Random OLE Bookmarks

Summary: Word has an irritating habit of placing unwanted bookmarks in a document that you've been editing for a while. These bookmarks, which use the naming pattern OLE_LINK##, don't hurt anything, but they tend to clutter up a document after time. This tip explains how those bookmarks get in your document and how you can get rid of them. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

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 cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste operations. You can visually see the bookmarks if you turn the bookmark brackets (Tools | Options | View | Bookmarks), or if you choose Insert | Bookmark and examine the list in the Bookmark dialog box.

Microsoft provides no information in the Knowledge Base as to why these bookmarks are created, but they are a real bother to some people. They 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

Tip #321 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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