Getting the Names of Defined Bookmarks

Chances are good that you already know how to use bookmarks. (Other WordTips describe how to define and manipulate them.) If you are creating macros, you may have a need to retrieve the names of the bookmarks defined within a document.

VBA lets you retrieve bookmark names by using the Name property with members of the Bookmarks collection. The syntax of the statement is as follows:

x = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(y).Name

where y is the offset pointer to the bookmark name wanted. After executing the statement, x will contain the name of the bookmark specified by the pointer. To make this function useful, you really should read all the bookmark names into an array, which you can then manipulate. The following code fragment will do the trick:

Dim Bmk() As String
Dim x As Integer, J As Integer

x = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count
ReDim Bmk(x)
For j = 1 to x
    Bmk(j) = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(j).Name
Next j

Notice that this code fragment uses the ReDim statement, which allows you to dynamically change the number of elements in an array. The reason for this approach is quite simple: The Bmk array needs to have as many elements as there are defined bookmarks. However, you can't know before executing the third line of this code exactly how many that is. VBA requires that all dimensioning (using Dim) be done before any actual program code is executed. Thus, the first Dim for Bmk is to satisfy VBA, and the ReDim of Bmk is done to set the array to the necessary size.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11969) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Getting the Names of Defined Bookmarks.