Salesforce.com For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Navigating Salesforce

In This Chapter

• Logging in to the site

• Getting to know the home page

• Navigating the tabs

• Getting to know tab home pages

• Viewing lists

• Detailing the record page

If an application isn't easy to use, you won't use it. Period. Salesforce succeeds not only because it offers a universe of integrated tools, but also because users can pick it up within minutes. You navigate it much the same way you do other Web sites: by pointing and clicking over text links and buttons.

Still, you have so many ways to navigate Salesforce that it makes sense to lay down the obvious (and not‐so‐obvious) best practices for getting around the application.

Even if you're familiar with Salesforce, you might want to skim this chapter because we cover terms used repeatedly throughout this book.

In this chapter, you find out how to log in to the site and use the home page to manage your activities, create records, and jump to other tabs. We briefly review the major tabs and how to use the interior home pages, list pages, detail pages, and related lists. Finally, we cover where you can go for help.

Getting Familiar with Basic Terms

Before we delve into the mechanics of navigating Salesforce, be sure to familiarize yourself with certain basic terms:

• Salesforce: When we use the term Salesforce, we mean the secure Web site that your users log in to that contains your customer information. Salesforce.com, Inc., offers a family of products, and has thousands of clients who use its service, but each ...