Update work
You can add an update to an Adobe Workfront object by adding a comment to it to inform others about the status or the progress on the object, or to ask for more information or additional resources.
For more information about what objects you can add updates to in Workfront, see Update section overview.
The information in this article describes how you can comment on projects, tasks, and issues. Users who are assigned to or subscribed to the object can view your update. You can also tag users to bring their attention to the update.
Adding comments to other Workfront objects is similar to updating projects, tasks, and issues.
For additional information about commenting on cards, goals, and records in Workfront Planning also see the following articles:
Access requirements
You must have the following access to perform the steps in this article:
| table 0-row-2 1-row-2 2-row-2 3-row-2 layout-auto html-authored no-header | |
|---|---|
| Adobe Workfront plan | Any |
| Adobe Workfront license* |
Current: Request or higher for issues and documents; Review or higher for all other objects New: Contributor or higher for issues and documents: Light or higher for all other objects |
| Access level configurations | View or Edit access for the object the update is on |
| Object permissions | View access to the object |
*For more information, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.
Considerations about commenting on objects
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You can add comments to most objects in Adobe Workfront in the Updates section. For more information about which objects display the Updates section, see Updates section overview.
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You can add comments to Workfront objects from other applications that are integrated with Workfront or from the Workfront mobile app.
Not all applications that are integrated with Workfront can add comments to Workfront objects.
Not all features that are available in the Updates section of an object in Workfront are available in other applications, when accessing Workfront objects from the application. For example, Rich Text capabilities or making a comment private to someone’s Company might not be available when adding comments to a Workfront object from a third-party application.
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You can communicate about progress on a Workfront object (project, task, or issue), as you comment on the object. Users who are assigned or subscribed to the object can receive a notification about your update. Anyone with View access to the object can view your update.
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You can tag users to bring their attention to the update. Tagged users receive an in-app notification and an email about your update.
note tip TIP Comment owners are automatically tagged. For more information, see Tag others on updates. -
You can add a comment to an object that you can view, or you can log in as a Workfront or group administrator and add a comment on behalf of another user. For more information, see Log in as another user.
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You can add an update to projects, tasks, and issues from the following areas of Workfront:
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From a Workfront object, in the Updates section (for projects, tasks, and issues)
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From the Home area (for tasks and issues)
For information, see Manage your work with the My Work widget.
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From the Summary panel in the following areas (for tasks, issues, and documents):
- A list of objects
- A timesheet
- Home
- The Workload Balancer
For more information, see the following articles:
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Add a comment to a work item
This article describes how you can update projects, tasks, or issues. Updating most other objects is similar.
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Locate the object you want to add a comment to, then click its name to open the object’s page.
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Click Updates in the left panel.
The Comments tab is selected by default. -
Start entering a comment in the New comment box.
note tip TIP Navigating away from the Updates section before you finish typing and submitting a comment keeps the comment on the page in draft mode even after you log off and log back on. Any images that are added to the comment are also saved in the draft. Drafts are saved for 7 days after which they are discarded and cannot be recovered. Drafted comments are only visible to the user entering them. -
(Optional) To undo or redo a change, use the following shortcut keys:
- CTRL + Z (⌘+z for Mac) to undo a change
- CTRL + Y (⌘+y for Mac) to redo a change
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(Optional) In the Tag people or teams area, start typing the name or the email of a user, or a team that you would like to include in this comment, then select it when it displays in the list.
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(Optional) Use the options in the Rich Text toolbar to format your text, add emojis, links, or images to your update, to enhance your content. For more information, see the Use Rich Text in a Workfront update section in this article.
note tip TIP If another user submits a comment to the same item you are updating, there is a red line with a “New” indicator to inform you of the newer comments. The indicator displays only after the comment was submitted on the item, and not when the comment is still composed. The “New” indicator displays only when both the user that entered a new update as well as the user who is currently entering an update are using the new commenting experience.
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Click Submit to add the update to the Workfront object.
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(Optional) To edit a comment, click the More menu
note important IMPORTANT You can edit your comment only within 15 minutes from submitting it. -
Edit the information in the comment, add or remove images or remove any of the tagged users. An “Edited” indicator is added to the left of the date stamp that displays when the comment was entered.
note tip TIP Comments from the current year do not display the year in the date stamp. Hovering over a timestamp displays the full date, including the year. 
note tip TIP - An email is generated to notify users of your update only when you submit the original update. No email is generated after you edited your update.
