Are you a Post-it fanatic? Do you usually keep a yellow highlighting marker nearby? If so, then you'll appreciate the Bookmark feature, one of the nice new additions to WordPerfect for DOS 6.0.

Bookmarks are position markers. You can place as many as you need and they are saved with your document. Like dog-eared pages in a magazine or stars drawn in the margins of a textbook, bookmarks will help you note important locations in your documents. It's fast and easy to jump to any of the locations you've marked.

There are two kinds of bookmarks. The "QuickMark" is automatic; by default it is created each time you save, at the cursor location. That makes it easy when you open a document to return to where you left off. Ctrl+F finds the QuickMark. Ctrl+Q resets the QuickMark to place it at the current cursor position -- handy as a temporary place marker.

The other kind of bookmark is not automatic; you set the location and name for each one you create. While there can be only one QuickMark, you may create as many named bookmarks as you like.

For example, while typing you may wish to mark spots where you need to add further details. To place a bookmark at the cursor position, press Shift+F12, the Bookmark key. (Alternatively, you may use the menus to select Edit, Bookmark, or use the Alt+F5/Mark Text key and choose 5/Bookmark.) Now choose 3/Create and type a name for this location, such as "add quote here". (Bookmark names may be up to 38 characters, and capitalization, punctuation, and spaces are okay.) To return to that location later, press Shift+F12, arrow down to "Add quote here", and press Enter. Voila, in a flash your cursor has been relocated.

If you are working on The Great American Novel, you may wish to mark the start of each chapter in your book. To do so, place your cursor at the beginning of chapter one and press Shift+F12. Now choose 3/Create and type "Chapter 1". Next move your cursor to the beginning of chapter two and place a bookmark called "Chapter 2". It's simple to repeat this task for each chapter.

To quickly move your cursor to the beginning of one of the chapters, press Shift+F12, arrow down to the desired bookmark, and press Enter.

A "Blocked" bookmark is handy for fill-in-the-blank forms. By highlighting text (with Block/F12) before you create a bookmark, it becomes a Blocked bookmark; later when you go to that bookmark, the text will be automatically highlighted. This makes it very easy to delete or copy the text.

An example of a Blocked bookmark is a form document you use as the kernel for your project reports. Each time you create a new report, you must edit the header which repeats the project name at the top of each page. A Blocked bookmark will make it a breeze to edit the header (or any buried text, such as a footer, text box, box caption, etc.).

To place a Blocked bookmark in a header, edit the header and type a place-holder description, such as "Project name", in the appropriate spot. Use Block/F12 to highlight the words "Project name". Now press Shift+F12 to bring up the Bookmark menu and select 3/Create. "Project name" will be offered as the suggested name for this bookmark; press Enter to accept it or type in a better name. Exit the header and save the document. The next time you use the document, press Shift+F12 and point to the "Project name" bookmark. Note that 2/Find and Block is now the default action. When you press Enter you will jump into the header edit screen and the words "Project name" will be highlighted for you. From there, it's easy to delete the highlighted text (with the Backspace or Delete key) and type in the actual project name.

Using Blocked bookmarks makes it easy to edit fill-in-the-blank information such as a document's revision date, author name, recipient, titles, headers, footers, captions, etc.

The Shift+F12 Bookmark menu has all the controls you need to manage your bookmarks. You may delete a bookmark using the menu, or by turning on F11/Reveal Codes to delete the bookmark code from your text. To move a bookmark, first place your cursor at the position to which you wish to relocate the bookmark, then press Shift+F12 and select Move.

A flexible tool, you may find the Bookmark menu just the place to list a document's road markers, frequently updated paragraphs, open items, or task list. With a little imagination, I'm sure you can find a use for bookmarks never envisioned by WordPerfect's programmers.