see on the Accounts tab. Make sure that you’ve selected Sales from the app menu, and then click the Accounts tab.

1. A dropdown menu for list views related to Accounts, which includes standard list views and any custom views you’ve created. You also see links to edit existing custom list views and create custom list views. List views are a way for you to browse a set of records in Salesforce. In the example below, this list view shows you all account records you have permission to see.
2. Recent records, with the option to filter on recently viewed, modified, or created. You can also create a new account by clicking New.
3. A set of links to commonly used account reports.
4. Account-related tools, including import and merge utilities.

On the Accounts tab, click the New button to create an account. Enter any name in the Account Name field and click Save. Depending on the configuration, you might see a different view when you log in to Salesforce. If you’re using your Developer org, you see something similar to this.

1. A profile image, if available, and social network links
2. Quick links for customizing the page content and layout, accessing help resources related to the page, and printing
3. A feed, where you can add and view comments about a record
4. Links to move around the page or go to different pages or external sites
5. Detailed information about the record

Scroll down below the record details. Related lists group and display links to other records associated with the one you’re viewing. You can change the list order so that the ones you use most are higher up.

One of the easiest and most effective customizations that you can make is to change the tabs that appear when you log in to Salesforce.

1. Click your name.
2. Select My Settings.
3. Click Display & Layout.
4. Click Customize My Tabs.

You can add and remove tabs (1), plus change the order of the tabs you see (2).

Try it out. Click any tab under Available Tabs, and click the right arrow to add it to Selected Tabs. Then click any tab under Selected Tabs, and either remove it with the left arrow, or move it up or down with the corresponding arrows.

Now that you’ve mastered that, let’s change some page layouts. You’ll remember we walked you through an account record in Salesforce, and showed you related lists on the page. These related lists contain records on other objects related to the main record.

Typically, a page layout has many related lists. You can customize which ones you see and their order.

1. You’re already in the Display & Layout section of your user settings. This time, click Customize My Pages.
2. Select Accounts from the dropdown menu, and click Customize Page.

You can add and remove related lists (1), plus change the order of the related lists you see (2).

Give this one a shot. Click any list under Available List, and click the right arrow to add it to Selected List. Click any list under Selected List, and either remove it with the left arrow, or move it up or down with the corresponding arrows. Once you’re done, navigate back to any account record by clicking on the Accounts tab and open an account to see your changes in action.

Now let’s work on your email notifications for Chatter. This is a common pain point for many new users, but it’s easy to address.

Since you’re still in My Settings, click Chatter, then Email Notifications.

Now you can set your preferences for when to be notified via email regarding Chatter activity. For example, you might not want to be notified when you have a new follower or when someone likes your posts, but you want to receive a notification when someone mentions you on Chatter.

You can also set your preferences for what types of notifications to receive for Chatter groups that you join, including receiving a daily or weekly digest.

Tip

If you set your default preference for Chatter group notifications now, you don’t have to come back and update your settings each time you join a new Chatter group.