When to use

Search in Workflowy helps you find anything, anywhere - instantly. Just start typing, and Workflowy will surface matching bullets across your entire account.

You can combine keywords, tags, dates, and filters to zero in on exactly what you need. It’s fast, powerful, and designed to keep up with even your biggest outlines.

Basic search operators

Search operators are characters or commands you can use to perform special searches. Most search operators can be used with all types of searches (text, tags, formats).

Exclude somethingYou can use the minus sign “-” to mean NOT. The minus sign is placed before the item you want to exclude.

For example, to search for all items that do not have the #high tag“-#high”

Search for alternativesYou can use “OR” to indicate you want to see results for one thing or another.

For example, to search for items tagged with @Steve or @Lisa “@Steve OR @Lisa”

Search for text

Workflowy will update in real-time with any matches as you type. By default Workflowy will also show partial matches. For exact matches, put your text in quotation marks “”.

Search for tags

Search based on format

You can search for items based on the type of item they are, for example to-do’s, shared items, images, etc.

There are several search operators you can use to search based on the item’s format. below are some examples.

is: has: text: highlight:

Search for a date

You can search for items with date tags using specific dates, natural language, or date ranges.

Specific date formatsMM = month, DD = day, YY = year, HH = hour, mm = minuteMM/DD MM-DD MM/DD/YY MM-DD-YY MM/DD/YYYY MM-DD-YYYY

Natural language datesToday, Tomorrow, Yesterday This week, Next week, Last week This month, Next Month, Last Month This year, Next year, Last year

1. Click the search bar
2. Type a specific date or a natural language date

Search for a date range

You can also search for a date range to find all items with date tags that are within that range.

MM = month, DD = day, YY = year, HH = hour, mm = minuteMM/DD - MM/DD MM/DD/YY - MM/DD/YY MM/DD/YYYY - MM/DD/YYYY

You can also use the search operator “date-after:”

1. Click the search bar
2. Type a date range

Nested search

Hierarchical search lets you use the “>” search operator to filter items based on the content of their ancestor nodes. In other words, it lets you use information about the ancestor node to narrow down your search. Nested search supports multiple words so things like "Projects > Write draft -today" will match nodes containing both "Write draft" and "-today".

Note: There needs to be a space between each item and the ">" search operator. So for example, A>B would not work but A > B would.

This diagram shows the ancestors and descendants of the green bullet.

Here’s a simple example that shows the usefulness of a nested search. Example - Web agencyIn this example we have a list of projects for a web agency. Say we want to see all tasks assigned to a team member "@sam".

This search would show us all the todos for "@sam".

And if we wanted to narrow down the search and only look at the SEO related tasks, we could do that with a nested search of "SEO>@sam".

We could narrow down the search even more by specifying we only want to include projects that are "#high" priority with a search of "#high>SEO>@sam".

Other search operators

Workflowy has an ever-expanding set of search operators to help you find exactly what you're looking for. By default, Workflowy uses a partial fuzzy search to help you find items even if you don't remember it exactly.

Basic logic / Boolean

• (space between words) - serves as AND, will search for both items connected by the space

• OR - Searches for items containing either item

• -(minus sign) - Serves as NOT. Excludes the item with the minus sign from the search

• "…” (quotes) - Works as an exact search. Only returns results if what's in the quotes matches exactly

Format / type / property-based operators

• is: - Select items by type or state (is:complete, is:backlinks, is:shared)

• has: - Items that have a certain component (has:file, has:note, has:tweet)

• text: - Search for text with a specific text styling, formatting, or color

• highlight: - Search for text based on highlight color

• changed: -Search for items based on when they were last changed

• in:note:- Search for items based on location in item (backlink, note)