The Navigation Area displays a hierarchy of icons that represent collections of computers, individual computers, managed resources, and tasks. Each Navigation Area icon identifies a plug-in. At the highest point, or root of the tree, is the Management Environment. The Management Environment plug-in contains one or more host computer plug-ins that are managed by the console. Each computer plug-in contains multiple application plug-ins that contain managed objects, tasks, and actions for a related set of system entities or resources.
When you click on a plug-in icon in the Navigation Area, it opens to display its contents in the Contents Area. Navigation Area icons that are preceded by a handle containing either an expansion symbol (plus sign or '+') or a collapse symbol (minus sign or '-'). An expand symbol indicates that the plug-in contains other plug-ins that are not visible. A collapse symbol indicates that the plug-in has already been expanded to show the additional plug-ins. Selecting the handle toggles the visibility of those additional plug-ins but does not affect the Contents Area. A single-click on the Navigation Area icon causes the plug-in to display its lower-level plug-ins in the Contents Area, but does not expand the Navigation Area branch represented by the expansion symbol. By double-clicking on a Navigation Area icon, the navigation branch expands and the Contents Area updates to display the lower-level plug-ins.
You can adjust the width of the Navigation Area with respect to the Contents Area by clicking and dragging the Navigation Area sash to the right or left. If you need to maximize the space available for the Contents Area within the console, you can completely close off the navigation area by dragging the sash all the way to the left. A single click on the sash also causes the Navigation Area to close, and a subsequent click causes it to reopen to the previous position.