Home > Articles > Home & Office Computing > Microsoft Applications

Word 2003 Fields: Coping with Those Cantankerous Cross References and Bad-tempered Bookmarks

There are zillions of ways to get around in Word, but few of them are really efficient. Laurie Rowell explores two of the most time-saving and effective of Word's many options: bookmarks and cross-references that you can build right into your documents and use to jump from anywhere to the exact spot you want.

Choosing the best possible means for navigating your document can save you time, energy, and the pity of strangers. Years ago I worked for the better part of an afternoon with a non-technical client who could only move through a document by clicking the scroll bar—and only one tap at a time. Watching this "jump by tiny jump" progress was painful. She knew she could drag the scroll box to move quickly, but she felt it sacrificed control. I went home that evening on wobbly knees. I felt as if I had pulled her through that document physically with her arms and legs splayed wide to catch and stop at every obstacle.

While I believe in getting from place to place in my documents with solid control, I like to do it quickly. I use Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End to pop my cursor to the beginning or end of the document, respectively, or Ctrl+G (for Go To) and a page number to zip me to the page I want. Two fields are especially useful for this kind of speedy precision navigation: bookmarks and cross-references.

Why Bookmark?

Bookmarks let you jump around quickly to designated spots in a document. I use them on an informal basis to mark places that need more attention or require further research. After all, who wants to stop in the middle of a passionate burst of brilliant rhetoric to look up those pesky facts that you think you remember correctly? But it's easy enough when I pause for breath after drumming the keyboard to drop in a bookmark with a name like factcheckMattDamon. Then, when I have finished my text, I can address the bookmarks, deleting each as I resolve the relevant issue.

One place bookmarks can really automate your work is in marking documents that require frequent updating. If the text is long and requires periodic updates to the same sections, it's a good idea to set your bookmarks and cross-reference them on a single page of hidden text. Then all you need to do is reveal that hidden text, jump to your bookmarks one at a time, and hide the page again when you're finished.

CAUTION

Perhaps I should issue a gentle reminder at this point that bookmarks remain accessible in your document even when they're not being viewed. This means that any recipient eyeballing your electronic copy can display them. In the wake of the SCO legal embarrassment, some people routinely remove all hidden text features before sending documents on to other users. If either your situation or disposition requires this kind of caution, it's a simple matter to choose Insert, Bookmark, and then select the name of individual bookmarks, clicking Delete after each.

Finally, bookmarks make a sturdy anchor for text hyperlinks, which you create by cross-referencing them. More about that later.

A bookmark is a special kind of field—a bit peculiar, in fact. Changing the text inside a bookmark is no problem, right-clicking a bookmark doesn't bring up the Fields menu, and selecting a portion of a bookmark doesn't highlight the whole field. In fact, unless you choose to remove their cloak of invisibility, you can't see your bookmarks or tell where they begin or end.

To make your bookmarks appear, go to the Tools menu, choose Options, and then click the View tab in the Options dialog box. Select the Bookmarks check box. Brackets will immediately display, showing the delimitation of all bookmarks. These usually-invisible markers are important. You don't want to accidentally erase one when you're changing bookmark text. As you can imagine, avoiding them can be a challenge if you don't see them.

Now that you can see your bookmarks, here's how you go about grabbing one and setting it in place:

  1. Select the text you want to bookmark, or put the cursor at a suitable insertion point with no highlighting.

  2. On the Insert menu, click Bookmark.

  3. Type a name for the bookmark, something that you will recognize later. Don't include any spaces.

  4. Click Add.

Once you've inserted your bookmarks in a document, you can navigate to them by the following method:

  1. Press F5 (or Ctrl+G) to launch the Find and Replace dialog box with the Go To tab displayed, as shown in Figure 1.

  2. Figure 1Figure 1


     

  3. Choose Bookmark from the Go To What list and the name of a specific bookmark from the drop-down list.

  4. Click the Go To button. You can leave the dialog box open as you move from one bookmark to the next.

If you decide to remove a bookmark, there are two ways to go about it. The easiest is to navigate to your bookmark and press the Delete key or backspace over the bookmark, but this method also deletes any text that you highlighted when you inserted your bookmark. This is no real problem if you intended to delete that text anyway, or if it involves only a word that can easily be retyped.

For longer passages of bookmarked text, however, use Insert, Bookmark to open the dialog box, select the bookmark name, and click Delete. This method leaves all your text intact.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020