Search ۶Ƶ Workfront
You can easily locate items in ۶Ƶ Workfront by searching for them when you can’t remember their exact location.
You can see the Search box in the upper-right corner of any page within Workfront.
You must have permissions to View an object before you can find it in a search. For this reason, search results vary from user to user.
Access requirements
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|---|---|
| ۶Ƶ Workfront plan | Any |
| ۶Ƶ Workfront license |
New: Contributor or higher Or Current: Request or higher |
| Access level configurations |
View access to the type of object Note: If you still don't have access, ask your Workfront administrator if they set additional restrictions in your access level. For information on how a Workfront administrator can modify your access level, see Create or modify custom access levels. |
| Object permissions |
You must have permissions to View an object before you can find it in a search. For information on requesting additional access, see Request access to objects. |
For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.
Understand Search
Objects available for search
You can search for the following objects in Workfront:
- Projects
- Tasks
- Issues
- Reports
- Users
- Templates
- Documents
- Portfolios
- Programs
- Dashboards
- Companies
- Notes
Fields available for search
The fields available for search are based on the type of search: Basic or Advanced Search.
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Basic Search: When searching for objects in a Basic Search, Workfront looks for text that might contain your keywords in the following fields:
- Object names
- Descriptions
- Custom data fields
- Updates
- Document names (in specific document searches and in a Basic Search)
For more information about Basic Searching in Workfront, see the following section in this article: Basic Search.
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Advanced Search: In an Advanced Search, you can set up filters to search fields not available in Basic Search. Therefore, Advanced Search allows you to search any field in the object.
For more information about Advanced Search, see the following section in this article: Advanced Search.
Understand limitations of Workfront searches
Consider the following limitations when using Search in Workfront:
- Searches are not case-sensitive.
- Workfront doesn’t correct or understand typos.
- Searching in Workfront doesn’t support Wildcards.
- Searching in Workfront supports partial word searches but doesn’t support substring searches.
For example, the search keyword “stand” would return results including the word “standard” but would not return results including the word “understand.”
Search for multiple words
When you include multiple words in a search and you want to find only objects that match all of the words in the Search box, you can type the words in any order.
For example, searching for “Marketing Demo” (without quotation marks) finds objects with the following names:
- Marketing Demo
- Demo Marketing
- January Market Analysis Demo
It also finds objects that might have “Marketing” in the name and “Demo” in the description.
However, you can do the following in the Search box to adjust the search results that appear:
Use Search in Workfront
Workfront features two types of searches: Basic and Advanced. Use Basic Search if you want to find keywords in common object fields such as name or description. Use Advanced Search if you want to use filters to search other object fields.
Basic Search
A Basic Search allows you to search for keywords across all objects in the system or on just one object at a time (such as projects). Workfront then searches for those keywords in a few specific fields. You can then refine your search results based on other object-specific fields selected by Workfront.
For a list of the specific fields searched in Basic Search, see the following section in this article: Fields available for search.
Perform a Basic Search
You can do a Basic Search in either of the following ways:
- Across all objects in the system (general search).
- On just one object at a time (object-specific search).
To perform a Basic Search:
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Click the magnifying glass
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(Optional) To search for a specific object, click the All drop-down menu and select the object you want to search for.
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In the Search box, start typing the information you are searching for.
For information about what fields are searched in Workfront, see the following section in this article: Understand Search.
As you begin typing in the search bar, Workfront makes recommendations based on your viewing history and it highlights the keyword you are searching for in blue.
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If the item you are looking for displays in the typeahead menu, click it.
Or
Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) on your keyboard to perform a comprehensive search. This search queries the entire database instead of your most recently viewed items, and opens the Search page.
If you performed a general search, Workfront returns results for any object that matches the search term in any of the fields searched, as described in Understand Search. The objects that match your search display in a list.
note note NOTE Sometimes, variations of a word display in the list of found items.
For example, searching for “marketing” displays objects that contain either “marketing” or “market” in the name. -
(Optional) If your search generated too many results, refine your search as described in Refine a Basic Search.
Refine a Basic Search
After performing a Basic Search, you can refine the search.
Use the toolbar to the left of your search results to narrow down the information you are looking for.
To refine a search:
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(Conditional) If you performed a general search, select the object you were searching for in the list of objects to the upper left of your results.
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Locate the fields available for the objects displayed in the search in the toolbar to the left of your results. The values of each field display, sorted by count, up to 10 values for each field.
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Click inside any of the fields available to shorten the list of results. The selections you make are highlighted in blue and the field values that you do not select are hidden.
After you select each new value, the results to the right update dynamically.
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(Optional) Click the selected values to deselect them and display all values for each field again.
Advanced Search
Advanced Search allows you to search using fields and filters not available to Basic Search. For example, you could search for projects with a specific Priority or Document Owner Name.
Use Advanced Search
You can use Advanced Search to filter your search based on specific criteria.
This type of search is helpful when you can’t remember a keyword associated with an object but you know some specific information about that object (example: Project Priority, Document Owner Name, etc.).
To perform an advanced search:
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In the upper-right corner of any page in Workfront, click the Search icon
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At the bottom of the Search menu, click Advanced Search. The Search page opens with the Advanced Search tab selected by default.
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Select the type of object you are searching for. Tasks is selected by default.
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(Optional) Type a keyword in the field at the top of the list.
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(Optional) Toggle Filter your results to On to build a filter to refine your search. Click Apply when finished.
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Click Search. A list of items that match your search displays to the right of the Advanced Search toolbar.