Feature Summary
A Room that holds every section on one page gets long, and buyers stop scrolling before they reach the sections that matter. Splitting the content across tabs gives each part of the deal its own page — pricing, security, the mutual action plan — so a buyer lands on what they came for. You can add up to ten custom tabs to a Room on top of the starter tabs, on every plan. Organizing a Room into tabs requires Edit mode.
Prerequisites
Plan: All plans. Saving a tab structure as a reusable template requires Pro or Enterprise.
Role: Room owner or internal Room collaborator.
Technical: The Room must be in Edit mode.
When to split a Room into tabs
Split a Room into tabs when the Room serves more than one purpose or more than one reader. Signals that a Room needs splitting:
A buyer has to scroll past sections that are not relevant to them to reach the ones that are.
Different stakeholders want different things — a security reviewer and a procurement contact do not need the same page.
The Room mixes live working content, such as the action plan, with reference material, such as case studies.
You want to restrict part of the Room to specific people. Restricting access works per tab, not per section — see Secured Tabs.
How to plan your tab structure
Plan the tab structure before you build it, because the tab names are the first thing a buyer reads.
List everything currently in the Room.
Group the items by what a buyer is trying to do, not by which team produced them.
Name each group the way a buyer would search for it — Overview, Plan, Security, Pricing, Legal.
Decide which tab buyers should land on first, and put it first in the tab row.
Keep the total to three to six buyer-facing tabs.
Three to six tabs is a recommendation, not a limit. The limit is ten custom tabs. Rooms become hard for buyers to navigate well before they reach ten.
How to build a tab before buyers see it
A tab created in the Aligned app is visible to buyers as soon as it exists, including while it is still empty. Hide the tab first if the Room is already shared.
Enter Edit mode.
Click the + icon at the end of the tab row and create the tab.
Open the tab menu and choose Hide tab. See Hiding and Showing Tabs.
Build the tab's sections.
Open the tab menu and choose Show tab when the content is ready.
What buyers see
Buyers see the tab row across the top of the Room, containing every tab that is shown to them. Buyers never see the seller-only Internal tab, and they never see a hidden tab. When a Room has more tabs than fit across the screen, the tab row scrolls horizontally, on desktop and on mobile alike. A link you shared to content inside a hidden tab does not work for buyers until you show the tab.
Limitations
Maximum custom tabs: Ten custom tabs per Room, on top of the starter tabs, on all plans.
Starter tabs: The Internal, Files, and Plan tabs are created with the Room and cannot be deleted.
Deleting a tab: Deleting a tab removes every section inside it. Hide the tab instead if you may need the content again.
Saving a tab structure for reuse: Pro and Enterprise only. Files, Plan, and Internal tabs cannot be saved as tab templates.
Search inside a Room: Buyers can only search content that is visible to them, so content in a hidden tab is not searchable by buyers. Sellers in Edit mode can search hidden tabs.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Unexpected errors
Q: Why can a buyer not find a tab I built?
The most common cause is that the tab is still hidden, so open the tab menu and choose Show tab. If the tab is shown and the buyer still cannot see it, check whether the tab is locked through Secured Tabs and whether the buyer's email is on the permitted list. If neither applies, contact Aligned support with the Room name, the tab name, and the buyer's email address.
FAQ
Q: How many tabs should a Room have?
Q: How many tabs should a Room have?
Aim for three to six buyer-facing tabs in a Room. The hard maximum is ten custom tabs on top of the starter tabs, but Rooms with close to ten tabs are difficult for buyers to navigate.
Q: Can I reorganize a Room after it has been shared with buyers?
Q: Can I reorganize a Room after it has been shared with buyers?
You can reorganize a Room at any time, including after it has been shared, and buyers see the current structure the next time they load the Room. Hide any tab you are actively rebuilding so buyers do not see it mid-change.
Q: Should I split content into a new tab or hide it?
Q: Should I split content into a new tab or hide it?
Split content into a new tab when the content is relevant to buyers but belongs on its own page. Hide content when buyers should not see it yet, or move it to the Internal tab when buyers should never see it.
Q: Can I reuse a tab structure across Rooms?
Q: Can I reuse a tab structure across Rooms?
Save each tab as a tab template on a Pro or Enterprise plan, then add it to other Rooms from the + icon. See Saved Tab Templates.
Q: What happens to the sections in a tab I delete?
Q: What happens to the sections in a tab I delete?
Deleting a tab permanently removes every section inside that tab. Move any content you want to keep into another tab before you delete, or hide the tab instead of deleting it.
Pro Tips
Put the Plan tab early in the tab row. Buyers who return to a Room usually come back for the next step, not for the pitch.
Build a new tab hidden, then show it once. Buyers who watch a tab appear and change repeatedly read the Room as unfinished.
Once a tab structure works for a deal, save each tab as a template so the next Room starts from it instead of from a blank page.