Overview
Convert Bookmarks to Named Destinations reads the bookmark tree and creates a named destination at each bookmark’s target location. Named destinations are reusable targets that can be referenced by bookmarks, links, or scripts. You control filtering, naming rules, and how existing destinations are handled.
How to use
- Open a PDF that contains bookmarks.
- Go to Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > Convert Bookmarks to Named Destinations.
- Apply filters to limit which bookmarks are converted.
- Set name options (prefix, suffix, sanitise, deduplicate).
- Choose how to handle existing destinations (overwrite, skip, or rename).
- Review the live preview table showing generated names and actions.
- Click OK to generate the destinations.
Filters
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Top level only | Converts only the top-level (level 1) bookmarks; nested children are skipped. |
| Skip without destination | Ignores bookmarks that do not already point to a page destination. Enabled by default. |
Name options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Prefix | Text prepended to every generated destination name. |
| Suffix | Text appended to every generated destination name. |
| Sanitise names | Replaces characters that are not alphanumeric, underscore, hyphen, or period with underscores. Enabled by default. |
| Deduplicate names | Appends a numeric suffix (_1, _2, etc.) when
multiple bookmarks would produce the same destination name. Enabled by
default. |
Existing destination handling
| Policy | Description |
|---|---|
| Overwrite | Replaces the existing destination with the newly generated one. |
| Skip | Keeps the existing destination unchanged and does not create a duplicate. |
| Rename | Creates the destination with a unique name (appending a numeric suffix) to avoid the conflict. This is the default policy. |
Preview
The preview table at the bottom of the dialog shows three columns:
- Bookmark Title — the original bookmark text.
- Destination Name — the generated destination name.
- Action — one of new, overwrite, rename, or skip.
A summary line reports counts for new, overwritten, renamed, skipped, and collision entries. For performance, the preview is limited to the first 250 rows.
Tip
Set a prefix such as chap_, enable Sanitise names
and Deduplicate names to produce clean, unique, link-friendly
destination names.
Note
If a generated destination name is empty after applying prefix, suffix, and
sanitisation, the fallback base name Bookmark is used. New
destinations are created with a PDF /Fit view at the
bookmark’s page.