How to Add, Use, and Delete Bookmarks in Word
A bookmark in Word gives a name to a location or selected range in a document. You can jump back to it in a long document or use it as the destination of an internal link.
This guide covers the desktop version of Word for Windows. Menu names and positions can differ between versions.
Add a bookmark
- Place the cursor at the location you want to mark, or select the text range. Choose Insert → Links → Bookmark.
- Enter a descriptive name and choose Add. The name must begin with a letter and cannot contain spaces. Use an underscore to separate words, such as Report_Conclusion.
The naming rules and commands are covered in Microsoft's bookmark instructions. If you reuse the same name at a new location, inspect the bookmark list and its destination rather than assuming the previous location stays unchanged.
Jump to a bookmark
- Open Insert → Bookmark again.
- Select the name in the list and choose Go To. The cursor moves to the bookmark.
You can also press Ctrl+G to open the Go To dialog and choose a bookmark as the destination.
Show or delete bookmarks
To display bookmark positions while editing, choose File → Options → Advanced → Show document content → Show bookmarks. A marked range appears with brackets; a location-only bookmark appears as a position marker. These are editing indicators, not printed characters.
To delete a bookmark, select its name in the Bookmark dialog and choose Delete. Removing the bookmark entry is a different action from deleting the document’s original text.
Use a bookmark as a link destination
For a link to a conclusion or appendix, select the text that will become the link and choose Insert → Link → Place in This Document. Select the bookmark, create the link, and test that it reaches the intended location. Bookmarks give you destinations beyond those listed in an automatic table of contents.
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