_Hlt Bookmarks (Word 2002)

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Does anyone know what the _Hlt hidden bookmarks are for? Under what conditions is one generated? What happens when they are deleted?

I’m trying to clean out the “old” bookmarks in a very large file to simplify generating a PDF. They don’t seem to “do” anything and removing them doesn’t cause obvious problems, but I’m worried that I might be doing internal damage that will cause headaches later.

Thanks ahead for help…

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Hi Kim:
They are created as hidden bookmarks when you create a hyperlinks. There may be other situations that create them, too, I can’t recall. They are recreated when you click on the hyperlinks again. Deleting them does not appear to harm the document in any way.

Cheers,

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Thanks for the reply. I was getting new ones and had no idea how they were being created. Just me being efficient using the TOC to get around the manual. Can I ask you where you found the info? I’ve been searching every source I could find for “_Hlt” with no Word-related hits.

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Trial & error–with error leading the pack–the way I learn most. I couldn’t find it documented anywhere either.

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In my experience two are created each time you click on a hyperlink. They are not created when the hyperlink itself is made, only when the hyperlink is clicked. To find out which hyperlink they are attached to, highlight the bookmark and click “Go To”. Their function is a mystery to me, since deleting them does not seem to cause any problems. Even more mysterious, these “_hitxxxx” bookmarks are deleted when their associated hyperlinks are deleted. Strange.

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You are correct, at least in Word 2003 (which I now have). Two hidden bookmarks are created at the exact character in the hyperlink that you have clicked. And two more will be created, even if you again click the exact same spot on the hyperlink.

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Maybe it’s to support the Back button on the web toolbar?

StuartR

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Hi Stuart:
That’s a good possibility. I never use the Web toolbar & when I put the back & forward buttons on, they didn’t become active. All my hyperlinks opened in a new browser window. I must have a setting somewhere that controls this, but I forgot what it is.

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If I follow three hyperlinks and then delete all the created bookmarks, the back button on the web toolbar can still step backwards through the links. Interestingly clicking the back button for the THIRD time appeared to reinstate some of the links! Go figure…

StuartR

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I don’t know what I have configured differently, but I just inserted a hyperlink in a document (linking from a word in a Normal paragraph to a Heading 1 in the same document), and when I control-clicked to follow the hyperlink it didn’t create any bookmarks.

StuartR (Word 2003 SP2)

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Hi Stuart:
Are you sure? I found that in order to show the hidden bookmarks, I had to open the bookmark dialog box, uncheck show hidden bookmarks, & then recheck it. Then the _hlt bookmarks appeared. Sometimes the hidden bookmarks show the first time I open the dialog box & sometimes they don’t. Weird.

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Phil,

How did you know. Although I had the option “Hidden bookmarks” checked, I cleared this and checked it again and they magically appeared!

StuartR

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My old tried & true method that I mentioned in post 132,314. I found another weirdness using hyperlinks in Office, but I think I should post it in WinXP, as it affects window minmax animation.

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A further comment about the deletion of these “_hit” bookmarks in Word 2003. If you create a hyperlink and then click on it twice, you will have four “_hit” bookmarks. If you right-click on the hyperlink and select “remove hyperlink”, the four hit bookmarks remain. However, if you then delete the *text* that was contained within the hyperlink, the four bookmarks are deleted.

So somehow these bookmarks are not attached to the hyperlink itself, but to the text that was contained within the hyperlink. I have heard of paragraph marks containing all sorts of things, but not text elements themselves. Also, as you mentioned below, I too have found that one needs to click the “hidden bookmarks” box once or twice to see them.

Still, the function of these remains a complete mystery. Any conspiracy theories out there? 🙂

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Upon further digging, I have more info on the creation and deletion of these hidden

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