Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Random OLE Bookmarks.

Random OLE Bookmarks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 25, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 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 (but not all) cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste operations. You can visually see the bookmarks if you turn on 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. The 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(i).Delete
        End If
    Next J
End Sub

Running the macro won't bother any other bookmarks in your system. The only ones affected are those that start with the letters OLE_LINK.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (321) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Random OLE Bookmarks.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is seven less than 8?

2020-10-05 16:44:07

Ben Riker

Hi Allen,

Thanks for the macro. I found one slight typo, ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(i).Delete should have "J" as the index, not "i".

Ben

2018-06-05 17:24:59

Larhanya

Thank you for this! These OLE_LINKs make me nuts.

2018-01-11 16:59:56

Taylor Ralston

Thank you for the script. BTW, the variable in line 5 should be "J" not "i". It will then read:
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(J).Delete

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