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PDFToolz

Edit PDF Bookmarks

Add bookmarks to a PDF, or rename, reorder, nest and delete the ones it has. Find headings can create them for you.

Select a PDF file

or drop it anywhere on this page, or paste

Opens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Edit PDF Bookmarks, free and private

Edit PDF bookmarks or add bookmarks to a PDF that has none. This PDF bookmark editor loads the bookmark list from your file, lets you add, rename, drag, nest and delete entries, and shows the page each one opens next to the list. Find headings can build the whole list for you from the larger text on the pages.

Saving writes the bookmarks into the PDF and sets it to open with the bookmarks panel showing. The pages themselves are not changed, so text, images, links and form fields stay exactly as they were. Everything runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded.

How to add and edit PDF bookmarks

  1. 1

    Add your PDF

    Press Select a PDF file or drop it onto the page. Existing bookmarks appear as a tree, with sub-bookmarks indented under their parent. The page the selected bookmark opens shows large beside the tree, with a strip of every page under it.

  2. 2

    Add bookmarks to the PDF

    Press Add bookmark. A new bookmark for the page in the preview, called Page 5 for example, appears below the selected one. Type its real title straight away and press Enter.

  3. 3

    Set pages, order and levels

    Select a bookmark and pick a page from the strip, or type the page number in its row. Click the large page to set where on it the bookmark opens. Drag the handle to move a bookmark with its sub-bookmarks, and drag right or left to nest it or move it out. On a keyboard, Tab nests, Shift+Tab moves out and Alt with the arrow keys moves it.

  4. 4

    Save and download

    Press Save bookmarks, then download the PDF. The file name ends in -bookmarked and the PDF opens with the bookmarks panel in Acrobat Reader and other readers that support it.

Why use PDFToolz for this

Create bookmarks from headings

Find headings reads the text of every page and finds lines set at least 15% larger than the body text. The largest heading size becomes the top level, the next size level 2 and the next level 3. On upright pages, each bookmark opens just above its heading instead of at the top of the page.

A full bookmark tree editor

Double-click a bookmark or press Enter to rename it. Drag bookmarks to reorder and nest them, fold branches away, and delete them. Deleting a bookmark also deletes its sub-bookmarks. Undo and redo, with the toolbar buttons or Cmd+Z and Shift+Cmd+Z, step through every change, including a list replaced by Find headings.

See the page each bookmark opens

The selected bookmark's page shows large next to the tree, with a line where it opens on the page. The page strip renders as you scroll it, so you can start on a long book right away.

Standard PDF bookmarks

The tool writes a standard PDF outline, the same structure Acrobat creates. The bookmarks work in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on Mac, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and most mobile PDF apps.

How to add bookmarks to a PDF

Start with the top-level entries, such as one bookmark per chapter. Select the bookmark above the spot where the new one belongs, press Add bookmark and type the title. Then pick the page where that chapter starts from the strip, or type its number in the row.

For sections inside a chapter, add the bookmark below the chapter and press Tab, or drag it to the right, to nest it. Nested bookmarks fold away under their parent in the reader's bookmarks panel. Turn on Show every level expanded if readers should see the whole tree at once.

How Find headings works

The tool works out the body text size from the size used by the most characters in the document. A line becomes a heading when its text is at least 15% larger than that, has no more than 20 words and contains letters. Headings that wrap onto a second line are joined into one title.

Some large text is not a heading, so the tool skips it:

  • Running headers and footers, found as text that repeats on at least 3 pages and a quarter of the document.
  • Page numbers such as 12, Page 12 or 12 of 40.
  • A single line in the largest size on page 1, which is usually the document title.
  • Any heading size below the third largest, so the tree has at most 3 levels.

When headings are not found

Find headings needs real text. A scanned PDF is a picture of each page, so run OCR PDF first and then come back. Documents where headings are bold but the same size as the body text give no results, because size is the only signal used. In that case add the bookmarks by hand with Add bookmark.

Always check the list after Find headings. Large figure labels or pull quotes can appear as headings, and you can delete them with the bin button on their row or the Delete key.

What saving changes in the file

The old bookmark list is removed and the edited one is written in its place. Bookmarks you deleted are removed from the file itself. The PDF is set to open with the bookmarks panel showing whenever it has bookmarks. Saving an empty list removes all bookmarks, which is also how to remove bookmarks from a PDF.

Bookmarks whose page you did not change keep their exact position on the page. A bookmark you point at a new page opens at the top of that page, unless you click the preview to set where it opens. Bookmarks that open a website keep their link. A bookmark that points at no page has its page box outlined in red, and saving waits until you pick a page for it or delete it. Bookmark colors and bold or italic bookmark styles are not kept. Files that block printing or copying can be edited, and the saved copy no longer carries those restrictions. If the PDF asks for a password to open, remove it with Unlock PDF first.

Frequently asked questions

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