Here is a nifty trick to add to your Master Document: bookmarks. Most of us know what bookmarking is when we are navigating the web, or at least I hope so. The basic premise of bookmarking is the idea of saving a place in a way so that you can easily find it again and again without having to endure relentlessly searching for it over and over. Just like marking the page in an actual book so you know where you left off and can easily navigate to the exact page to resume without wasting time flipping through pages to find where you left off.

A little diversional sidenote here, I will occasionally pick up a stack of those heavyweight card bookmarks at Barnes & Noble they keep on the checkout counter. They’re promotional, but they’re FREE, and I have and read a lot of different books at any given time. I’ve also been know to use the self-adhesive sticky notes to mark my place in books. I always have a handy stack of bookmarks ready when I happen to go out on a book shopping spree.

Back to point. MS Word’s Help feature gives a great definition for the bookmarking feature:

A bookmark identifies a location or a selection of text that you name and identify for future reference. For example, you might use a bookmark to identify text that you want to revise at a later time. Instead of scrolling through the document to locate the text, you can go to it by using the Bookmark dialog box.

You can also add cross-references to bookmarks. For example, after you insert a bookmark in a document, you can refer to that bookmark from other places in the text by creating cross-references to the bookmark.

I would suggest setting up your Word program to view Bookmarks first. By default, this feature is not a feature selected to view bookmarks. Just saving you a bit of confusion when we get to the part of inserting a bookmark and you see nothing. Made me think for a minute I might not be doing it right.

View/Hide Bookmark

1. Click on your Office Button. At the bottom right of the window, next to the Exit Word button, click on Word Options.
2. Click Advanced and scroll down to the section titled, Show document content. Click on Show bookmarks to get the checkmark on it.
3. Click OK.

NOTE: If you place a bookmark over a block of text, the bookmark appears in brackets ([…]) on the screen. If you place the bookmark at a specific location, the bookmark appears as an I-beam. The brackets do not print.

Insert Bookmark

1. Select the text or item you want to bookmark or click where you want the bookmark.
2. From the menu select the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Bookmark.
3. Under Bookmark name, type or select a name.
   NOTE: Bookmark names must begin with a letter and can contain numbers. You can’t include spaces in a bookmark name. However, you can use the underscore character to separate words — for example, “First_heading.”
4. Click Add.

Go To a Bookmark

1. From the menu select the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Bookmark.
2. Select Name or Location to sort your bookmarks.
3. Click on the name of the bookmark you want to go to.
4. Click Go To.

Lastly, you might want to know how to delete your bookmarks. Easy peasy.

Delete Bookmark

1. From the menu select the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Bookmark.
2. Click on the name of the bookmark you want to delete and then click Delete.

NOTE: To delete both the bookmark and the bookmarked item (such as a block of text or other element), select the information within your Word document and press DELETE.

You’ll find this to be a great tool for extensive documents you reference specific material on a regular basis or tagging your favorites locations and information.

Did you like this?  Would love to hear from you.  More Master Document information to come.  Just click on the RSS icon to add me to your RSS feeds to get updates as soon as I post something new.  Feel free to contribute your suggestions or little tips with other administrative professionals who stop by my website in the comments.

Happy bookmarking my friends,

Related posts:

1. Word: Creating a Master Document
2. Word: Create an Electronic Signature
3. Word: Restrict Formatting & Editing
4. Navigation Tools Using Document Map and Thumbnails in Word
5. Adding (or deleting) Pages to Your PDF