The Add button is unavailable in the Bookmark dialog box (201945)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Word 2002
  • Microsoft Word 2000
  • Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
This article was previously published under Q201945
This article is a consolidation of the following previously available article: 181534

SYMPTOMS

When you type a name that begins with the underscore (or other invalid) character in the Bookmark dialog box, the Add button is unavailable.

NOTE: To get to the Bookmark dialog box, click Bookmark on the Insert menu.

CAUSE

A bookmark name cannot begin with a number and cannot contain nonalphanumeric characters.

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
In Microsoft Word, you can create hidden bookmarks by beginning the bookmark name with an underscore character ("_"). However, when you begin a bookmark name using the underscore character ("_") while in the Bookmark dialog box, the Add button remains unavailable (dimmed). However, you can programmatically create a hidden bookmark. Although the hidden bookmark does not show in the list of available bookmarks, you can still issue commands that use the bookmark.

Creating a hidden bookmark programmatically does not display an error message that the bookmark name is invalid.

NOTE: Beginning in Word 97 for Windows and Word 98 Macintosh Edition, you can view hidden bookmarks by selecting the Hidden Bookmarks check box in the Bookmark dialog box.

The following sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro (Sub procedure) demonstrates how to create a hidden bookmark in Word.

Sub CreateHiddenBookMark()

   Dim bmark As String

   ' Input box to request bookmark name.
   bmark = InputBox("Type a bookmark name preceded by an underscore")

   ' Add the bookmark name.
   ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add (bmark)

End Sub

REFERENCES

For more information about how to use the sample code in this article, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

212536 How to run sample code from Knowledge Base articles in Office 2000



For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

226118 List of resources that are available to help you learn Visual Basic for Applications programming

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/27/2005
Keywords:kbbug kbdtacode kbmacroexample kbnofix KB201945
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