Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 12, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
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
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6557) 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: Getting Bookmark Information in VBA.
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