Setting a VBA Variable From a Bookmark

Summary: Bookmarks are a great way to mark a memorable place in a document. When processing a document using macro, you may want to assign some bookmarked text to a variable. This tip explains how to retrieve the desired bookmark information. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

As part of a macro, you may have a need to work with information stored in a bookmark. For instance, you may need to extract the text in a bookmark, assign it to a variable, and then do some processing based on the variable contents.

There are two ways you can assign the contents of a bookmark to a variable in a VBA macro. The first is to simply jump to the bookmark and select it, then make the variable equal to the contents of the selection. The following code lines will perform this action for a bookmark named MyBookmark:

Dim sMyString As String
Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="MyBookmark"
sMyString = Selection.Text

If you don't want to change the selection within the document, you can also simply work with the Bookmarks collection maintained by Word. Assuming you still need the contents of the MyBookmark bookmark, the following code will do the trick:

Dim sMyString As String
sMyString = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmark").Range.Text

Tip #1595 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Step Up and Take Control! Subscribers to WordTips know just how valuable a resource it is. WordTips Premium provides twice the number of exceptional, easy-to-understand tips every week in an ad-free newsletter, as well as substantial discounts on WordTips archives and e-books.

Check out WordTips Premium today!