Roles That Can Manage Client Portal Sidebar: Owner, Admin

Table Of Contents

What Is A Sidebar In Zendo?
Internal And Client Sidebars
Custom Sidebar & App Visibility Settings
Live Preview
Customizing The Sidebar
Colors
Sidebar Elements
Adding New Elements
Adding An App
Adding A Link
Adding A Section Heading
Adding A Divider & Gap
Save As Draft
Restore To Default
Publish

What Is A Sidebar In Zendo?

A sidebar is the left-hand side panel you see in Zendo.

You can customize it by embedding external applications, changing its colors, removing & adding Zendo-native apps, renaming all the elements, changing their order, and more.

To customize the sidebar, select Client portal from the left-hand panel and choose Sidebar from the drop-down menu.

Sidebar customization is available only in the paid plans.

Internal And Client Sidebars

By default, two sidebars are created:
Internal Sidebar – visible to you and all members of your team.
Client Sidebar – visible to all of your clients.

To edit these sidebars, click on them in the table or select the three-dots icon and choose Edit.



You can also create as many custom sidebars as you need.

To do that:
Click the Create Sidebar button in the top-right corner.
A popup will appear where you can choose whether it’s for clients or internal users.
You can then select specific people from the list to make the sidebar visible only to them.



Every time you come back to make changes in the Sidebar, make sure that you're on the right sidebar type.

Custom Sidebar & App Visibility Settings

In addition to creating sidebars for Clients or Internal Users, you can also control the visibility of specific Apps, making them accessible only to selected people.

Here’s how it works:
Create a new sidebar and choose which user group it should be available to (Clients or Internal Users).
Select specific people from the dropdown list. Only those people will be able to see this sidebar. The default sidebar will no longer be visible to them.
After opening the Sidebar Editor and adding Apps, you can manage App visibility individually. In each App’s settings, use the dropdown to select who should see it. This dropdown will only include people previously chosen under "Restrict visibility to selected clients or organizations."



Example: You can create a sidebar specifically for clients working on a particular type of project, and include useful links or embed tailored to their needs.

Live Preview

On the right side of the page, you can see the preview of the sidebar.

Every change you make will be shown there to give you full control of the process. If you've set visibility restrictions for the Apps in the sidebar, you can preview how the sidebar looks for a specific client by selecting them from the dropdown above the sidebar.


Customizing The Sidebar

Colors

Make sidebar reflect your brand colors with four different options:

text,
highlight,
highlight text,
background.

Sidebar Elements

By default, you'll have a list of elements already set in place. You can:

change element's name: click anywhere on the default name to enter your own.
change element's order: use drag-and-drop to move the element.
Nest element's: drag and drop an element slightly to the right to nest it under the one above. Elements can only be nested under an app.


change element's icon: select the square right next to the name of the element and choose the icon from the pop-up window. To find your icon faster, use the search bar. If you don't want to have any icons, select "Clear icon" next to the search bar.



remove element: hover over the sidebar element until a trash icon appears on the right. Select it to remove the sidebar element.

Adding New Elements

To add a new sidebar element:

select "+ Add sidebar element" at the bottom of the page,
choose the type of element you want to add from the drop-down menu.

You can choose between an app, link, section heading, divider, and a gap.

Adding An App

If you chose an app, a new pop-up window will appear with external and custom apps to choose from. Select one,
new fields will appear. In Slug, enter the unique URL for this page. In Content, paste the embed code found in the app of your choice,
select the "Preview content" button to check if it works correctly.



To learn more about external apps, read this article.

Adding A Link

If you chose a link, a new field will appear, where you can type in a link. You can also click on the default name to enter your own.

Adding A Section Heading

If you chose a section heading, a new field will appear, where you can type in the name of the section heading.

Adding A Divider & Gap

If you chose a divider or a gap, it will appear on the sidebar.

You can use drag & drop to move it around.



You can duplicate any content you create. Hover over the sidebar element until a duplicate icon appears on the right. Select it to duplicate the sidebar element.

Save As Draft

If you're unsure of your choices or don't want to change the sidebar just yet, you can save it as draft and come back to it later.

If you don't like the newest changes, select the ellipsis icon (...) and choose "Discard changes" from the drop-down menu.

You can only make one sidebar draft per workspace.

Revert To Defaults

If you want to go back to the default sidebar, select the ellipsis icon (...) and choose "Restore to default" from the drop-down menu.

Publish

If you're ready, select the "Publish" buttom at the top right corner to save the sidebar.

If you're not on the paid plan, you can easily test out sidebar customization using the Sandbox mode.

Revisions

You can check what changes were made to the Sidebar, when they were made, and who made them. A new version is saved only when a change is made and the Save and Publish button is clicked. You can roll back to any previous version by selecting it from the menu.

Updated on: 10/04/2025