How to Manage Bookmarks in Microsoft Word

When dealing with a short document, you can quickly scan its contents to find the text or item you need. However, scanning a large document to find an item can be difficult. Now imagine the same situation dealing with a Microsoft Word document.

The bookmark takes you directly to the specific item you need in the document, saving you the stress of navigating through pages of text. Bookmarks in Microsoft Word are very similar to bookmarks in printed text. You can use them to mark text, specific places in a document, and images you need to revisit. Here’s how to manage bookmarks in Microsoft Word.

How to Add Bookmark to Microsoft Word

To bookmark your Word documents, you need to:

Stage 1: Start the Word document you want to bookmark.

Step 2: Select the location, text or image you want to bookmark.

Stage 3: On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.

Step 4: In the Links group, click Bookmark to launch a dialog.

Step 5: Enter a name under the bookmark name section.

Step 6: Click Add to close the window.

The simple action above creates a bookmark in your document. You can repeat the process several times to add different bookmarks to the document. Other bookmark features to keep in mind when creating one include:

• The bookmark name must always begin with a letter.
• Bookmark names can contain underscores and numbers.
• Your Bookmark name cannot contain hyphens, slashes, spaces, or other special characters.

How to Add Links to a Bookmark in Microsoft Word

Bookmarks in Microsoft Word also work with hyperlinks. You can click on them to go to a specific part of the document.

Stage 1: Start the Microsoft Word document with an existing bookmark or create one using the steps above.

Step 2: Select the bookmark you want to add the link to.

Note: Bookmarks in a Word document are indicated by gray square brackets around the marked item.

Stage 3: Right-click the selected flagged item and click Link. Another way to do this is to simultaneously press the CTRL + K keys on your keyboard.

Step 4: In the Insert Hyperlink dialog, go to Link to the pod and select Place In This Document.

Step 5: Select the name of the bookmark you want to link inside the labeled box. Choose a location in this document.

Step 6: Click OK.

Step 7: You can add a screen tip to the bookmark that appears when your mouse pointer hovers over the link. Do this by clicking the ScreenTip and then entering the text ScreenTip.

Step 8: Click OK.

You can click the link to take you directly to your bookmark.

How to Delete a Bookmark in Microsoft Word

If you decide that a bookmark is no longer needed in your Microsoft Word document, here’s how to delete it:

Stage 1: Start the Word document with the bookmark.

Step 2: On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.

Stage 3: In the Links group, click Bookmark to launch a dialog.

Step 4: Select the bookmark you need to delete and then click Delete.

Note: Microsoft Word does not show a confirmation message to warn about deletion. When you press the delete button, the bookmark will be deleted automatically.

If you need to delete more than one bookmark, repeat the process. It is important to note that the link of a bookmark remains even after the bookmark is deleted. If you want to delete the link, here’s what you need to do:

Stage 1: Move your cursor over the link text and then right-click.

Step 2: Scroll through the menu options and select Remove Hyperlink.

After that, you can automatically unlink the bookmark. Note that you must do this for every bookmark you delete from your document.

Adding Footnotes and Endnotes in Microsoft Word

Just as bookmarks make it easier for you to jump to a location in a Microsoft Word document, footnotes and endnotes make it easier to provide context for a particular item in a document.