How does Intimidate operate during Combat?

I know this is an incredibly dumb question to ask. I've been browsing through the Core books trying to figure this out exactly.

What really got me thinking about this was a Half-Orc Crowd Control Bard, Whip specialist using intimidate to dominate the battle field.

The build sounded great, as I personally never much cared for Direct Attack builds, but I am still an inexperienced player so something like this seems a little outside my understanding.

If someone could give me an example of how a PC using intimidate during battle would work I would be greatly appreciative =)

If you really want to go that route, you need two feats, more if you really want to specialize in Intimidate (I've thought of a similar build, myself, but going half-orc Inquisitor, with the alternate Favored Class bonus in the APG.) Weapon Focus (whip), if you're set on a whip user, then Dazzling Display. That one lets you make an Intimidate check to demoralize all opponents within 30 feet as a full-round action. Then just look up the "Demoralize" usage of Intimidate - you render foes shaken (-2 penalty to all d20 rolls) for a number of rounds, provided your check is successful.

Edit: The problem with the build is that Weapon Focus has a pre-req of BAB +1 so you can't take the feat at 1st level, thus you can't take Dazzling Display until at least 5th level, taking Weapon Focus at 3rd. I'd say take Skill Focus (Intimidate) at 1st level.