- The date stamp next to the comment is the date of the original comment, not the date of the last edit.
- When you add a comment on behalf of another user (when logging in as another user as a Workfront or group administrator), you cannot edit the comment if you are logged in as the other user. You can edit the comment only after you log out as the user and log back in as yourself.
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(Optional) Click Reply or start typing a comment in the Add reply … area, to reply to an existing comment, then follow the steps 3-7 above. For information about replying to an update, see Reply to updates.
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(Conditional and optional) If other users have added comments that display outside of the visible area in the Updates section while you were adding your comments, click View inside the blue new comments banner at the bottom of the screen to display these comments.
Additional comments display at the bottom of the screen.
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(Optional) Click the Like icon
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(Conditional and optional) If you included additional people in your comment, click the number of members included in the update to display a list of entities that the comment you entered is shared with.
note tip TIP The names of the first two tagged entities display next to their avatars. If more than two entities are tagged only the name of the first one and the number of additional entities display. -
(Optional) Click a commenter’s name to see their name, role, and email address in an information box. Click the commenter’s name again in the information box to open their user profile.
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(Optional) Click the System Activity tab to view updates logged by the system. When the object or any of its children are updated, Workfront generates a note about that update and displays it in the System Activity tab.
For more information, see Updates section overview.
note tip TIP You cannot add a comment to a system update. However, any replies that were made to system activity records in the legacy commenting experience were added to the System Activity tab as read-only. The legacy commenting experience has been removed from Workfront on April 11, 2024. -
(Optional) Click the All tab to view both user comments and system activity comments in one place. This is a view-only tab.
note tip TIP You cannot reply to comments or tag other users in existing comments in the All tab. To reply to a comment in the All tab, click Reply in Comments to open the comment in the Comments tab.
Use Rich Text in a Workfront comment use-rich-text-in-a-workfront-comment
You can enhance your comments by using Rich Text, or adding various items to it, like emojis, links, or images.
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Go to the Updates area of a Workfront object, open the Comments tab and start typing a comment.
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(Optional) To add Rich Text formatting to your comment, use any attributes on the Rich Text toolbar as you type.
table 0-row-4 1-row-4 2-row-4 3-row-4 4-row-4 5-row-4 6-row-4 Attribute Toolbar button Mac shortcut keys Windows shortcut keys Bold 
⌘+b Ctrl+B Italics 
⌘+i Ctrl+I Underline 
⌘+u Ctrl+U Hyperlink 
To open the Add links box: ⌘+K
To paste a link over the selected text: ⌘+VTo open the Add links box: Ctrl+K
To paste a link over the selected text: Ctrl+VBulleted List 
⌘+Shift+8 Ctrl+Shift+8 Numbered List 
⌘+Shift+7 Ctrl+Shift+7 To stop formatting text, deselect the attribute on the Rich Text toolbar.
note note NOTE - Formatting also displays in any email notification users receive containing your update.
- Rich Text formatting applied to an update in an email does not display on the update when viewed in the Updates tab.
- If your organization uses Workfront with Internet Explorer, any formatted text pasted into an update loses its Rich Text formatting and displays as plain text. You can reformat the text using the attributes on the Rich Text toolbar.
- Rich Text formatting is not available for updates made in the Timesheets area or for Note and Last Condition objects viewed in a report.
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(Optional) Click the emoji icon
note note NOTE - Workfront does not replace punctuation emoticons such as :) with emojis.
- Emojis are not available for the Note and Last Condition objects viewed in a report.
- The emoji feature in Workfront utilizes Unicode characters and, as such, displays only on browsers and operating systems that support Unicode code points. Users on a platform, browser, or operating system version different from yours might not have access to the same emojis.
- An unsupported emoji is represented by a black or white box.
- Windows 7 supports only black and white emojis.
- Emojis that are applied to an update made via email do not display on the update when viewed in the Updates area.
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(Optional) To add a URL link to additional information sources:
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Click in your update where you want to insert a link.
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On the Rich Text toolbar, click the Hyperlink icon
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In the Create Link box, under URL, type or paste the URL of the source to which you want to link.
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Under Text to display, type or paste the link text.
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Click Save.
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(Optional) To attach an image to your update, do one of the following:
- Save the image on our computer, then drag and drop it in the New comment area.
- Copy a screenshot from your computer, then paste it in the comment.
