Understanding the Portal Desktop 
The portal desktop refers to the entire portal screen, including any displayed content and its layout. It also contains the tools you need to personalize your portal.
The portal desktop is divided into the following areas:
Header Area |
The part of the portal that remains static when you navigate from one tab or page to another. This area contains the masthead, tools, and, subject to your administrator's configurations, the top-level navigation iView. |
Page Title Bar |
An iView displayed below the header area containing information, links, and icons pertaining to the personalization, navigation, and action options of the displayed page. |
Navigation Panel |
The left-hand pane just below the page title bar, reserved for navigation iViews composed of content trees, interface controls, and links to various types of content. |
Content Area |
The part of the desktop that displays content; either pages containing iViews, or single iViews. It changes when you navigate from one page/iView to another.
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Note
Depending on the way in which portal administrators have set up the portal, the location of the page elements may vary from the default settings described here. For example, when accessing the portal from mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.
Header Area
The masthead contains:
Company branding, with company name and logo
Welcome text, consisting of a welcome message and your user name
Any or all of the following function links:
Back/Forward links: Moves to the previous or next page in the history.
History: Contains a list of the most recently visited pages. You select items in the list to navigate to them. The current page is the first item in the list, and appears in bold.
Favorites: Contains a list of links that access your favorite pages and full-page application iViews in the portal, as well as KM folders and documents and favorites defined in other systems connected to the portal. For more information, see Adding and Organizing Favorites
Personalize: Opens a separate window containing personalization options for your portal's functions as well as options for personalizing the portal's look and feel. You can choose to personalize the current page or the entire portal. For more information, see Setting Portal Preferences.
This link is not displayed if you are logged on as an anonymous user, or if your administrator has disabled personalization.
View: Displays viewing options such as full-screen mode and a list of tabsets, if defined.
Help: By default, launches the SAP Help Portal on the Internet. From there you can navigate to the current documentation for your version of the portal.
Your administrator can change the URL value when editing the masthead items, in which case, you may reach a different site than the SAP Help Portal when clicking this link.
New Session: Opens the current portal in a new browser window, with complete functionality.
Log Off: Terminates your portal session and returns you to either the portal logon screen, or an external logoff page that was associated to the portal. This link is not displayed if you are logged on as an anonymous user.
Log On: Appears only if your portal is configured to support anonymous users. This link lets you log on as an authenticated user. For more information, see Logging On to / Off the Portal.
A search field for searching for portal content. For more information, see Searching in the Portal.
The tools area appears only if you have Knowledge Management (KM) installed with your portal. It contains aCollaboration link to the optional Collaboration Launch Pad.
The top-level navigation bar is your entry point for navigating through the content assigned to your roles. Depending upon your portal settings, it consists of a first level of tabs that reflect the tasks of a specific role, and a second level of subtabs that compartmentalize the role into manageable tasks. For more information, see Top-Level Navigation.
Page Title Bar
From this iView you can navigate directly to recently visited pages, as well as launch various page-specific options. The Full Screen button allows you to maximize the content area by hiding the top-level navigation bar and the navigation panel. For more information, see Navigating in the Page Title Bar.
Navigation Panel
The iViews in the navigation panel are displayed only if they contain content related to your task. They change contextually according to the information appearing in the content area.
Contains links to your content, displayed in a tree format of role-based folders.
Displays data navigation iViews that contain user interface controls, such as menus and links. Use these controls to retrieve specific information for display in the portal content area.
Contains a list of links whose target topics are relevant to the iView or portal page with which you are currently working.
The links are predefined on the iView and the page levels. Clicking an object in Related Links opens its content in a new browser window, which can be customized.
Structure
The navigation panel, by default, is expanded only if its iViews have content to display.
Administrators can configure certain pages and iViews so that the panel is initially collapsed or expanded whenever you launch one of these objects, irrespective of the status of the navigation iViews in the panel.
By manipulating the navigation panel, you increase and decrease the size of the panel.
To expand the navigation panel, click the single arrow in the upper left corner of the panel. The panel opens and the arrow changes direction.
To collapse the navigation panel, click the same arrow.
To resize the navigation panel, drag the separator in the direction you need.
Content Area
The area of the portal desktop reserved for performing tasks, and in which navigation results and portal pages with iView content are displayed.
The displayed information can be from any accessible data resource, such as an application, company files, or a Web address.