Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Printing a Bookmark List.

Printing a Bookmark List

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 18, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

Word provides a very powerful bookmark facility that allows you to assign names to either individual positions in your document or to text selections. As you work more with Word, and particularly in long documents, it would be helpful to periodically print a list of bookmarks. Unfortunately, Word does not provide an automatic method of printing bookmarks, as it does with other document-related information. The quickest way to print a bookmark list is to just insert the list in your document and then print it. The following VBA macro inserts the bookmark list at the insertion point:

Sub BkMkList1()
    Dim J as Integer

    Selection.TypeParagraph
    Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
    Selection.TypeText Text:="Bookmark list for "
    Selection.TypeText Text:=ActiveDocument.Name
    Selection.TypeParagraph

    For J = 1 To ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count
        Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr(9)
        Selection.TypeText Text:=ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Name
        Selection.TypeParagraph
    Next J
    Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
End Sub

When you run the macro, a heading indicating the name of the file will be inserted, followed by each bookmark in the file. These will be in alphabetic order. The bookmark list has a column break before it and after it, as well. You can then print out the single page that contains the bookmark list. When you are done printing, you can delete the bookmark list.

You should note that the macro will print all the bookmarks in the document, including any system-generated bookmarks. If you want to exclude those, then you can use a slightly modified version of the macro, like this:

Sub BkMkList2()
    Dim J as Integer

    Selection.TypeParagraph
    Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
    Selection.TypeText Text:="Bookmark list for "
    Selection.TypeText Text:=ActiveDocument.Name
    Selection.TypeParagraph

    For J = 1 To ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count
        With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J)
            If Left(.Name, 1) <> "_" Then
                Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr(9)
                Selection.TypeText Text:=.Name
                Selection.TypeParagraph
            End If
        End With
    Next J
    Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
End Sub

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8880) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Printing a Bookmark List.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is five more than 3?

2021-09-18 05:07:58

Ken Endacott

A useful addition is to print out the bookmark followed by the first 30 characters of the bookmarked text . The modified macro is:

Sub BkMkList3()
Dim J As Integer

Selection.TypeParagraph
Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
Selection.TypeText Text:="Bookmark list for "
Selection.TypeText Text:=ActiveDocument.Name
Selection.TypeParagraph

For J = 1 To ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count
Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr(9)
Selection.TypeText Text:=ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Name & _
Chr(9) & Left(ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Range.Text, 30)

Selection.TypeParagraph
Next J
Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdColumnBreak
End Sub


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