Global navigation — Pawtal Manual

Overview

Every Pawtal portal shares the same navigation pattern: a left sidebar for features, a top bar for search and profile, and a right-side drawer for help and notifications.

Quick-action tools, settings, your profile, and chat panels open when you select them. The first opening can take a moment while that tool loads; the dashboard remains available.

On desktop, the top bar and breadcrumb follow the sidebar as it expands or collapses, and both follow your light or dark theme. The page appears in its final position: the sidebar is open or collapsed the way you left it from the first moment, and the page does not shift afterward. When you open or close the sidebar it moves smoothly, in about a fifth of a second: the icons stay where they are while the names, the open groups, and your account area slide or fade in or out. If your device is set to reduce motion, it changes at once. If you collapse the sidebar, it stays collapsed after you reload or come back later, until you open it again. After you sign in, the sidebar frame is there first and the list of pages fades in as soon as your access is known. When you come back to the same hospital on the same browser, the list of pages shows straight away from what you saw last time, and quietly updates if your access has changed since. If PAWTAL cannot reach the server when the page opens, for example because your connection dropped, the list from your last visit stays on screen and PAWTAL keeps trying in the background until it gets through. Dialogs open above the top bar. On a tablet or a narrow window the sidebar is an icon strip (1024 to 1279 px wide) or is replaced by a menu drawer (under 1024 px). Toggle navigation opens that drawer with readable labels and its own close button above the top bar.

Who can use this

Everyone.

Where to find it

Everywhere in Pawtal.

How it works

Left sidebar — a labeled charcoal menu. The Pawtal wordmark sits at the top. Labels stay visible on a wide screen; a lock beside your account can still collapse the menu to icons. With the lock off, the menu stays an icon strip and opens over the page while you point at it, so the page does not move. Icons keep the same place whether the menu shows labels or not, and on a touch screen every item is at least 44 px tall. A small sun or moon beside your account switches light and dark. A logout icon sits beside that control and asks you to confirm before signing out. Groups open to show their pages. Clinical includes Clients and Patients. The current page is Denim with a Sky bar on its left edge. A hospital switcher appears under the wordmark only when you belong to more than one hospital. Help & Manual is its own item in that list and opens the help drawer. Release notes and feature requests are in Admin, under Product. Just above your account, one System Admin item shows for a system admin: admin@dev.local, or a system_admin grant on a verified pawtal.com or pawtalapp.com address that signed in with Google. A granted admin who used a password or email link sees Sign in with Google to use System Admin instead of that item. That page has tabs for Tenants, Version History, and Event Logs. Above your account, the version and the Privacy, Security, and Terms links are centered. A thin line separates them from the menu only when the menu is long enough to scroll.
Top bar — Warm White, with a subtle bottom border. It stays the same on every page, including the patient chart: breadcrumb on the left, recent patients in the middle, search on the right. Shortcut icons use a neutral circle. A red badge means something needs action now.
In-page menus — Inventory, Rufferal, Connections, Communications, and Admin use the same light menu. The current item is charcoal text on a light tint.
Right drawer — opens for Help, Notifications, and some feature-specific side panels (like Pawsitive Praise).
Breadcrumbs — one trail, in the bar under the top bar. Pages do not repeat it.

Step-by-step

Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows)
Opens global search. Start typing a feature name, a help topic, or a person's name.
Click Help & Manual in the left sidebar
Opens contextual help for the screen you're on, plus search across the whole manual. Hospital admins find release notes and feature requests under Admin.
Switch portals
Click your avatar → Switch Portal. You'll only see portals your role is authorized for.

Tips

The current page is always underlined in your breadcrumb.
Pinning a sidebar group keeps it open across sessions.

Welcome
Notification preferences