Google Docs: Linking Within a Document

Lesson 29: Linking Within a Document

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Linking within a document

Links usually take you outside of Google Docs. But you can also link one part of your document to another, and go to any point you desire by using headings and bookmarks.

Watch the video below to see how you can link different parts of your document.

Linking to a heading

Headings tend to be used at the beginning of a section, and you can link to them in a few quick steps. To learn more about creating headings, take a look at our Text Styles lesson.

Let’s link some text to a heading called New Client Overview:

Highlight the desired text.
Right-click it, and select Link.
Open the Headings drop-down menu, and choose the heading you want to link to.
Click Apply to create the link.
To use the link, click it, then click the heading name.

Creating a bookmark

What if you want to link to a specific point in your document, like a statistic or key fact? You can use bookmarks, and you can place them almost anywhere: on a blank space, a block of text, or an image.

Here's how to create a bookmark in Google Docs:

Highlight your desired content. In this example, it's a statistic in a table.
Click Insert, then select Bookmark.
A small bookmark icon will appear to the left of your selection.

Linking to a bookmark

Now let's link some text to the bookmark we just created:

Select the relevant text.
Right-click the text, then select Link.
Click the Bookmarks drop-down menu, and select the bookmark you want to link to.
Click Apply to complete the link.

Shareable links and bookmarks

You can even create a shareable link that goes directly to the bookmark. Just click the bookmark icon, right-click the word Link, and select Copy link address. You can give that link to anyone who has permission to access your document.

A cursor hovers over the Copy link address option within a Link drop-down menu.

All of these links will still work even if you download your Google Doc as a PDF file or Word document. Whether you’re online or not, linking to headings and bookmarks can help make key information easier to find.