Inserting and deleting bookmarks in Word - here's how!

In order to find information again quickly, many people used to dog-ear the page they wanted to read again later when reading books. In modern word processing programmes such as Word (which is part of Microsoft Office 2021 Standard and can be found in Windows 11 Home, among others), a bookmark performs much the same function: it marks a place in the text document that you want to find again quickly and easily – like a bookmark in a book! You can find out how to insert and edit a Word bookmark here.

Really practical: Create a Word bookmark

You already know one benefit of the Word bookmark within Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Business: the bookmark is a useful tool for finding relevant passages of text even in a long Word document – regardless of the operating system(Windows 11, Windows 11 Pro). But that is not the only advantage of setting a Word bookmark. Marked passages are also extremely useful for links. This is because a table of contents with bookmarks is particularly practical in very large text documents: as soon as you click on a certain word or chapter heading, the cursor automatically jumps to the corresponding place in the document.

Word: Add bookmarks in 6 steps

Just a few clicks – and you can add a bookmark in a document – for example under Microsoft Office 365 Home:

  1. First, go to the section of text you want to bookmark in Word.
  2. Then mark a word or even a complete chapter heading. It is also possible to simply place the cursor at a specific point in the document.
  3. Now call up the menu item „Insert“ in the ribbon.
  4. Click on the „Bookmark“ icon.
  5. In the field „Bookmarkname“ in the dialogue that opens, enter a clear name for the desired bookmark.
  6. Now click on „Add“ – and you are done.

To find the exact place you marked later, simply press the key combination „CTRL+G“ . The “ Search and Replace“ dialogue box opens and you can open the „Go to“ tab. Under the item „Go to element“ click on „Bookmark“. Then enter or click on the name previously defined.

Adding a link to a bookmark

To jump to a place in the text without activating the text marker dialogue box, you can also provide words, sentences and also pictures with a hyperlink, which then also creates a link to the desired text place:

  • Select word, section or picture for the link.
  • Press the right mouse button and click on „Link“
  • Select the option „Current document“ .
  • Select the heading or text marker to be linked from the list.
  • Confirm with „OK„.

To delete the bookmark again

Have you placed the bookmark in the wrong place? Proceed as follows to remove an existing bookmark in Word (for example in Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Business Premium):

  • Click on „Insert > Bookmark“ .
  • click on „Name“ or „Location“ to sort the list of bookmarks.
  • Activate the bookmark to be deleted, then click on „ Delete“.
  • If the bookmark has a link, right-click on the link text and click „Remove link“.

What to do if the Word error „Bookmark not defined“ occurs?

From time to time, an error message occurs in the Microsoft packages installed under Windows 11 Education, Windows 11 Enterprise and Windows 11 Pro for Workstation. This often happens when the corresponding text passage has been edited or removed. Then the Word error is „Bookmark not defined“. This is what you can do in this case:

  • Solution 1: First click with the right mouse button on „Directory à Update directory „
  • Solution 2: A deleted or changed text can often be deleted with the key combination „CTRL + Z“
  • Solution 3: Convert the erroneous text marker into static text by marking the corresponding text and pressing the key combination „CTRL + SHIFT + F9“ .

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