How to Create and Use Google Docs Bookmarks

Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others.

When working in Google Docs, having a linked table of contents or some way to jump to bookmarks in the document can make navigation easier—especially when you’re dealing with large documents. Google Docs bookmarks can also be used to link to specific places in other documents, or they can be shared individually. Here’s how to use bookmarks in Google docs, including creating, removing, and sharing them.

How to Add a Bookmark in Google Docs

Adding a bookmark in Google Docs is really a two step process. First you have to add the bookmark, then link to it from other places in the document or from within other documents.

1. First, find and select the text you want to use as the bookmark.

Select Insert from the menu at the top of the page.

Select Bookmark.

A blue ribbon will appear to the left of the selected text to show where the bookmark was added.

How to Link to Google Docs Bookmarks

Once you’ve added a bookmark to the text in your document, the second part of creating a bookmark takes place—linking to that bookmark. It’s as easy as adding a hyperlink, but instead of linking to a web page, you’ll link to the bookmark you just added.

1. Select the text you want to be able to click to jump to a bookmarked spot in your document.

Select Insert >Link.

In the menu that appears, select Bookmarks, then select the desired bookmark from the list that appears.

Select Apply and the anchor text will become underlined and blue and a menu appears beneath it. The next time you select that link, it will take you to the bookmark you placed during the first part of the exercise.

Use Google Docs Bookmarks to Link to Another Doc

Another way to use Google Docs bookmarks is to link from one document to another. For example, if you have two docs, and there is a section of one that you want to link to from the other, you can use a bookmark to open that doc and jump straight to the correct section.

To use a bookmark to link two documents, you must own or have editing access to both documents. Anyone else who accesses the document with the link in it will also need to have access to both documents. You can grant that access by sharing them from Google Drive.

1. Open both Google documents.

Once you’ve created the bookmark, a small menu appears below the bookmark with two options: Link and Remove.

Right-click Link, then select Copy Link Address.

You can copy this link at any time, and you can share the link via email or other digital messaging formats. Users who receive the link will have to be granted permission to access the document, but once they are, the link will lead them to that exact spot in the document.

How to Remove Google Docs Bookmarks

Over time, documents change, and you may find that you need to delete a Google Docs bookmark at some point. It’s easy to do, both from the bookmark and the link.

To delete the bookmark, select the blue bookmark flag and in the menu that appears, select Remove. Then, to remove the bookmark link from the text, highlight the link and select the Remove Link option in the menu that appears. Be sure to highlight the entire link because only the highlighted portion of the link will be removed.

There’s also a pencil icon that allows you to edit the link if you need to change it or replace it with a different link.