Starring

When to use

Starring in Workflowy lets you pin your most important bullets and searches for quick access.

Whether it’s today’s to-do list, a project dashboard, or a filtered view (like #priority tasks), starring saves it to your sidebar so you can jump back anytime.

It’s like creating shortcuts to your most-used parts of Workflowy - no digging, no scrolling.

Star a search

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 “”.Starring an item also saves the zoom level to that item.

1. Search for something
2. In the search bar, click the star icon

Un-star a search

Un-start an item to remove an item from the STARRED section in the sidebar and the “Jump to” menu.

1. Open the left-hand sidebar
2. Mouse over the starred search in the STARRED section
3. Click the star icon of the item to un-star it

Name a starred search

You can give a starred search a custom name in the left-hand sidebar. This name can also be used with the jump-to menu to quickly perform the search.

1. Open the left-hand sidebar
2. Expand the STARRED section if it's collapsed
3. Move your cursor over the starred search you want to name
4. Click on the pencil icon on the right side of the starred search
5. Type the name of your search
6. Hit 'ENTER' to save the name

Works well with...

  • Jump-To Menu (Ctrl/Cmd + K) → Combine starring with the Jump-To menu to instantly navigate to your pinned lists and searches. Starred items always appear first in results, making them perfect for daily dashboards.
  • Shortcuts → Assign text shortcuts to starred items or searches so you can open them instantly from anywhere - even faster than scrolling or searching.
  • Search Operators → Star complex or frequently used searches (like is:todo !!this week) to create living reports. Every time you open a starred search, it updates automatically with new results.