Navigate a project

Open a project and the left sidebar becomes that project’s own menu. The organization menu is replaced by the project name, then every view the project has, grouped under headings you can open and close. Leave the project and the organization menu comes back.

This means there is one menu on screen at all times, and it is always the complete map of where you can go.

What is in each group

Group	Views
Overview	The project summary. Always first, and cannot be hidden.
Tasks	List, Board, Grid, Gantt Pro, Calendar
Documents	Document Folders, Lists, Whiteboards Pro, Wiki Pro, Pages Pro
Plan	Sprints Pro, Backlog Pro, Burndown, Milestones, Baseline
Analytics	Goals Business, Risks, Issues, Status Report, Activity
Change Requests	Change Requests Enterprise
Settings	Automations Pro, Mailbox, Import Cleanup, Fields
Finance	Finance, Compliance

Two groups appear conditionally. Finance is only shown to people who can see budget figures. Import Cleanup only appears on a project that was imported from Microsoft Project or another tool and still has something to tidy up.

Open a view

1. Click a group heading to open it. The group expands and takes you straight to its first view, so reaching the task List is one click on Tasks, not two.

2. Click any view inside the group to go there directly.

Clicking the heading of a group that is already open just closes it and leaves you where you are, so you can tidy the menu without losing the screen you are reading.

Note

If the first view in a group needs a higher plan, opening the group skips past it to the first one your plan includes. On a Free plan, opening Plan lands on Burndown rather than on the locked Sprints view.

Groups remember what you left open

Only the group holding your current view starts open. Everything else starts closed, so the whole map fits on screen without scrolling.

Onplana remembers which groups you opened, per project, in that browser. Open a project you work in daily and it looks the way you left it. A deep link into a view whose group is closed opens that group for you.

Counts and locks

• Counts appear next to views that have a number worth knowing, such as the number of tasks or open issues. They fill in as the project loads, so a moment’s delay before they appear is normal.
• A lock marks a view your plan does not include. It is not hidden: you can still click it to see what it does and what it would take to turn it on.

Get back to your organization

All projects at the top of the sidebar returns you to the projects list. The organization switcher above it and your account menu at the bottom stay put the whole time you are inside a project, so you can change organization or open Settings without leaving first.

The header above each view

Every view except Overview carries a compact one-line header: the view name, the project’s status, its progress, who is on it, and buttons to edit the project, focus the view, or copy a link to it.

The full project summary lives on Overview only. That keeps the other views showing their own content rather than repeating the project header on every screen.

A brand-new project

A project with no tasks yet opens on a short set of get-started cards rather than empty charts: generate a plan with AI, add your first tasks, invite a teammate, and set the timeline. Each card disappears as you finish it, and the normal Overview takes over once the project has work in it.

Best practices

1. Close the groups you do not use. A team that never runs sprints can leave Plan closed and get a shorter menu. Nothing is lost, and opening it again is one click.

2. Rename groups and views to your team’s words. If you call them deliverables rather than tasks, say so. See Customize your navigation.

3. Link to a view, not to the project. Use Copy link in the view header so the person you send it to lands on the same screen you are looking at, rather than on Overview.

Troubleshooting

• A view I expected is missing. Either it is hidden by your organization’s navigation customization, or its group is closed. Hidden views stay reachable by URL and through search, so a link to one still works.
• The Finance group is not there. It only appears for people who can see budget figures. Ask an administrator if you need it.
• A view has a lock on it. It needs a higher plan. Click it to see what it does.
• An old bookmark still works. Links keep working even where the name on screen changed, so a saved link to the board is still good.

How this combines with other features

• Search (Ctrl+K) reaches every view directly, including ones hidden from the menu.
• Navigation customization applies here: renames, hidden items, reordering and custom links all show up in this sidebar.
• Focus in the view header hides the header so the view fills the page, which suits a Gantt chart or a long task list.

FAQs

Where did the row of tabs go? Every view that was in the tab strip is in the sidebar now, grouped, with counts and locks that the tabs never showed. Nothing was removed.

Does the sidebar work on a phone? Yes. On a narrow screen the sidebar becomes a drawer, and inside a project the drawer holds the project menu.

Can I make the sidebar narrower? Collapse it and it becomes a column of icons. The groups stay open in that mode, so every view is one click away.

Does hiding a view stop people opening it? No. Navigation is a display setting, never a permission. Anyone with access can still reach a hidden view by link or by search.

Related

• Customize your navigation to rename, hide, reorder and add your own links
• Create your first project for what a new project looks like before it has any work in it
• Organize the projects page for finding the project in the first place