2 Smart Ways to Show All Bookmarks in Your Word Document

In this article, we would like to provide you with 2 smart ways to show all bookmarks in your Word document.

Every once in a while, we insert bookmark for a selection of text that we want to revisit later. But the nature of bookmark in Word makes it uneasy to identify. In another word, we can’t view bookmarks directly without toggling some options in Word.    

This article is devoted to helping you see bookmarks in a clear way. You can pick either way to practice.

Method 1: Show Bookmark Brackets

1. First and foremost, click “File” tab in the Ribbon.
2. Then click “Options” to open the “Word Options” dialog box.
3. Next click “Advanced” in the left column.
4. Scroll down to “Show document content” section and check “Show bookmarks” box.
5. Finally, click “OK” to save the modification.

Now there are square brackets around bookmarked items. You can see these brackets are in grey color which is not so evident sometimes. And you may confuse them with normal square brackets.

Therefore, we want to recommend you a macro to highlight bookmarks as to stand them out in a better way.

Method 2: Highlight Multiple Bookmarks

1. To begin with, press “Alt+ F11” to invoke VBA editor.
2. Next click “Normal” project.
3. Then click “Insert” tab on menu bar and choose “Module” on drop-down menu.
4. And double click on new module to open its editing space on the right side.
5. Paste following macro there:

Sub HighlightBookmarkedItemsInADoc()
  Dim objBookmark As Bookmark
  Dim objDoc As Document
 
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
 
  Set objDoc = ActiveDocument
 
  With objDoc
    For Each objBookmark In .Bookmarks
      objBookmark.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
    Next objBookmark
  End With
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

6. Last but not the least, click “Run” or hit “F5”.

Next thing you see is all bookmarks are highlighted in green, such as below:

Above macro highlight all bookmarks in current active document. In case, there are several documents to process, you then need this macro instead:

Sub HighlightBookmarkedItemsInMultiDoc()
  Dim StrFolder As String
  Dim strFile As String
  Dim objDoc As Document
  Dim dlgFile As FileDialog
 
  Set dlgFile = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
 
  With dlgFile
    If .Show = -1 Then
      StrFolder = .SelectedItems(1) & "\"
    Else
      MsgBox "You need to select a folder first!"
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End With
 
  strFile = Dir(StrFolder & "*.docx", vbNormal)
 
  While strFile <> ""
    Set objDoc = Documents.Open(FileName:=StrFolder & strFile)
    Set objDoc = ActiveDocument
    With objDoc
      For Each objBookmark In .Bookmarks
        objBookmark.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
      Next objBookmark
    End With
    objDoc.Save
    objDoc.Close
    strFile = Dir()
 Wend
End Sub

Before running this macro, you have to put all target documents in the same folder. And running the macro shall trigger “Browse” window. Just pick the folder you store your documents.

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Author Introduction:

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