Inserting Bookmarks in Your Word Document

Bookmarks make it easy to move around in long documents

By
James Marshall
James Marshall
Writer
James Marshall is a pro journalist who covers technology and computer troubleshooting. He is also skilled with Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, and other word processors.
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Updated on November 8, 2019

When you have a long document and need to return to specific locations in the document later for editing or want to make it easier for readers to browse the document, use the Bookmark feature in Microsoft Word. Rather than scroll through page after page in a document, quickly return to bookmarked locations to resume your work.

Instructions in this article apply to Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013.

Insert a Bookmark Into a Word Document

Bookmarks are placed at a specific point within the text; bookmarks don't govern the document as a whole.

  1. Position the cursor at an insertion point you want to mark or select a section of text or an image.

  2. Go to the Insert tab.

    If the Word window is narrow, the Links group content collapses into a single Links icon with a drop-down arrow. The bookmarking and cross-referencing commands migrate into that drop-down menu.

    Word with the Insert tab highlighted

  3. In the Links group, select Bookmark.

    Bookmark command in Word's Insert tab

  4. In the Bookmark name text box, enter a name for the bookmark.

    The bookmark name must start with a letter and cannot contain spaces. Use the underscore character to separate words. If you insert multiple bookmarks, enter a descriptive name that is easy to recognize.

    Bookmark window in Word with the Bookmark Name field highlighted

  5. Select Add to place the bookmark.

    Bookmark window in Word with the Add button highlighted

View Bookmarks in a Document

Microsoft Word doesn't display bookmarks by default. To see the bookmarks in the document:

  1. Go to File and select Options.

    File screen in Word with Options highlighted

  2. In the Word Options dialog box, select Advanced.

    Word options with the Advanced tab highlighted

  3. In the Show document content section, select the Show bookmarks check box.

    Show Bookmarks in Word options

  4. Select OK.

The text or image that you bookmarked appears in brackets in the document. If you didn't make a selection for the bookmark and only used the insertion point, you'll see an I-beam cursor.

Return to a Bookmark

Jump to a bookmark using the Word keyboard command Ctrl+G to open the Find and Replace dialog box with the Go To tab displayed. In the Go to what section, select Bookmark and choose the bookmark name.

Remove a Bookmark

When you no longer need the bookmarks in your document, remove them. From the Bookmarks dialog box, highlight the bookmark and select Delete.

If you delete the material (text or image) that you bookmarked, the bookmark is also deleted.

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