3 Ways to Reveal Bookmarks in Microsoft Word

Key Takeaways 

• Microsoft Word’s Bookmark marks specific locations on a document, making it easier to revisit the locations.
• You may enable visible bookmarks from the Word options settings windows.
• More technical users may use Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications to show bookmarks.

Method 1: Enabling Show Bookmarks in Word Options

Like most Office products, Microsoft Word has an Options setting, which allows the personalization of different features in a document. You’ll need to access the Advanced tab of Word Options to reveal Bookmarks in Word. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word.

Step 2: In the Word document, click on the File tab at the top left.

Step 3: In the bottom-left corner, select the More… section.

Step 4: Click on Options from the pop-out.

Step 5: Select Advanced from the left column on the Word Options screen.

Step 6: Scroll down to the Show document content section and check the box for Show bookmarks.

Step 7: Click OK at the bottom right to save your new changes.

Next, you’ll notice square brackets surrounding all the bookmarked items in the Word document.

Method 2: Using the Go To Feature

The Go To dialog on Microsoft Word works differently from the first method we explored because it takes you to a particular bookmark. Here is how it works.

Step 1: Launch your Microsoft Word document.

Step 2: Press Ctrl + G.

Step 3: In the Go to what options, select Bookmark. On the right, select your bookmark from the Enter bookmark name dropdown and click Go To.

Now, your cursor should automatically be placed on your selected bookmark.

Method 3: Using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Microsoft VBA is a programming language to run executable codes. The Office productivity tools support it to make things easy to run settings or use features that are absent in Office. The steps below will guide you in using Microsoft VBA to reveal Word bookmarks.

The use of VBA is only advisable if you are comfortable with programming languages.

Step 1: Launch your Microsoft Word document.

Step 2: Press the ALT + F11 keys simultaneously on your keyboard to launch the VBA editor.

Step 3: On the VBA Ribbon, click on the Project Explorer icon or press the Ctrl + R keys to launch Project Explorer.

Step 4: From the column on the left, click on Normal.

Step 5: Select Insert at the top.

Step 6: Click on Module to launch a window that looks like a whiteboard, then click in the Module window to place your cursor at the start.

Step 7: Copy the code below and paste it within the Module window.

Sub HighlightBookmarkedItemsInADoc()
             Dim objBookmark As Bookmark
        Dim objDoc As Document

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

              Set objDoc = ActiveDocument

              With objDoc
                              For Each objBookmark In .Bookmarks
                                     objBookmark.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
                              Next objBookmark
              End With
              Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Step 8: Click on the Run tab at the top to run the code.

After taking the steps above, the bookmarks will be highlighted in green in a Word document. The color highlights help you easily identify bookmark text rather than the square brackets. If needed, you may take further steps to manage bookmarks in Microsoft Word.