Programmatically update bookmark text

You can insert text into a placeholder bookmark in a Microsoft Office Word document so that you can retrieve the text at a later time, or to replace text in a bookmark. If you are developing a document-level customization, you can also update text in a Bookmark control that is bound to data. For more information, see Bind data to controls in Office solutions.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and VSTO Add-in projects for Word. For more information, see Features available by Office application and project type.

The bookmark object can be one of two types:

• A Bookmark host control.

  Bookmark controls extend native Bookmark objects by enabling data binding and exposing events. For more information about host controls, see Host items and host controls overview.

• A native Bookmark object.

  Bookmark objects do not have events or data binding capabilities.

  When you assign text to a bookmark, the behavior differs between a Bookmark and a Bookmark. For more information, see Bookmark control.

Use host controls

To update bookmark contents using a Bookmark control

1. Create a procedure that takes a bookmark argument for the name of the bookmark, and a newText argument for the string to assign to the Text property.

   Note

   Assigning text to the Text or FormattedText property of a Bookmark control does not cause the bookmark to be deleted.

   C#

   static void BookMarkReplace(
       ref Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Bookmark bookmark, 
       string newText)
   {
   

   VB

   Shared Sub BookMarkReplace( _
       ByRef bookmark As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Bookmark, _
       ByVal newText As String)
   

2. Assign the newText string to the Text property of the Bookmark.

   C#

       bookmark.Text = newText;
   }
   

   VB

       bookmark.Text = newText
   End Sub
   

Use Word objects

To update bookmark contents using a Word Bookmark object

1. Create a procedure that has a bookmark argument for the name of the Bookmark, and a newText argument for the string to assign to the Text property of the bookmark.

   Note

   Assigning text to a native Word Bookmark object causes the bookmark to be deleted.

   C#

   internal void BookMarkReplaceNative(
       Word.Bookmark bookmark, 
       string newText)
   {
   

   VB

   Friend Sub BookMarkReplaceNative( _
       ByVal bookmark As Word.Bookmark, _
       ByVal newText As String)
   

2. Assign the newText string to the Text property of the bookmark, which automatically deletes the bookmark. Then re-add the bookmark to the Bookmarks collection.

   The following code example can be used in a document-level customization.

   C#

       object rng = bookmark.Range;
       string bookmarkName = bookmark.Name;
   
       bookmark.Range.Text = newText;
   
       this.Bookmarks.Add(bookmarkName, ref rng); 
   }
   

   VB

       Dim rng As Word.Range = bookmark.Range
       Dim bookmarkName As String = bookmark.Name
   
       bookmark.Range.Text = newText
   
       Me.Bookmarks.Add(Name:=bookmarkName, Range:=rng)
   End Sub
   

   The following code example can be used in a VSTO Add-in. This example uses the active document.

   C#

       object rng = bookmark.Range;
       string bookmarkName = bookmark.Name;
   
       bookmark.Range.Text = newText;
   
       Word.Document document = this.Application.ActiveDocument;
       document.Bookmarks.Add(bookmarkName, ref rng);
   }
   

   VB

       Dim rng As Object = bookmark.Range
       Dim bookmarkName As String = bookmark.Name
   
       bookmark.Range.Text = newText
       Me.Application.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add(Name:=bookmarkName, Range:=rng)
   End Sub
   

Related content

• How to: Programmatically insert text into Word documents
• Word object model overview
• Bookmark control