---
title: How to find your way around
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/get-started/find-your-way-around
description: The sidebar in one pass. What is pinned, what is grouped, and where the settings live.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to find your way around



Everything in Tideswell hangs off one sidebar down the left. This page is the tour, and it is
the page to send anybody you invite.

## What is at the top? [#what-is-at-the-top]

Your **workspace name**, with a **Create** button beside it that raises a task, project,
campaign, cycle, document, channel or workflow from anywhere in the product.

Under that, a **Search** box, and then three pinned rows that are yours personally:

* **Inbox**: everything addressed to you. Assignments, comments, mentions, replies, and stock
  and order alerts.
* **My tasks**: everything assigned to you, from every team, grouped by when it is due.
* **Callbacks**: people you owe a phone call.

Those three are where most people start their day, and they are covered in
<Ref to="tasks/see-what-needs-you" />.

## What is in the Workspace group? [#what-is-in-the-workspace-group]

The main areas, and which of them you see depends on what your workspace has switched on.

**Home** is the analyst: type a question about your business in plain English and get an answer
from your own live data. It is worth trying on your first day, per <Ref to="analyst" />.

**Chat**, **Tasks** and **Documents** are the day-to-day. **Store** holds your Shopify
analytics, stock, purchase orders, suppliers and approvals.

**Brief** is the written briefing each morning, and **Decisions**, **Customers** and
**Automations** are the rest.

Two rows expand into more when you click them. **Tasks views** holds Roadmap, Calendar and
Urgent. **Store pages** holds Analytics, Inventory, Purchase orders, Suppliers and Approvals.

## What are Objects and Departments? [#what-are-objects-and-departments]

Below the Workspace group sit two more.

**Objects** lists the kinds of record your team has defined: Repairs, Sample requests, Fabric
trials, whatever your business tracks that nobody could have shipped for you. See
<Ref to="objects" />.

**Departments** lists your teams, each with its own tasks, board and calendar.

Departments matter more than they look. Nearly every permission in Tideswell is checked against
a **record's department** rather than the workspace, which is why the same person can edit one
task and not the next. <Ref to="concepts/who-can-do-what" /> explains it properly and is worth
ten minutes early on.

## What is at the bottom? [#what-is-at-the-bottom]

Your avatar, which opens your account settings and signs you out, and **Settings** for admins.

**Settings is admin-only.** If you are not an admin you do not see a locked door; the section
behaves as though it is not there. See <Ref to="workspace-admin" />.

## Why can you not see something a colleague can? [#why-can-you-not-see-something-a-colleague-can]

Three possible reasons, and it is worth knowing the order to check them.

The **module** may be switched off for the whole workspace, which makes its pages unreachable
rather than merely hidden. You may not hold the **permission**. Or you hold it in a different
**department** from the one the record belongs to.

<Ref to="troubleshooting/missing-button" /> walks all three in order.

## What should you learn first? [#what-should-you-learn-first]

Three things, in this order, and then everything else can wait.

The three pinned rows at the top, so you know what needs you. The &#x2A;*@** menu in chat, which
turns a message into something people can act on, per <Ref to="chat/mentions" />. And the
analyst on the home page, which answers questions no dashboard was built for.