Most tasks begin by opening a panel, and then clicking a link on the open panel. The task panels on the right are drop-down panels that are either open or closed. When a panel is closed, you only see the title bar of the panel. To open the panel, click the title. To close a panel, click the title again.
In some places, like the Profile Editor, VSys hides entire panels (e.g. Mandates) if they have no content yet. You'll still see the link for the panel on the left, and clicking on that link will prompt you to add an item to that panel. Then the panel will be displayed.