How to Explore and Navigate a Google Doc

Search & Navigate displays all your document’s headings, bookmarks, links, images and tables on separate tabs in the sidebar. Its instant search filters data by keyword on all tabs at once, and a separate tab lists every text match so you can jump to any part of the document.

Play video: How to explore your file in Google Docs

Start the add-on

Open the add-on from:

Extensions › Search & Navigate › Start

You’ll see the sidebar with 6 tabs for navigating the document.

Browse the document by headings

Open the first tab and the entire structure of your document appears as a tree. Expand or collapse any heading to see the levels beneath it:

The numbers below match the markers on the screenshot above.

1. Jump to a chapter

Point at any heading to see its level, or click it to jump to that chapter of the document.

2. Collapse

To see only first-level headings (H1), click Collapse. Click again to expand the list.

3. Refresh

To refresh the list, press Refresh at the bottom of the sidebar.

Work with bookmarks

The Bookmarks tab lists every bookmark in the order it appears in the document. Click one to jump to the place it refers to.

All bookmarks carry the same name by default, so each row shows the text it points at and you can tell them apart:

The numbers below match the markers on the screenshot above.

1. Manage a bookmark

The three-dots button gives you three ways to manage a bookmark:

• Rename — type a new name in the editable field and press Enter to confirm:

  

• Show link — get a link to the bookmarked place in the document:

  

  Tip

  Press Esc to close the link view.

• Delete — remove the bookmark.

2. Add a bookmark

Select the paragraph you want in the document and click Add at the bottom of the sidebar.

3. Refresh

Refresh at the bottom of the sidebar updates the list of bookmarks.

Handle links from the Google document

The Links tab lists every hyperlink in your document. Click any of them to jump to it in the text.

The three-dots button lets you open the URL in a new browser tab, or edit and copy it:

Refresh scans your document and updates the list of links.

Manage images or tables

Every image and table in the document is listed on its own tab, with the title taken from the text above it.

Select an image or table in the list and you jump straight to it in the document:

Find text

The Search field at the top finds a specific piece of text, bookmark, link, picture or table quickly. Enter a word and the add-on looks for matches across all tabs — all types of data — at once:

The number of matches appears under each tab icon.

Switch between the tabs to see the results in context:

• The headings tab highlights the searched text in yellow, and lists the found items within each section.
• The bookmarks, images and tables tabs show only the titles that contain the keyword.
• The links tab shows every URL containing the text.
• The last tab lists every occurrence of the word in the document text. Click a result to navigate to that sentence.

Set additional options

Four options let you adjust how the add-on works:

The numbers below match the markers on the screenshot above.

1. Auto-update

Automatically synchronise and update the list of headings, bookmarks, links, images and tables as the document changes.

2. Case-sensitive search

Take letter case into account when searching the document.

3. Titles from below the image

Use the text under an image, rather than above it, as the title shown in the list.

4. Wrap long headings

Wrap long heading titles across multiple lines in the sidebar list so they remain fully visible.