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.

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.

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

  • Position the cursor at an insertion point you want to mark or select a section of text or an image.
  • 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.
  • In the Links group, select Bookmark.
  • 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.
  • Select Add to place the bookmark.

View Bookmarks in a Document

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

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

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.

In the Links group, select Bookmark.

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.

Select Add to place the bookmark.

  • Go to File and select Options.
  • In the Word Options dialog box, select Advanced.
  • In the Show document content section, select the Show bookmarks check box.
  • 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.

Go to File and select Options.

In the Word Options dialog box, select Advanced.

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

Select OK.

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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