Naming Sections in a Word Document

[BobSullivan]

I was asked the other day if you could name the sections in a Word document. The person that asked the questions said they had documents with lots of sections, and wanted to quickly refer to a particular section.

I don't think you can name sections, but I suggested an alternative. If you place a bookmark at the beginning of each section, with an appropriate name (like what you want to call the section), then you can navigate through a document by going to a bookmark, which is a de facto section name.

Thoughts or alternatives?

[macropod]

Bookmarks are fragile and vulnerable to inadvertent deletion.

Perhaps give each Section a title (in the document body), using one of Word's heading styles. That way, you can use either a Table of Contents or the Navigation pane to quickly go to whatever Section you're interested in.

[ChrisGreaves]

I was asked the other day if you could name the sections in a Word document. The person that asked the questions said they had documents with lots of sections, and wanted to quickly refer to a particular section.

I endorse Macropod's comments.
That said, I am slowly learning to ask clients questions in return(grin).
We might start with
(1) Why do you (the client) want to refer to a particular section?
(2) All sections or only specific sections?
(3) "Sections" as in section-breaks (Insert Break; Page Setup etc)?
(4) How do you want to refer to the sections?

I can come up with some nifty schemes to identify "chunks of text", maintained by the owner of the document and used interactively by several users. Such system generally evolve as documents based on a specific template which template contains VBA program code. Would your client be allergic to VBA code in a template or document?

Cheers, Chris

[BobSullivan]

We might start with
(1) Why do you (the client) want to refer to a particular section?
He told me he has lots of sections in this particular document, and wants to quickly go to a specific section in a document.

(2) All sections or only specific sections?
Don't know, I'm guessing any random section.

(3) "Sections" as in section-breaks (Insert Break; Page Setup etc)?
Yes, section breaks. I am unfamiliar with the the document in question, perhaps there's a better method. But I know he doesn't want the section name to be part of the document text.

(4) How do you want to refer to the sections?
Easier to go to a named section than to go to section 17 and find out you really wanted to go to section 19.

When you think about it, you can divide a PowerPoint presentation into sections, and name the sections. You can divide an Excel Workbook into worksheets and name the worksheets. Why can't you divide a Word document into sections and name the sections?

[HansV]

Using a Heading 1 paragraph at the top of each section has already been recommended, and I think it's by far the best option.

S1840.png

The text of the Heading 1 paragraphs is displayed in the Navigation Pane; they are clickable links.

[HansV]

If your user really doesn't want to use Heading styles, a less intuitive option is the Go To dialog (Ctrl+G).
It can be used to quickly go to any section by typing its number in the box and clicking Go To.

S1841.png

[Charles Kenyon]

More on the use of headings...

• https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/1 ... Styles.htm

• https://www.addbalance.com/word/navigation2010.htm

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/off ... 8511515e55

[Jay Freedman]

When you think about it, you can divide a PowerPoint presentation into sections, and name the sections. You can divide an Excel Workbook into worksheets and name the worksheets. Why can't you divide a Word document into sections and name the sections?

Quite simply, it's because sections in PowerPoint and worksheets in Excel have data structures that serve as names if you care to use them, but sections in Word (strictly speaking, the section breaks) don't have any such structure. Your client may consider that a design flaw, but "that's the way it has always been".

[macropod]

I know he doesn't want the section name to be part of the document text.

The headings can be any content already at the start of the Sections by which they can be identified; they don't have to be something else.