Problem

In Salesforce.com, all the information for an account displays on a single page. If there's a lot of information, you might end up doing a lot of scrolling. You'd like a different way to display the information for accounts.

Solution

Using a Visualforce page, you can make each section for an account display in a tab, such as contacts, opportunities, and so on.

To create a tabbed view for account, first you have to create a Visualforce page. Then you have to override the standard account view to use the page.

1. In Salesforce.com click Setup | Develop | Pages.
2. Click New.
3. In the Label text box, enter Tabbed Account View.
4. In the Name text box, enter tabbedAccount.
5. In the Description text box, enter Displays account information in tabs.
6. In the Body text box, delete the existing Visualforce markup and enter the following instead:

   <apex:page standardController="Account" showHeader="true" 
              tabStyle="account" >
      <apex:tabPanel switchType="client" 
                     selectedTab="tabdetails" 
                     id="AccountTabPanel">
         <apex:tab label="Details" name="AccDetails" 
                   id="tabdetails">
            <apex:detail relatedList="false" title="true"/>
         </apex:tab>
         <apex:tab label="Contacts" name="Contacts" 
                   id="tabContact">
            <apex:relatedList subject="{!account}" 
                              list="contacts" />
         </apex:tab>
         <apex:tab label="Opportunities" name="Opportunities" 
                   id="tabOpp">
            <apex:relatedList subject="{!account}" 
                              list="opportunities" />
         </apex:tab>
         <apex:tab label="Open Activities" name="OpenActivities" 
                   id="tabOpenAct">
            <apex:relatedList subject="{!account}" 
                              list="OpenActivities" />
         </apex:tab>
         <apex:tab label="Notes and Attachments" 
                   name="NotesAndAttachments" 
                  id="tabNoteAtt">
            <apex:relatedList subject="{!account}" 
                              list="NotesAndAttachments" />
         </apex:tab>
      </apex:tabPanel>
   </apex:page>
7. Click Save.

To override the standard account view:

1. Click Setup | Customize | Accounts | Buttons and Links.
2. In the Standard Buttons and Links related list, click Override next to View.
3. For Content Type select Visualforce Page.
4. For Content Name select tabbedAccount.
5. Click Save.

Discussion

To see your changes, select the Account tab, then select an account to view. Across the top of the page you should see a list of tabs: Details, Contacts, Opportunities, Open Activities and Notes and Attachments.