Working with Bookmarks

Bookmarks identify in a Microsoft Word document the locations or fragments that you name and identify for future reference. For example, you might use a bookmark to identify text that you want to revise later. Instead of scrolling through the document to locate the text, you can go to it by using the Bookmark dialog box.

The actions that can be performed with bookmarks using Aspose.Words are the same as the ones you can perform using Microsoft Word. You can insert a new bookmark, delete, move to a bookmark, get or set a bookmark name, get or set text enclosed in it. With Aspose.Words, you can also use bookmarks in reports or documents to insert some data into the bookmark or apply special formatting to its content. You can also use bookmarks to retrieve text from a certain location in your document.

Insert a Bookmark

Use startBookmark and endBookmark to create a bookmark by marking its start and end, respectively. Do not forget to pass the same bookmark name to both methods. Bookmarks in a document can overlap and span any range. Badly formed bookmarks or bookmarks with duplicate names will be ignored when the document is saved.

All white spaces in the bookmarks were replaced with underscores. This restriction came from Microsoft Word formats, since bookmarks in MS Word formats, like DOCX or DOC, cannot have white spaces. However, PDF allows such bookmarks. So now, if you need to use bookmarks in PDF or XPS outlines, you can use them with white spaces.

The following code example shows how to create a new bookmark:

Obtain Bookmarks

Sometimes it is necessary to obtain a bookmark collection to iterate through bookmarks or for other purposes. Use the Node.range property exposed by any document node that returns a Range object representing the portion of the document contained in this node. Use this object to retrieve a BookmarkCollection and then use the collection indexer to get a specific bookmark.

You can download the sample file of these examples from Aspose.Words GitHub.

The following code example shows how to obtain bookmarks from a bookmark collection:

The following code example shows how to get or set a bookmark name and text:

The following code example shows how to bookmark a table:

If you change the name of a bookmark to a name that already exists in the document, no error will be generated and only the first bookmark will be stored when you save the document.

Note that some bookmarks in the document are assigned to form fields. Moving to such a bookmark and inserting text there inserts the text into the form field code. Although this will not invalidate the form field, the inserted text will not be visible because it becomes part of the field code.

The following code example shows how to access columns of the bookmarked table:

Move to a Bookmark

If you need to insert rich content (not just plain text) into a bookmark, you should use moveToBookmark to move the cursor to the bookmark and then use DocumentBuilder’s methods and properties to insert content.

Show Hide Bookmark Content

The entire Bookmark (including the bookmarked content) can be encapsulated within the True part of the IF field using Aspose.Words. It can be in such a way that the IF field contains a nested Merge Field in the expression (Left of Operator) and depending upon the value of Merge Field, the IF field shows or hides the content of Bookmark in Word Document.

The following code example shows how to show/ hide bookmarks:

FAQ

Q: How can I verify that a bookmark exists before calling moveToBookmark?
A: Retrieve the document’s BookmarkCollection via doc.getRange().getBookmarks(). Use the contains method or check bookmarkCollection.get(bookmarkName) != null. Only call moveToBookmark when the bookmark is present to avoid an exception.
Q: Why does a bookmark disappear after I save the document?
A: Word formats (DOC, DOCX) do not allow white‑space characters in bookmark names. Aspose.Words automatically replaces spaces with underscores when saving. If you later look for the original name, it will not be found. Use names without spaces or retrieve the normalized name after saving.
Q: Can bookmark names contain special characters such as spaces or punctuation?
A: In Word documents, bookmark names may contain only letters, digits, and the underscore character. Spaces and most punctuation are stripped or replaced, which can cause the bookmark to be ignored. For PDF/XPS outlines you may use spaces, but the underlying Word bookmark must still follow the Word naming rules.
Q: How do I rename an existing bookmark without losing its content?
A: Obtain the Bookmark object, read its Text or Range, then remove the old bookmark with bookmarkCollection.remove(bookmarkName). Create a new bookmark with the desired name using DocumentBuilder.startBookmark(newName) and endBookmark(newName), and set its range to the previously saved content.
Q: How can I conditionally hide or show the content of a bookmark?
A: Wrap the bookmark’s content inside an IF field where the true part contains the bookmark and the false part is empty. Use the DocumentBuilder.insertField("IF { MERGEFIELD Condition } \"{ BOOKMARK MyBookmark }\" \"\""). By changing the value of the merge field, the bookmark’s content will be displayed or hidden when the document is rendered.

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