When browsing directory using LDAP Administrator, LDAP entries can be displayed using two different views: List View and HTML View. List View displays attributes of LDAP entries in the way they are stored on the server and allows you to view and edit practically any attribute of the selected LDAP entry.

HTML View displays LDAP entries as HTML pages, which significantly facilitates viewing and editing of LDAP objects, as the information is represented in a user-friendly manner. For example, when displaying users in HTML Pane, all important information is placed at the top of the page and is easily accessible to users. Other information is grouped by categories, which significantly simplifies its viewing and editing.

However, the main advantage of HTML Pane is the possibility to customize the way the data are represented. For example, if you change the employeeType attribute for users rather often, you can modify the representation of users in HTML View so that the employeeType attribute is located at the top of the page and can be accessed easily. Or, if you don't use some attributes, you can delete them from the HTML page template thus getting rid of excessive visual noise in the interface. For more information, see Editing HTML Page Templates.

LDAP Administrator provides out-of-the-box HTML view templates for common and well-known LDAP object classes. If necessary, you can also create your own views for any object class and create custom representations of a class for different LDAP servers. For example, you may want the inetOrgPerson object class to be displayed on Active Directory and OpenLDAP servers in different ways. For more information, see Customizing HTML Views.