It’s a simple question – How can I delete a blank page in Microsoft Word? The answer isn’t so simple because there are many reasons for Word to add another page and various tricks to getting rid of them.
Tripod table base for magicians. The most common type of extra page is at the end of a document. There are also cases of a mystery blank page in the middle of a document at the end of a section or chapter.
Overruns
It can simply be some extra paragraph marks at the end of a document.
Press Ctrl + End to move the Word cursor to the very end of the document then press Backspace to remove unwanted and unseen characters back to the end of the text.
The secret sauce
The rest of these tips relies on the trick that all Word users should know, the Show All button. This reveals the invisible characters and breaks in the document.
Look for the Pilcrow symbol at Home | Paragraph. It’s the same symbol that Word uses to mark the end of a paragraph.
Back in the dim past of Word, Show All was hidden from the default toolbars but Microsoft finally relented and made it more obvious to everyone.
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Show All is incredibly useful when you’re trying to figure out why some part of a document looks the way it does. It shows spaces, tabs, Line Breaks, Paragraph marks and more.
Hide space between pages
Another useful trick is to change Page View to remove the header, footer, margins and gaps between pages.
Now you can see more of the core document on the screen.
Page after a Table
If you have a blank page after a table, the fix is a little more complicated.
See Preventing blank page after Table in Word for details.
Page Break
It’s possible to force a Page Break in Word, for example to start a new chapter. Pressing Ctrl + Enter will add a page break.
With Show All on, you can see the Page Break then select and delete it.
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Section Break
There are also Word section breaks that include a page break. All the document break options are at Layout | Breaks.
With Show All they appear clearly in the document.
Paragraph setting
Any paragraph can have a manual ‘Page Break before’ setting enabled. It’s in the Paragraph settings | Line and Page Breaks.
This type of page break isn’t obvious with Show All on, but it can appear in the same way as the next type of page break, in a Style.
Heading and Styles
Just like in paragraph settings, any style can have the ‘Page break before’ setting on. Under Modify Style | Format | Paragraph | Line and Page Breaks.
Most commonly, high-level Heading styles might have a page break such as Heading 1 or Heading 2.
Whether it’s a manual paragraph setting or style setting, the page break appears as finely dotted line when Show All is on.
There’s no text to explain that the dotted line is a page break, let alone what’s causing the page break. You need to check the direct paragraph or style to find the cause.
Direct paragraph formatting can override the style setting.
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If you are stuck with a stubborn blank page in Microsoft Word which just won’t delete, you have come to the right place. This article will discuss how to delete a blank page in MS Word which seems impossible to delete. Try each of the methods listed below in order and one of them is sure to work for you.
Before you try anything, see if you have a Page Break tag on top of the blank page. This can be done by turning on the Show/Hide Paragraph symbols by pressing Ctrl + *. If you do see a Page Break tag on the page just above the blank page, click on the tag and delete it. This solves the problem 99% of the time.
How to Delete a Blank Page in Microsoft Word – Method 1
If you are having difficulty deleting a blank page, try going into Draft View and delete the page. Here are the steps:
- Click on View from the Ribbon tabs.
- Click on Draft. This only shows text in your document.
- Press the delete button to delete back up to the desired end of your document.
How to Delete a Blank Page in Microsoft Word – Method 2
It is likely that you have a Section Break on the page after which a blank page appears. If this is the case, deleting the Section Break will get rid of the blank page. However, if you have any header or footer which are setup for the page, they will also be deleted when the Section Break is deleted. So, I will give you the option to just delete the Section Break or to keep the Section Break and still get rid of the blank page. If you don’t have a Section Break in place, proceed to Method 3.
Delete the Section Break to Remove the Blank Page
- Turn on the Show/Hide Paragraph marks by clicking on the paragraph icon.
- Click on the Section Break tag and press delete.
- Once the Section Break is deleted, delete backup to the intended end of the document.
How to Keep the Section Break but Delete the Blank Page
- Turn on the Show/Hide Paragraph marks by clicking on the paragraph icon.
- Double click on the Section Break tag. A dialog box will open.
- Click on Layout tab.
- Select Continuous from the Section Start drop down menu.
- At the bottom of the dialog box, click on Apply to: and select Whole Document and click OK.
- The blank page should now be removed.
How to Delete a Blank Page in Microsoft Word – Method 3
Another reason why you are ending up with a blank page in the Word document is because the page is full and a paragraph mark has no place to go to except the next page. This can be fixed as follows:
- Turn on the Show/Hide Paragraph marks by clicking on the paragraph icon. (You can see method 2 to see how to turn paragraph symbols On/Off).
- Scroll down to the blank page.
- Double click the paragraph symbol on the blank page to highlight it.
- Under Home Ribbon tab, change Font Size to 1.
- This should create enough space to delete the blank page.
How to Delete a Blank Page in Microsoft Word – Method 4
If you have a Footer in your document, it maybe generating a blank page due to the lack of space at the bottom of the page. Try reducing the footer size slightly to see if the blank page is removed. This can be done as follows:
- Click on Page Layout Ribbon tab.
- Click on Margins > Custom Margins > Layout tab.
- Reduce the value for the Footer and click OK.
- Keep reducing the value until the blank page is removed.
To delete a page that contains text, graphics, or empty paragraphs, select the content you want to delete, and press Delete on your keyboard.
To make it easier to select a whole page, do this:
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Click anywhere in the page you want to delete, press Ctrl+G.
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In the Enter page number box, type page.
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Press Enter on your keyboard, and then click Close.
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Verify that a page of content is selected, and then press Delete on your keyboard.
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Super light wheelchairs for older adults. Click anywhere in the page you want to delete, press Option+⌘+G.
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In the Enter page number box, type page.
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Press Enter on your keyboard, and then click Close.
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Verify that a page of content is selected, and then press Delete on your keyboard. Fallout new vegas art book.
To remove blank pages in the middle or at the end of your document, see Delete a blank page.