Work with Salesforce Console Primary Tabs and Subtabs in Salesforce Classic

A Console’s Primary Tabs and Subtabs

(1) A primary tab is the main item to work on, such as an account. (2) A subtab is a related item on a primary tab, such as an account’s contact. Salesforce doesn't limit the number of tabs you can display.

When viewing tabs, appears on tabs where you haven't saved changes, except for reports, Visualforce pages, or your Salesforce org’s setup pages. appears on tabs where you need to fix errors. If your administrator has added external domains to a console’s allowlist, tabs can display pages outside of Salesforce. New tabs don’t appear when you click a custom button or change a record's type, owner, or territory; instead, the current tab goes to the item you selected.

You can do a variety of things with tabs from the tab bar by clicking and selecting an option, such as closing tabs, refreshing tabs, showing keyboard shortcuts, and more. To rearrange a tab, drag it to a new position along the tab bar. Tabs maintain their status as primary tabs or subtabs, meaning that you can’t move primary tabs to the subtabs bar or vice versa. Rearranging tabs isn’t available for Internet Explorer® 7.

If your administrator has turned on multi-monitor components, you can pop out primary tabs from your browser and drag them to any location on your screen to personalize the way you work. Just click and select Pop out primary tabs. To return primary tabs to their original browser, click and select Pop tabs back into console.

To copy the URL of a console tab and send it to another user, click and select next to the tab’s name. If you’re sending the URL to a non-console user, choose to create a standard Salesforce URL from the Link to Share dialog box. Then, press CTRL+C to copy the URL. To add a new tab to your console in which to paste a URL you’ve copied, click . In the text box, press CTRL+V to paste the URL, then click Go!. You can paste a console URL or a standard Salesforce URL into a new tab.

To pin a frequently visited primary tab to the tab bar for quick access, click and select . When a tab is pinned, it’s moved to the front of the tab bar and its text is removed to provide more screen space. To unpin a tab, click and select .

To bookmark a favorite or occasionally visited tab for quick access, click and select . When a tab is bookmarked, it’s moved to the History component in the footer (formerly named Most Recent Tabs). To remove a bookmarked tab, click and select , or click Remove next to the tab in the History component. See View Bookmarks or Recently Used Tabs in a Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic.

Warning If you click Cancel on a newly created item that you haven't saved, the item and its tab are deleted and aren’t sent to the Recycle Bin.

Note If your Salesforce admin adds custom console components, additional functionality might be available for you to work with in the sidebars next to tabs.

Tip To reopen the last tab you closed, press SHIFT+C or click and select Reopen last-closed tab. You can reopen up to ten closed tabs.