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If I have shared a Google Doc with someone so we both can edit it, is there a way I can send that purpose a URL that, when clicked, takes that person to the Google Doc and scrolls down to a particular position? e.g.:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWJy3jZ323434343TBndDlqM3Y3dg&hl=en&target=Section%203

this example would search for and find the text "Section 3"

Is there a way to do this kind of deep linking into Google Docs?

6 Answers 6

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Create a bookmark (insert -> bookmark). Then you can add #name_of_bookmark to the end of the url.

eg: http://docs.google.com/document/d/15xm3Bx4Elnjbg0VNY#name_of_bookmark

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  • 2
    Looks like Google Docs has deprecated bookmarks, tried this just now and no Bookmark option in the Insert dropdown: i.snag.gy/jztlZ.jpg
    – fusion27
    Aug 5, 2014 at 13:59
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    @fusion27 it appears your screenshot is from a Spreadsheet. The Bookmark menu item still appears in Google Document as of today. Jan 7, 2015 at 17:52
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    The bookmark link is not shareable (it the person uses multiple accounts, e.g. personal and business, they need to choose which account to use to open the document which is annoying.). You can take the bookmark part and add it to the shareable link manually though. Mar 30, 2016 at 9:45
  • That only works if you have access to edit the document. It would be very beneficial for anyone to be able to link to a page, e.g. docs.google.com/document/d/15xm3Bx4Elnjbg0VNY#page30
    – jowie
    Feb 14, 2019 at 9:16
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You can do the same thing with headers as you can with bookmarks without creating a Table of Contents.

Put the cursor on the header itself, then look at the address bar of your browser. It should change to update the fragment (hash - #) at the end like #heading=h.abc32def4 -- this should correspond to the link created in the Table of Contents. Copy that entire url and use wherever needed.

(from a similar question)


Update: the 'Insert Link' dialog now presents a list of headings, reducing the number of actions required:

enter image description here

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Wanted to confirm that this works in Google Docs. Thanks so much for the answers in this thread.

What you do is highlight the portion you'd like to be linked in your document internally. Then, open up the "Insert" drop-down and click "Bookmark". That portion now will show up as an option when you want to link it elsewhere in the document. You can link it by clicking the link icon or going to "Insert" and clicking "link". In the options you should see "bookmarks" click it and then you can link it to the respective bookmark.

When you save the doc as a PDF those bookmarked links are now hyperlinked to where you want internally within the document.

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For Google Sheets, right click and select Get link to this cell (see below screen shot). Now you'll have the URL with an anchor appended to the end in your system clipboard (URL#gid=0&range=B52). When you visit this anchored link, the browser focus will be on the cell you linked to, e.g., B:76 in the below screen shot.

enter image description here

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  • Asker was asking about Docs, not Sheets.
    – ale
    Mar 14, 2018 at 14:38
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After you've got the headings in the document and formatted as such, do Insert > Table of Contents. It will add a TOC to the document with clickable links. Note that you can remove the TOC and the links are still valid. You can also insert bookmarks rather than a TOC.

It isn't a search feature though. If you look at the link that gets generated, it isn't something you'd be able to guess or manipulate.

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I just tried this with a bookmark named 'Bookmark9/10'. It didn't work.

Looking at the header example, I realized that isn't what was needed.

I inserted a link to the bookmark within the same document and then clicked on this link I saw bookmark=id.iqgsajlrwjl9 When I pasted that whole string (not just 'id.xxxxx') in after the # in the url to another document, it worked. I note this thread goes back several years. Today is 9/11/2014.

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