Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 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: Random OLE Bookmarks.

Random OLE Bookmarks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 28, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


2

Cheryl asked why Word sometimes inserts random OLE bookmarks into a document. These bookmarks are sequentially numbered and follow the naming pattern OLE_LINK##.

It appears that these bookmarks are created automatically by Word during some (but not all) cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste operations. You can visually see the bookmarks if you follow these steps:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.
  3. Click Advanced and scroll down to Show Document Content. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Show Document Content group of the Advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.

  5. Make sure the Show Bookmarks check box is selected.

Or you can examine the list of bookmarks in the Bookmark dialog box if you choose Insert | Bookmark (Word 2007 or Word 2010) or Insert | Links | Bookmark (Word 2013 and later versions).

Microsoft provides no information in the Knowledge Base as to why these bookmarks are created, but they are a real bother to some people. The bookmarks serve no purpose that I can find, and they can be safely deleted. If you want an automatic way to delete them, you can use a macro:

Sub RemoveOLE_Marks()
    Dim J As Integer
    For J = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count To 1 Step -1
        If UCase(Left(ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Name, 8)) = "OLE_LINK" Then
            ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Delete
        End If
    Next J
End Sub

Running the macro won't bother any other bookmarks in your system. The only ones affected are those that start with the letters OLE_LINK.

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 (10475) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Random OLE Bookmarks.

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 seven less than 8?

2024-11-29 21:04:30

Anon

I just used this to create a Macro in MS Word for MAC version 16.91.
It worked properly with Visual Basic.
I don't know why Microsoft has not created a button in its bookmark insert for this.

I tried the manual way for a while but I have over 50 of these somehow.
I have to submit DOCX documents now and a document review system complains about these all the time.


2024-09-29 06:57:09

Ken Endacott

Similarly to OLE bookmarks, inactive hidden bookmarks can accumulate from deleted REF fields. Regenerating a Tables of Contents creates new bookmarks and leaves the old ones in limbo. Hidden bookmarks are not displayed with Show Bookmarks in Options, they have a name starting with an underscore character and can be seen by ticking Hidden bookmarks in the Bookmark menu.

Hidden bookmarks can be deleted using the Delete button in the Bookmark menu (not available in early Word versions). Before you delete one make sure it is not in use by clicking Go To, otherwise an error will occur in the reference field.


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