How to Add PDF Bookmarks and Navigate Long Documents.

Imagine you're writing or reading a comprehensive report or research paper, a procedure or product manual, or an engaging and thrilling e-book. If it’s a long document, without bookmarks, you might find yourself endlessly scrolling and searching for that one important section, critical piece of information, or chapter you want to return to. But when you have bookmarks in a PDF, your document becomes a more engaging and efficient experience to navigate.

Learn how to add bookmarks to a long PDF with Adobe Acrobat to make them easy to read.

Image showing different styles of bookmarks in red.

What you’ll learn

The benefits of adding bookmarks to PDF files.

The benefits of adding bookmarks to PDF files are many — whether you’re a creator of PDF files or a reader.

Adding bookmarks to PDFs is like adding a roadmap to a long document — PDF Bookmarks are your digital signposts. They’re a type of link accessible from within your PDF that will take you directly to specific destinations in the document. Bookmarks allow you, and your readers, to view PDF files and navigate through long documents by a quick click, rather than scrolling and skimming, to get to specific sections and pages.

PDF bookmarks —

How to create PDF bookmarks — step by step

Bookmarks can be created in PDFs in a few ways.

  1. Create PDF bookmarks automatically when you convert files to PDF.
    When you convert files to PDF the conversation process automatically creates bookmarks from your formatted headings and file names and converts them to bookmarks. Before you convert a Word document to PDF, make sure you have used logical structure for dividing your content into chapters and sections and used heading styles consistently throughout.
    To show you what this looks like, for example, below is a business proposal template that has been converted from Word to PDF. By clicking on the bookmark icon in the righthand navigation options, you can see the bookmarks in this PDF that were automatically created by the document conversion process.

    Screenshot showing bookmarks created in a business proposal template during the Adobe Acrobat conversion process.

  2. Create PDF bookmarks automatically when you merge or combine PDF files.
    Similarly, when you use an Adobe Acrobat application to combine or merge multiple PDF files online, the conversation process will convert the file names into top-level bookmarks, and then the section headings into the next level down.
    In the example below, three PDF templates have been merged into one file. Clicking on the bookmark icon on the right-hand side shows the document conversion process has created the top-level bookmarks from the file names of the three files. The headings in the documents are dropped down or nested in the bookmark hierarchy under the filename.

    A screenshot that shows an example of a PDF bookmark hierarchy created from combining multiple PDFs into one PDF file.

  3. Create, add or edit bookmarks in a PDF file.
    When you want to add bookmarks to a PDF file using Adobe Acrobat, simply —

Screenshot showing the panel for editing the name of a PDF bookmark in Adobe Acrobat.

  1. Change the appearance of PDF bookmarks.
    To change the appearance of PDF bookmarks using Adobe Acrobat, simply —

    • Use your mouse to highlight the bookmark you want to change
    • Right-click, and select Properties or select the icon with three dots in the bookmark panel to select Properties
    • Change the font size, and colour in Properties
    • You can also set actions such as playing a sound from here and change the bookmark destinations.

  2. Move PDF bookmarks and create hierarchies.
    You can move bookmarks around, so they show in a particular order in your PDF. You can also nest bookmarks to show a relationship between topics or create a hierarchy of bookmarks on a page. The pages in your PDF stay in the same place, but the bookmarks are presented in the order you want them.

    • To move bookmarks, simply drag and drop them or cut and paste them to the order you want them in the bookmarks panel.
    • To create a hierarchy or nest of bookmarks, drag the icons underneath the parent or top-level bookmark icon. It will show as indented in the bookmark panel structure.

  3. Test your PDF bookmarks.
    Always test your PDF bookmarks after creating them to ensure they work correctly!

    • Start by clicking on each bookmark in the bookmarks panel to check that it takes you to the correct location in your document.
    • Test sub-level bookmarks to confirm that they expand and collapse as intended.
    • If you encounter any issues, return to the bookmarks panel, right-click on the problematic bookmark, and edit its properties.

Other PDF navigation tools and features.

Along with bookmarks and standard methods of scrolling, there are a few other tools and features you can use directly from the navigation pane to help with viewing PDF files and finding your way around long PDF documents.

Take a through our free trial of Adobe Acrobat Pro or the tools and features available in Adobe Acrobat Online to explore some of the tools and features you might be able to add to your PDFs to enhance their readability.

Screenshot showing a page thumbnail view from a long document open in Adobe Acrobat.

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  • You can add comments, bookmarks, and view thumbnails.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
  • This shows you what page you are on in your document. Simply click in the box and change the page number to go to another page.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
  • Use the up and down arrows to click up and down one page at a time.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
  • This button with an arrow will rotate your pages.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
  • Click on the 1:1 button to change how your PDF is displayed – single page, two pages, actual size, fit to width, height, or visible content.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
  • Use the plus and minus magnifying glasses to zoom in and out of PDF on screen.
Screenshot of the default page navigation toolbar in Adobe Acrobat.
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Related Content.

Keep learning! Check out some of our other articles —

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How to add PDF bookmarks and navigate long documents.
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Discover the different ways you can add bookmarks to PDF files and change their appearance to make it quick and easy to navigate long documents using Adobe Acrobat.
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Image showing different styles of bookmarks in red.
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