When reading long documents, especially educational text, tech power users will place bookmarks in strategic places in order to easily jump back to these areas. Choose a unique name for each bookmark so that each one is easy to identify. You may enter as many bookmarks in a document as you want.
Teacher’s Hint: Your student can place a temporary bookmark at the end of class. This bookmark may help the student quickly find his/her place in the text the next day. If the bookmark is not needed after the next class, remove it. Leave the bookmark if the student organizes notes by day – the bookmark may be beneficial when reviewing notes.
TSVIs should introduce bookmarks early with shorter passages as a way to navigate quickly to desired areas. This skill is also applicable to adding bookmarks in a book.
Creating a bookmark in Word using the Ribbon
Are you – the teacher – using bookmarks? Here are the steps to creating bookmarks in Word (without a screen reader).
- Select the desired text to be bookmarked
- In the ribbon, select Insert > Bookmark (some versions of word will have Bookmark under the Link tab)
- The bookmark dialog box will appear
- Type the desired name of the bookmark
- Must start with a letter
- Can use letters and numbers but NOT spaces
- Capitalize each word so that JAWS will read the words correctly. (Can use Underscore between words)
- Select the Close button
- Note: The dialog box will not close if the name of the bookmark is rejected.
To delete a bookmark
- Open the bookmark dialog button (see steps above)
- Click the name of the bookmark
- Select Delete
Jump to the Bookmark
- In the Ribbon, select the Insert > Bookmark
- The bookmark dialog box will appear
- Scroll through available bookmarks and select the desired bookmark
- You have the option to sort by Name or Location (default is to sort by Name)
- Select Go To
Creating a Bookmark in Word with JAWS
Efficient screen reader users will use keystrokes instead of the Ribbon. This is much more efficient for students who use a screen reader!
- Select the desired text to be bookmarked
- To select a word, position the cursor directly before the word to be selected and press Shift + CTRL + Right Arrow. This will select one word.
- To select multiple words, Hold Shift + CTRL and press right arrow for each word to be selected.
- Hold down the CTRL + Shift keys, press F5 key and then release all keys.
- Brings up the bookmark dialog box
- Type the desired name of the bookmark
- Must start with a letter
- Can use letters and numbers but NOT spaces
- Capitalize each word so that JAWS will read the words correctly. (Can use Underscore between words)
- Use the tab key several times to find the Add button
- When on the Add button, press spacebar to select
- Press Escape key to dismiss the dialog box
Jump to the Bookmark in Word with JAWS
- Press CTRL + Shift key and F5
- Use up or down arrow keys to navigate the list of available bookmarks
- Press the Enter key when you find the desired bookmark
- You will now be on the desired bookmark in the text
- When you launch the bookmarks dialog box, you can tab to two radio buttons that determine how the list of bookmarks in the dialog box are sorted: by name or by location
- After tabbing to the radio buttons use up or down arrow key to navigate to the desired radio button
