How to add bookmarks to a PDF so readers can jump to each section

In a 120-page report, finding section four means scrolling and guessing. Bookmarks — the clickable outline that appears in a PDF reader's sidebar — let a reader jump straight there. They take a few minutes to add and make a long document far more usable.

When bookmarks are worth adding

• Reports, theses and manuals with chapters or sections.
• Application packs and bundles merged from several documents.
• Course packs, handbooks and anything people will return to.

A two-page letter does not need them. As a rule of thumb, anything long enough to need a contents page benefits from bookmarks.

Add bookmarks step by step

1. Add the PDF to the PDF Bookmarks Editor. Any bookmarks it already has are read and listed.
2. Type a title for each entry and choose the page it should open.
3. Add as many entries as you need, or remove the ones you do not want.
4. Press Save bookmarks, then open the result in a reader to check the sidebar.

The document is edited in your browser and is not uploaded.

Do it last

A bookmark points at a page. If you merge in another document, delete pages or reorder them afterwards, bookmarks can end up pointing at the wrong place or disappear. Merging in particular does not carry the original documents' bookmarks across. So finish the document first:

1. Combine the files with Merge PDF.
2. Put the pages in their final order.
3. Add page numbers with Add Page Numbers to PDF.
4. Add the bookmarks.

Writing good bookmark titles

• Keep them short; the sidebar is narrow and long titles are cut off.
• Use the same wording as the headings in the document, so readers recognise where they land.
• Number them if the document numbers its sections: “3. Results”.
• One bookmark per chapter or major section is usually enough.

A flat list

The editor creates a single level of bookmarks rather than nested sub-entries. For most documents that is exactly what readers need, and it displays consistently in every reader. If you need deep nesting, it is best created in the program that produced the document, where headings can be turned into a nested outline automatically on export.

Editing existing bookmarks

Existing bookmarks are read in first, so you can correct a title or a page rather than starting over. Saving replaces the outline with whatever the list contains, so keep the entries you want in the list.

Where readers find them

Most readers keep the sidebar closed by default. In Adobe Acrobat Reader and the PDF viewers built into browsers, look for a sidebar or outline button near the top left. The bookmarks are in the file either way, and some readers open the sidebar automatically when a document has them.