Jumping to the Last Insertion Point Location

Andy notes that he can use Shift+F5 to return to the last place in the document where he made an edit. What he needs, though, is a way to return to the last place the insertion point was located, not the last place an edit was made. Andy wonders if there is a way to go to the last insertion point location.

As Andy notes, the Shift+F5 shortcut is designed to take you to the last edit point within your document. More precisely, it cycles through the locations of the last four edits made within your document. If you prefer, you can use the Ctrl+Alt+Z shortcut; it does the same thing.

When it comes to moving to the previous insertion point location, that's a lot trickier. Let's say that my insertion point is somewhere on page 4 of a document, and then I press Ctrl+Home to move the insertion point to the beginning of the document. Then, I press the Right Arrow one time. Technically, the last location of the insertion point is exactly one character to the left of its current position. Do I really need a shortcut key to move one character to the left? If I now type a five-letter word, then the insertion point has, in the process, had five "last locations." How should that be handled with a shortcut key?

The upshot is that noting the location of the last four edit points is much easier than noting the last four insertion point locations. The insertion point moves so often, for so many reasons, that tracking its last location is almost meaningless.

With that said, let's go back to the scenario where the insertion point is somewhere on page 4. If you need to jump to the first page to make a change you just thought about, you may want to remember where you were on page 4 before you had this thought to make a change on page 1. In that case, you may find these general steps helpful:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+F5. Word displays the Bookmark dialog box.
2. Add a really simple bookmark, using a name such as "a" or "here." (The name doesn't really matter, as long as it doesn't conflict with any existing bookmark.)
3. Jump to the first page and make your edit.
4. Press F5. Word displays the Go To tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
5. Choose Bookmark at the left side of the dialog box.
6. At the right side of the dialog box, choose the bookmark name you used in step 2.
7. Click the Go To button.
8. Press Esc to dismiss the Find and Replace dialog box.

At this point, you are back to the location where you set the bookmark and can continue working.

One thing I often do in this situation (where I need to remember a spot to which I need to return) is to simply press "***HERE" (without the quote marks) and then change my location. I can then press Ctrl+F, type "***HERE," and end up right back where I was before my side editorial excursion.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6269) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.