Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Reusing a Bookmark.

Reusing a Bookmark

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 22, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

As you learn in other issues of WordTips, bookmarks allow you to assign names to text or to positions in your document. In this way you locate them easily, just like when you put a physical bookmark in a book to save your place. To reuse a bookmark you previously defined, follow these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want to insert the bookmark or select the text you want to name with the bookmark.
Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Click the Bookmark tool, in the Links group. Word displays the Bookmark dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Bookmark dialog box.

Select the name of the bookmark you want to redefine.
Click on Add.

You aren't, of course, adding a new bookmark. Word recognizes the existing name that you selected in step 4 and then redefines it to point to the selected item or position from step 1.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8654) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Reusing a Bookmark.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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