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MS Office Metadata – Microsoft Word Bookmarks
By Randall Farrar
“As for most people the difference between data and information is merely a philosophical one of no relevance in practical use. Existing definitions include: (1) Metadata is information about data. (2) Metadata is information about information”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microsoft Word has a powerful feature called Bookmarks. A Microsoft Word Bookmark tags a position or selection of text that you name for future reference in a document. Bookmark metadata is the actual reference in the document and its reference name. For example, you might use a bookmark to identify text that you want to revise at a later time. Instead of scrolling through the document to locate the text, you can go to it by using the Bookmark dialog box (Ctrl+Shift+F5).
Uses of Bookmarks
- Navigational reference
- Automation references for text placement
an example may be a dialog box that requests the user’s name and when the user clicks OK, the name is placed at the location of the bookmark.
- {REF bookmark} or {bookmark} field codes
The Ref is the name of a bookmark. The Ref field code will return all the text contained in the bookmark.
- {Ask bookmark} field code
The bookmark acts as a variable and holds the response from the user. Ask field codes are hidden.
- {BARCODE bookmark} field code
- {HYPERLINK \l "bookmark" )
- {IF bookmark …}
- {INCLUDETEXT “Filename or URL” bookmark} This field can be used to pull information into the current document from other files or a bookmarked range of text in other files.
- {NEXTIF bookmark…}
- {PAGEREF bookmark}
- {SEQ Identifier bookmark}
- {Set Text bookmark} This field code creates a bookmark and it is hidden.
- {SKIPIF bookmark...}
Types of Bookmarks
There are three types of bookmarks: non-hidden, hidden, and built-in hidden bookmarks. Built-in hidden bookmarks pose no metadata risk as Microsoft Word uses these bookmarks as reference points for field codes such as {TOC} (Table of Contents). Non-hidden bookmarks must begin with a letter and can contain numbers. Spaces cannot be included in a bookmark name. However, the underscore character can be used to separate words - for example, "Wikipedia_Ref1”
Hidden Bookmarks begin with an underscore – for example “_DV_C11”
Can Bookmarks be viewed?
There are two ways a user can view bookmarks. (1) Using the Bookmark dialog box, select the Hidden bookmarks checkbox as illustrated above. (2) Using Tools…Options…View and select the Bookmarks checkbox. This will place brackets ([ ]) around the actual bookmark, but will not show the reference name. The problem with hidden bookmarks is that unless the user knows how to view them properly they will never be seen, even if View Bookmarks is turned on, because the brackets will not show for hidden bookmarks.
How are Hidden Bookmarks Created?
Hidden bookmarks can only be created using automation such as VBA, VB, VB.Net or other automation languages.
VBA Code to Create Hidden Bookmarks
Sub CreateHiddenBK()
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add ("_DV_C1")
End Sub
How Bookmarks can represent Metadata Risk?
Bookmarks can be a metadata risk in two ways. Bookmark metadata risk fall into the following categories: “Identifier Metadata.” and “at risk” metadata.
An example of "Identifier Metadata" would be, if a user uses the firm name, acronym, or even a client's name as part of the bookmark's name. The document, theoretically, could be traced back to the person and firm who created the document, i.e., "tsst_Google_AgrmtDealPoint_1"
An example of “At Risk” metadata would be hidden bookmarks. Hidden bookmarks created by workflow applications such as Deltaview reveal reference changes, such as “_DV_C99” and identify where a text change occurred, much like Word's Track Changes. Users rarely know Hidden Bookmarks are in the document.
Other types of Metadata Risk
- {Ask bookmark} - hidden
- {HYPERLINK \l "bookmark" ) - can show references to files on remote servers.
- {INCLUDETEXT “Filename or URL” bookmark} - can be used to gain access to files on remote servers. The file font color can be changed to white with a point size of 1 and a user would never know it is in the document.
- {Set Text bookmark} hidden
How iScrub Manages Bookmark Metadata
iScrub can, depending on the firm’s metadata removal and management setting of “ScrubBookMarks” in the DetergentNet.xml scrub the bookmarks. iScrub will scrub both non-hidden and hidden bookmarks, but leave Microsoft Word’s built-in hidden bookmarks in the scrubbed document.
Rules for Bookmark Best Practice
- Know your bookmarks. Show users what bookmarks are, how to use them, and how to identify them.
- Know what bookmarks are in your internal organic documents (those documents living and created in the firm). Often a firm has automation to create, convert and compare documents that create extraneous bookmarks that should be removed, but are often left for others to view when the documents leave the firm (via email). If you have had any outside company convert your documents in the last five years, you should be aware of the bookmarks used during the document conversion.
- Use a metadata removal utility and metadata viewer such as iScrub or iDiscover (free download) to identify bookmarks in your documents. This tool must be available to all of your users.
Conclusion
Bookmarks are an effective and useful feature in Microsoft Word, and an effective tool when creating and working with documents. Firms should be aware of Bookmarks and the associated metadata risk. Firms should also teach best practices to mitigate any unnecessary bookmarks that are non-hidden and hidden when sending documents outside the Firm
If you would like more information on managing your metadata in Microsoft Office documents or would like to schedule a LIVE on-line demo with a metadata expert, please contact us at www.EsqInc.com.
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About Esquire Innovations
Esquire Innovations, Inc., a leading provider of Microsoft Office integration software services and applications for the legal market, counts more than 300 law firm clients in 110 cities utilizing its applications. Esquire Innovations has been developing, supporting, and selling document creation, formatting, re-purposing, comparing, and metadata management software applications in the legal industry since 1999. The product line includes iCreate, a template and macro product, iScrub, metadata management for Microsoft Office documents, iRedline, the redlining tool for Microsoft Word and Excel, and iDocID, a powerful universal document management system integrated ID stamper.
