Moving around in Tailwind is usually pretty straightforward. Still, you never know when you might have overlooked something important — a tip or trick or area that could make your business run smoother. This article should get you up to speed on various ways to navigate the application.

The navigation menu on the left of each page is the quickest way to access all the main Tailwind modules. It is split into five sections - Records, Operations, AR, AP, and Tools — each containing several different modules. Each section can be expanded to show its contents, and clicking on the module's name will take you to that part of Tailwind.

For more information on the actual modules and how they relate to each other, you can read the Operations Overview and the Administration Overview.

By default, the navigation menu is always visible on the left of the screen to allow you to move around the application quickly. However, this also means that it always takes up valuable real-estate in your browser, which leaves less room to display lots of list columns or other data.

By clicking the circle next to the Tailwind logo at the top of the menu, you can 'unpin' the navigation — this will cause it to shrink to a much skinnier version of itself that expands whenever you move your mouse over it. You can return to the original navigation menu by expanding it and then clicking the to pin it back in place.

You will see two fields at the top of the page - Order # and Dispatch #. These will allow you to easily access an order or dispatch record if you already know the order or dispatch number. Simply type the order or dispatch number into the appropriate field, click the 'Open' button, and you will be taken directly to that record.

You can access a number of profile and configuration options by clicking on the gear icon next to your account name on the top right of the page. Settings contain a number of settings that are specific to your personal account, while Configuration contains a number of system-wide configuration options. Depending on your level of security, you may not have access to Configuration, so don't be worried if you can't see it!

If you want, you can read more about the Configuration options.

When using Tailwind, you will probably find yourself moving quickly between several different, connected records and modules — whether it's jumping from an Order to a related Dispatch or checking a Customer Record for details before modifying a Quote.

Sometimes, it can get tricky to find your way back to the beginning of the trail — which is why we have provided an additional navigation option in the form of a History breadcrumb at the top of the main page (just below the global search bar.) This breadcrumb will always show the six most recent pages you have visited — making it easy to jump between related records or get back on track if you end up somewhere you'd rather not be.

Because Tailwind is designed for the web, we make an effort to keep things simple: one page at a time. But sometimes, trucking is just not a 'one page at a time sort of job — it's more like a dozen things and the phone ringing with a few more on the way.

At times like these, when you need to have a bunch of different things on the go — and may not be able to finish each one before starting the next — we recommend relying on the 'tabbed browsing' capabilities of your web browser, which will allow you to open multiple Tailwind windows simultaneously. The exact details will depend on your browser, but in most cases, you can right-click on links to 'open in a new tab' or 'open in a new window.' Then you can easily switch back and forth, just like moving between different windows of any application.

You can open as many different tabs or windows of Tailwind as you want, which can be helpful when you want to compare things side by side or keep multiple tasks on the go at once.

If you're new to Tailwind, you might want to check out our Set-up Guide.

You can also get more of the big picture in the Operations Overview and Administration Overview.