- Click the Add image icon
note note NOTE IMPORTANT - Your Workfront administrator must enable adding images in the Update Feeds Preferences section of the Workfront Interface area before you can see the Image or the Add attachment icons. For information, see Configure preferences for user updates.
- The maximum image file size is 7 MB. Supported image file types are .jpg, .gif, and .png.
- Images are accessible from the Updates section on an object and they are also available in the Documents area under the Main Menu.
You can copy a screenshot from your computer using a keyboard combination, or, for example, the Print Screen function (on Windows computers). - You can paste the image by right-clicking in the new comment then clicking Paste, or by pressing CTRL + V for Windows (or ⌘ + V for Mac) on your keyboard.
- You can send an update with an image and no text.
- When you delete a comment that contains an image, the image is removed from the Updates section as well as from the Documents area. The image is also deleted from the Documents area when you edit a comment and delete the image.
- When someone deletes an image attached to a comment from the Documents area, it is also removed from the comment.
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(Optional) To view an image in the existing update do one of the following:
- Click the Preview icon
- Click the Download icon
- Click the Preview icon
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Click Submit to add your comment.
Search for an update
You can search for a comment or a reply in the Updates section of an object.
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Go to the Updates section of an object.
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Start typing a keyword in the Search box in the upper-right corner of the Comments tab.
note note NOTE You can search only for words that belong to the text of a comment or reply. You cannot search for names of users or teams tagged in an update. 
The keyword you searched for is highlighted and the comments that contain it display at the top of the Updates section.
Workfront searches the entire update stream of the object, outside the comments that are visible on the screen.
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Click the x icon in the search field to clear the search results and return to all comments.
Copy comments
There are several ways you can copy a comment.
You can copy a link to the comment, or copy the content of the comment to use it in a new update.
Copy a comment
You can copy information from an existing comment by doing one of the following:
Copy link to a comment
The Copy link option copies the comment or thread link to the clipboard so you can share the comment or the entire thread with other users.
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Go to the comment whose link you want to copy.
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Click the More menu, then click Copy link.
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Paste the link you copied in the previous step in an email or another application to share it with others. The shared link opens the comment you shared the link from.
note tip TIP When you share the link of a conversation on a child object from a higher-ranking object, the link opens the thread in the higher-ranking object’s Updates area. For example, if you copy the link of a task comment from the project’s Updates area, the comment opens the project page.
Copy body text
The Copy body text option copies the text from a specific comment to the clipboard.
- Go to the comment or reply you want to copy.
- Click the More menu, then click Copy body text.
Quote reply
The Quote reply option copies the original comment to a new reply as a block quote.
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Go to the comment or reply you want to copy.
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Click the More menu, then click Quote reply.
A new comment box opens and the quoted reply is included in the new comment and marked as a block quote.
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Continue adding your update and click Submit to add the comment.
Delete a comment or a reply
Depending on the access your Workfront administrator gives you, you might be able to delete comments you added in the Updates section of an object.
For more information, see Create or modify custom access levels in the article Create or modify custom access levels.
No Workfront user (including the Workfront administrator) can delete updates made by another user. However, if a user’s access level allows them to delete their own updates, the Workfront administrator can log in as that user and delete updates they made. For more information, see Create or modify custom access levels and Log in as another user.
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Go to the comment or reply you want to delete.
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Click the More menu next to the comment or reply you wish to delete, then click Delete.
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In the message that appears, click Delete.
note note NOTE Deleting an update with an attached image deletes both the comment and the image. For more information, see the Use Rich Text in a Workfront update section in this article. When the comment you delete has replies associated with it, there is an indication that the comment was removed with the name of the user who removed it.
Deleted comments are removed immediately from Workfront. A user using the Updates section sees a comment being deleted by another user in real time.
Review system updates
The Updates section for a Workfront object displays two types of information:
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User updates: User updates are comments that you and other users in your system enter. The user updates display in the Comments and the All tabs of the Updates section.
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System updates: System updates record removing tasks or issues, adding or deleting document versions, attaching or removing an approval request, as well as any edits or changes made to the object. System updates display in the System Activity and the All tabs of the Updates section.
Workfront administrators can determine what is tracked in system updates, as explained in System-tracked updates. You can also filter out system updates or activities so that you see only user updates for all objects.
The following objects don’t have system-generated updates:
- Team
- Template
- Template Task
- Ad-hoc Card
For more information about user and system updates and how they display in the Updates section of Workfront objects, see Updates section overview.