How to add PDF bookmarks using Acrobat X or Acrobat XI

Hi Jon Cook,

Good suggestion, thanks for taking the time to post.

Lori

The article is good as far as it goes. However, it is quite easy to insert bookmarks automatically. In the Bookmarks panel, pull down the Options menu at the top and choose “New Bookmarks from Structure.” This requires the document to have been created from a Word doc with headings.

If it was created from a doc without headings (but not a document scanned as images, ie, without character recognition), click Settings >Tools > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document and Acrobat will try to infer headings. Both these are in X - I presume they are similar in later versions. This option may require quite a bit of editing/moving of bookmarks, but still usually quicker than inserting them one by one as suggested by the article.

Hi Mitch,

Does this happen on all PDFs with bookmarks and links? Are you viewing the PDF in a browser? If so, make sure you’re using the Adobe Reader Plug-in and not a native plugin (i.e., Firefox PDF plug-in) as these don’t support all the interactive features of PDF files.

Thanks,
Lori

Hi ansar,

Can you give us some background on what version of Acrobat/Reader you’re using and what OS?

Thanks,
Lori

I just bookmark pages of pdf file
after that I change the location of the file
the bookmarks of the file is not there anymore
can u plz help me with that??

Ansar

I recently installed Adobe Acrobat Pro XI.  I see the bookmarks, but the navigation won’t work.  Links in the document don’t function either. 

Any solutions?

Hi Patricia Heil,

You need Acrobat and not just the free Reader to create bookmarks. Once the bookmarks are in a PDF, you can navigate with them using just Reader.

Thanks,
^LK

I have a fresh new computer with a virgin copy of Acrobat Reader XI.0.0.  It does not have the buttons shown in the tutorial.  It does not respond to Control B.  At all.  I checked for upgrades and applied the MUI upgrade offered to me.  I had added bookmarks to this file when I was using Acrobat Reader 10.  It’s a long document and I don’t want to keep losing my place.  I have now restarted my computer after applying the upgrades.  Still no bookmark capability.

Hi Bat Masterson Jr.,

You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + B to create a bookmark. If you wants to give it a name at the same just select some text and use the keyboard shortcut.

Thanks,
Lori

Here’s an idea: Let a user right-click on a page, and select a “bookmark page” item.  I know it sounds radical, but give it some thought.

I have a .pdf file, from a 3rd party.  ALL I want to do is mark the most recent page that I have read, so I can jump to that one the next time I open the document.

WHY does Adobe make this so confusing?  I still don’t get it.  Have pretty much given up trying.

Hi anushree,

You can add bookmarks to scanned PDF documents. To have the bookmark open other PDF files, just edit the bookmark properties.

Thanks,
Lori

hi,can i add bookmarks to a scanned document using adobe XI?i need to have a layered pdf document.eg an introduction bookmark could open up to 2 pdfs.pls let me know asap.thanks.anushree

Hi Karl,

The only thing I can think of that would disallow bookmarking, is security or a digital signature. Do you see a lock icon in the left-hand panel or a blue ribbon at the top of your document?

Thanks,
Lori

I have Adobe Acrobat XI,I have this one PDF that for lack of a better description, will not let me bookmark, none of the features in bookmarks are activated.  Am I doing something wrong or is there something imbedded in the pdf that will bot allow that function? If so can I override it?

Hi Andy,

Sorry to hear you’re having problems. As an alternative, you can access the entire transcript of the video tutorial by clicking on the View Transcript link just below the video window.

Thanks,
Lori

Message: “Gain unprecedented creative control with new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10.2.”

Tutorial don’t work in Flash Player 10.3.193.90

Hi Jack -

Yes, definitely. Bookmarks have been in Acrobat for many versions. You can add them via the Bookmarks panel.

donna.

Hi Sherry -

I definitely agree with you. Bookmarks are such a basic navigation method, and I always look for them, too.

You’re welcome - I’m glad the articles helped.

donna.

Large PDF documents that do not have bookmarks are a pet peeve of mine. So I wanted to say thanks for the articles on bookmarks. I hope more people use them in their documents.

I have Acrobat Pro 9.  Can I do bookmarks with this version?

Thank you Lori Kassuba!

Hi Khuldoon Hameed,

All you need to do is create the bookmarks for the subsection and then drag them to the right under the Chapter bookmarks to create a subset in the bookmark navigation pane.

Thanks,
Lori

your tutorial is good i want to know how can i add sub catagories to bookmarks for examople

chapter number one have 5 section i want to put them in sub catagory of chapter number one how to do that
Regards

Hi Ivan -

No, you can’t copy bookmarks across books as the coding is different from book to book. You can use named destinations, which are the best if you intend to change any content in the book as they always lead to the same named location, just like an anchor on a web page.

I recommend you explore the JavaScript forum on Acrobatusers.com to see if there’s anything already listed there you could use, or post to that forum for assistance.

donna.

Most books I publish using Acrobat Pro have the same structure.

How can I copy bookmarks structures across books. Can you save bookmarks and copy into another document/book? At the moment I have to create the bookmarks by hand and link 1 by 1 to using set destination. Is there a script I could use to import/export bookmarks?

Do you have example javascripts to open a page by match text in the bookmark. Something like “open page with matching string”.

Hi ealvarado,

Bookmarks and OCR are only available in Acrobat and not the free Reader.

Thanks,
Lori

Is this feature only available in the paid versions of Acrobat, or can someone add bookmarks using the free version?  What about the OCR feature?

Good and clear presentation.

Thank you very, very, very much for posting this.  It was very helpful!

Hi Marko -

Thanks for posting. I’m happy the tutorial met your needs.

donna.

I’m very please with this tutorials. At last I found here what I was looking for that makes my day.