1 WHAT IT IS
Bookmarks let you build Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) templates that automatically fill in with data from Bizzmine when a document is generated. A bookmark can represent a field from a form, metadata from the document record (author, revision date), related collection data, or a special system value — when the document is generated, each bookmark is replaced with the corresponding value. Bookmarks only work in Word and Excel files; no other document format supports them.
2 WHO IT'S FOR
Audience: Admin Reading time: 12 min
This article is for admins or document owners who build and maintain Word or Excel templates for a collection, and who need to enable the setting that makes Bizzmine actually replace the bookmarks when a document is generated.
3 PREREQUISITES
You'll need access to Microsoft Word or Excel to edit the template file, and the collection whose data you want to pull in already built with the fields you need. For relations, you'll also want to check the collection's Data Design to confirm the exact field names, collection codes and relation names — the naming rules in this article depend on getting those exactly right.
4 HOW IT WORKS
Part 1 — Understand bookmark naming
Every field on a form has a base bookmark, in the pattern {Collection}_{FieldName}. For example, a field called "Company" on the Customer collection has the base bookmark Customer_Company — when the document is generated, that bookmark is replaced with whatever was entered in the Company field.
Suffixes
Add a suffix after the base bookmark to change its behavior:
| Suffix | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
_{index} |
Duplicate index, when the same field appears more than once in the document | Customer_Company_1 |
_color |
Enable conditional color styling | Customer_Company_color |
_nocolor |
Disable conditional color styling (useful inside tables) | Customer_Company_nocolor |
_w{pixels} |
Image width, in pixels (for image/canvas bookmarks) | Customer_Signature_w500 |
_h{pixels} |
Image height, in pixels | Customer_Signature_h350 |
Color styling rules
Styling is off by default outside Word tables, and on by default inside Word tables — use _nocolor to turn it off inside a table. It's only supported for Numeric, Combobox and RadioGroup field types.
Image sizing rules
You can combine width and height, e.g. Customer_Signature_w500_h350. If only width is set, height is calculated to keep the aspect ratio (and vice versa) — if both are set, height takes priority and width is recalculated from the aspect ratio.
Combining suffixes
Suffixes follow this order — _w and _h can appear in either order, but the duplicate index must always come last:
Valid examples: myfield, myfield_1, myfield_color, myfield_color_1, myfield_w500, myfield_w500_h350, myfield_nocolor_w500_h350_2.
Part 2 — Add bookmarks to a Word document
| 1 | Decide what information should appear — e.g. title, version number, version date. |
| 2 | Open the Word document and choose where each value should go — headers, footers, the body, or inside a table all work. Turn on Word's Show Bookmarks option so you can see them as you go. |
| 3 | Insert the bookmark. Place your cursor where the value should appear, go to Insert → Bookmark, type the exact bookmark name as defined above, and click Add. With Show Bookmarks on, it appears as grey brackets. Repeat for every bookmark you need. |
| 4 | Upload the template to Bizzmine and make sure Bookmark Interaction is enabled (Part 4). When the document is downloaded from Bizzmine, the bookmarks are automatically replaced with the field values. |
Part 3 — Add bookmarks to an Excel file
| 1 | Decide which fields should appear in the spreadsheet. |
| 2 | Select the cell where the value should appear, click into the Name Box (top-left, where the cell reference like A14 normally shows), type the bookmark name over it, and press Enter. |
| 3 | Verify it worked — click another cell, then click back. If it worked, the Name Box shows the bookmark name instead of the cell reference. |
Part 4 — Enable Bookmark Interaction
Bookmarks in an uploaded template only get replaced if Bookmark Interaction is switched on — you can enable it at the collection level, or in the document settings of an individual document record.
Turning it on after publishing doesn't retroactively update existing documents. If you enable Bookmark Interaction after a document was already published, edit the record and save it again to trigger the replacement — then check the History to confirm the bookmarks were replaced.
Part 5 — Special bookmarks and relations
Signed audit steps
Available bookmarks: AuditLogsID, EventType, Name, Version, ExecutedBy, CompletedDate.
Checklists
Use the relation name of the linked collection defined in Data Design as the bookmark — for example main_questions_cl.
Reversed relations
Insert a table: column titles in the first row, then in the second row insert bookmarks using {collection code} + {base bookmark}.
One-to-many relations
Insert a table: column titles in the first row, then the base bookmarks of the related collection's fields in the second row. You'll find these in the Data Design of the main collection once the relation has been created.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use bookmarks in PowerPoint?
No — bookmarks only work in Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) files.
Bookmarks from a memo field show up in a different font than the others — why?
A memo field is saved as HTML in Bizzmine, so any font, size or color changes made while filling it in are saved along with the text — and carry over when that field is used as a bookmark, even if you never touched the formatting in the template itself.
How do I add the same bookmark more than once?
Add it the same way as the first time, but with an underscore and a number at the end. If collection_versiondate is already used once, the second one is collection_versiondate_1.
I enabled Bookmark Interaction, but nothing changed on my existing document?
Enabling it after publication doesn't touch documents already generated. Edit and save the record again to trigger the replacement, then check the History to confirm it happened.
5 RELATED ARTICLES
6 NEXT IN TRACK
Document bookmarks track — next article
Generating a Word or Excel Report — End User Guide →
No, bookmarks can only be used in Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx).
A memo field is saved as HTML in BizzMine. This gives the option to already change the font, the font size, color… while filling in the field. This means that these settings are already saved in BizzMine and will be used when this field is used as a bookmark. Even without adjusting the format in BizzMine it can appear different in the template.
If you want to use the same bookmark multiple times in your document or your worskheet, you will need to follow the same steps as you do for adding the bookmark for the first time. Only difference is that now instead of just using the name of the bookmark, you'll have to add an underscore and a number.
E.g. If "collection_versiondate" has been added already one time to your document, the bookmark you can use to add it a second time should be "collection_versiondate_1"
When you enabled the bookmark interaction in the document settings after publication, the bookmarks won't be replaced. BizzMine needs to be triggered in order to replace the bookmarks. Therefor you should click on edit and save the record again. Check the history to verify whether the bookmarks have been replaced.