Bookmarks in Microsoft Word 2010

May 5, 2011

If you regularly use a browser (like now, for instance) you’re probably very familiar with the concept of setting bookmarks in your browser. It’s a quick way of getting where you want to go. When you’re working with Word documents, you can also set bookmarks within your document. This is especially useful when you’re working with long documents and want to be able to quickly return to a specific location in your document.

Besides being a navigation tool, you can create hyperlinks and cross-references to bookmarks. If you normally create a Table of Contents, you can use bookmarks to also add a table of contents that covers only the bookmarked part of your document.

Adding a Bookmark

You can add bookmarks anywhere in a document. You can either bookmark the current cursor location, or bookmark anything you have selected (text, graphics, etc.). By default, bookmarks are invisible, even if you are showing formatting characters. If you want to see your bookmarks you need to change a setting in the Advanced Word options.

Bookmark names should be descriptive. They must start with a letter and can contain up to 40 characters. They cannot contain spaces, but you can use the underscore to separate words. For example, you could use “NewBookmark” or “New_Bookmark” but not “New Bookmark”.

1. Select what you want to bookmark, or click where you want the bookmark to be inserted.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Bookmark. The Bookmark dialog box appears.
   
3. Name your bookmark. If you already have bookmarks defined, an existing bookmark name will appear in the name box. Type a new name before you click Add, otherwise the existing bookmark will be moved to the new location.
4. Click Add.

Displaying the Bookmarks in Your Document

It’s a good idea to display the bookmarks in your document, especially if you’re using them as targets for hyperlinks or cross-references. You don’t want to accidently delete a bookmark that’s used as a reference mark.

How a bookmark displays depends on whether or not you have something selected when the bookmark is inserted. If no text is selected, it will display as an I-beam. If something is selected, you’ll see brackets around the selection.

1. To see your bookmarks, click the File tab and select Options.
2. In the Advanced section of your Word Options dialog, check Show bookmarks.
   
3. Click OK.

Navigating with Bookmarks

You can use the Bookmark dialog box to go to your bookmarks. You can also use the Go To tab on the Find and Replace dialog box.

1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Find drop down and select Go To.
   
2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, select Bookmark in the Go to what: section
   
3. Select the bookmark you want from the drop down and click Go To.

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