This menu item (Tools > Utilities > Export View Previews) definitely comes into the category of one of the many things I have forgotten about Siebel Tools (people who know me will say there are a lot more!). In my defence it was not in Siebel Tools when I started in 1998!

Go to the View Object. Select some Views with the mouse and the Shift key for example. Then click the menu option. You will see the dialog below.

Before you run the “OK” button, take a moment to copy the path to the Table of Contents page in the first text box. When execution has finished and everything has closed, open the file you copied the path to in Internet Explorer. Depending on how many Views you selected you will see something like this.

If you click on one of the hyperlinks (go on, I dare you!) you will see that the Preview has been exported. It will look something like this.

If you click on one of the Applets in the View Preview (go on!) you will see it has exported the preview of the Applets as well. Into separate files.

Part of my job is mentoring companies in respect of Siebel and the best practices. And I sometimes need to address the notions of UI standards, common functionality, standard layouts and so on. This option is a great one since I don’t always have Siebel Tools with me. And these exported files help me document layouts, show examples, and so on.

PS They also include the “mystery red bar” that so many people wonder about .