Getting Bookmark Information in VBA

Summary: Bookmarks are a handy way to "mark" locations within a document. If you are creating a macro that processes the document in some manner, it may be helpful for your macro to determine if the insertion point is within a macro and, if so, grab information about that bookmark. Here's the techniques you need in order to do this. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

Assuming the insertion point is located within a bookmark, John wonders how he can use VBA to discover the name of that bookmark and to select all the text within the bookmark.

There are a couple of tricks to keep in mind when working with bookmarks. First, it is best not to assume that the insertion point is within a bookmark. Instead, you can verify if it is within a bookmark by using the following code:

BkMkCount = Selection.Bookmarks.Count

When executed, BkMkCount will contain a value indicating the number of bookmarks. If you are expecting only a single bookmark, then you can verify that the variable is equal to 1 before you proceed with your code.

If you want to figure out the name of the bookmark, then you can use the following:

BkMkName = Selection.Bookmarks(1).Name

If you then want to select all the text in the bookmark, use the following:

Selection.Bookmarks(1).Select

To bring all these concepts together you can use a structure such as the following:

BkMkCount = Selection.Bookmarks.Count
If BkMkCount = 1 Then
    With Selection.Bookmarks(1)
        BkMkName =.Name
        .Select
    End With
End If

Tip #6557 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Getting Bookmark Information in VBA