Search Adobe Workfront

February 11, 2025

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You can easily locate items in Adobe Workfront by searching for them when you cannot remember their exact location.

You can see the Search box in the upper-right corner of any page within Workfront.

Search icon in nav bar

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

Expand this section to view the access needed to perform the steps in this article.

Adobe Workfront plan*	Any
Adobe Workfront license*	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.

*To find out what plan, license type, or access you have, contact your Workfront administrator.

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.

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 Basic Search in this article.
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 Advanced Search in this article.

NOTE

To perform an Advanced Search, you must select the Advanced Search option when beginning your search. You cannot refine a basic search into an Advanced Search.

Understand limitations of Workfront searches

Consider the following limitations when using Search in Workfront:

Searches are not case-sensitive
Workfront does not correct or understand typos
Searching in Workfront does not support Wildcards
Searching in Workfront supports partial word searches, but does not 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:

Include quotation marks

Entering words in the correct order inside of double quotation marks allows you to find only objects that are an exact match.
For example, searching for "Marketing Demo" (with quotation marks) finds objects with the following names:

Marketing Demo
January Marketing Demo
Marketing Demo Plan

However, this search would not find an object with the name "Demo Marketing."

Include OR

Connecting words by "OR" (without quotation marks) allows you to find only objects that match at least one of the words in the Search box. These words can be entered in any order.
For example, searching for "Marketing OR Demo" (without quotation marks) finds objects with the following names:

Market Analysis Demo
January Market Analysis Demo
Demo
Market Analysis

Note: "OR" must be in all caps. Otherwise, it is interpreted as another word in the phrase you are searching for.

Include AND

Connecting words by "AND" (without quotation marks) allows you to find only objects that match all words in the Search box. These words can be entered in any order.
For example, searching for "Marketing AND Demo" (without quotation marks) finds objects with the following names:

Marketing Demo
Demo Marketing
January Market Analysis Demo

Note: "AND" must be in all caps. Otherwise, it is interpreted as another word in the phrase you are searching for. Likewise, including "&" (without quotation marks) searches only for objects that include the ampersand character.

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
Advanced Search

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 Fields available for search in this article.

NOTE

To perform an Advanced Search, you must select the Advanced Search option when beginning your search. You cannot refine a basic search into an Advanced Search.

Perform a basic search
Refine a basic 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:

Click the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the page. You can also type ALT + / or Option + / to open the Search menu.
(Optional) To search for a specific object, click the All drop-down menu and select the object you want to search for.
In the Search box, start typing the information you are searching for.
For information about what fields are searched in Workfront, see 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.
If the item you are looking for displays in the typeahead menu, click it.

Or

Press Enter to perform a comprehensive search. This search queries the entire database instead of your most recently viewed items.

The Search Results page slides open from the left and covers most of the previous 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
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.
(Optional) To return to the page you were on prior to the search, click Close in the top-right corner.

NOTE

The Search Results page stays open only when it is in focus. Clicking away from the page or opening another page closes the Search Results page.

Refine a basic search

After performing a basic search—as described in Perform 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:

(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.
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.
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.
(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.

NOTE

To perform an Advanced Search, you must select the Advanced Search option when beginning your search. You cannot refine a basic search into an Advanced Search.

Use Advanced Search

Use Advanced Search

You can use Advanced Search to filter your search based on specific criteria.
This type of search is helpful when you cannot 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:

In the upper-right corner of any page in Workfront, click the Search icon . The Search menu displays.
At the bottom of the Search menu, click Advanced Search.

The Advanced Search page slides open from the right and covers most of the previous page.
Select the type of object you are searching for.
Projects is selected by default.
(Optional) Type a keyword in the field at the top of the list.
(Optional) Click Filter your results to filter your search results based on specific field types, then select a field from the list. If necessary, also select a value for the field.
Or
Add a new filter.
Click Search.
A list of items that match your search displays to the right of the Advanced Search toolbar.
(Optional) To return to the page you were on prior to the search, click Close in the the top-right corner.

NOTE

The Search Results page stays open only when it is in focus. Clicking away from the page or opening another page closes the Search Results page.

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