Discussion on:

Use Word macros to save your place in a document

What a great trick. Thanks for sharing

Can't these be added to run on close and open document?
Thanks for sharing.

That's the most heavy-handed attempt at avoiding proper tools in word that I've ever seen. Just use the "INSERT BOOKMARK" feature. You can easily setup multiple points to jump around in your document. And there are built in key-strokes and toolbar buttons already created. You just have to use them.

The simplest bookmark is to simply close the document where you are working. When you return use CTL+F5 to return to that spot. As you work the document this "bookmark" shifts to the last place you worked. Useful for taking a break from the computer, or moving to a task in other software.

But this "solution" addresses moving to different spots in the document while you're working. The shortcut F5 doesn't really do that.

I did a lot of proofreading on my wife's papers when she was in graduate school. I often needed to inquire of her about meanings before I would change something. Simplest method I came up with was just to use 3 X's at the beginning of the word/phrase/paragraph/whatever. When I got with her and came back to it, Ctrl+F would find it (them, if multiples) immediately. It was so simple and fast, I would probably still use it.

I use a macro called "Find_zzz" to temporarily bookmark a place. This can be easily recorded if you have macros enabled, but you MUST use Advanced Find in the navigation pane. A simple Ctrl F find will not work.

For temporary place-holders (you can of course use as many zzzs as you want in a doc) this maybe a better option than using macros to insert and locate a bookmark.

Or paste the following into your macros module in VBA
Sub Find_zzz()
' Find_zzz Macro
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "zzz"
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
End Sub

The macros only work with one placeholder at a time, so I guess if you're working with multiple placeholders, this would work well, except, you have to remember to remove the zzzs, right?

i use a similar macro except that it also creates a copy of the document for me as well.

sure i could manually create a book mark and manually save myself a second copy of the document, and sure i could manually goto my book mark when i reopen the document. and of course i could also rely on words built in document back up feature.

but why do all this work when a simple button on the quick access toolbar can accomplish all of this and provide me with the added assurance that i am preserving my hard work?

try it out:

Sub SaveToTwoLocations()
Dim oDoc As Document
Dim strFileA As String
Dim strFileB As String
Dim strBackupPath As String
'Define the backup location
strBackupPath = "e:\Backups\"
On Error Resume Next
Set oDoc = ActiveDocument
With oDoc
'Mark the cursor position with a bookmark
.Bookmarks.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:="OpenAt"
.Save
strFileA = .FullName
strFileB = strBackupPath & "Backup " & .Name
.Close 'Close the document
End With
FileCopy strFileA, strFileB 'Copy the document
Documents.Open strFileA 'Reopen the original document

ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView
'and restore the cursor position
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("OpenAt").Select
End Sub

It's also possible to set Word to automatically make a backup copy (with a *wbk extension) of your document. That means that you have to save the document while you're working on it, but I do that automatically anyway because I've lost too many docs for a variety of reasons, so I'm pretty obsessive about making backups. But I like your creative and intelligent solution to two problems with one macro.

I'm an editor and work on up to 6 different papers every day. I have a macro called "Stopped here". The green words are highlighted in violet, a color I don't use for any other purpose. That's what works for me. I've been doing that for about 15 years. Yes, I have to delete those words. No, I don't have to do a "Find" search for them (but I can if I want to) because of the unique color, plus I usually remember approximately where I stopped in the paper (that's because I do it in installments, labeled section by labeled section, and then label and date each section that I email to my clients). Having to deal with an MS Word bookmark is too time-consuming for me. I use the bookmark function only when I need to ask the author to look at two different parts of the paper that don't appear on the same page and so can't be pointed to using a drawing bar arrow (which won't stretch across pages).

Press Alt > N > K

And it all there already in the Microsoft Office. isn't it?

A much simpler solution is to type an otherwise unused character, such as ` or ~ and then just search for it. I use it all the time.

Also, remember that when you close a document, Word places a token at the cursor position. When you reload the document, you can jump to that position with Ctrl-Alt-Z.

As someone mentioned earlier, why not use actual bookmarks ... or if you're using the Styles for Heading1-3 ... and have the View > Document Map on, you can easily jump to new sections in one click.

Why not just use the Bookmark function built into Word, then Control G to move to the bookmark(s)? One can use as many bookmarks as required as long as each has a unique name. No macros, no fiddling with VBE.

F5 is already built in to Word. It takes you back 3 edits. It also marks your place if you close out of a document. When you open the document again, F5 takes you to where you left off.

The macro proposed in this article is limited to the currently active document. On the other hand, if you create the macros by recording the actions that have the same effect, you can assign the macro to normal.dot and have them available in any document. For example, I recorded these 2 macros:

Sub BookmarkTemp_Insert()
'
' BookmarkTemp_Insert Macro
'
With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:=" Temp_Bookmark"
.DefaultSorting = wdSortByName
.ShowHidden = False
End With

End Sub


Sub BookmarkTemp_ReturnTo()
'
' BookmarkTemp_ReturnTo Macro
'
Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:=" Temp_Bookmark"
With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
.DefaultSorting = wdSortByName
.ShowHidden = False
End With

End Sub