How to Delete a Blank Page in Word

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How to Delete Blank Page in Word

Last updated on October 14th, 2020

There is a blank page either in the middle or at the end of your Word document that cannot seem to be deleted. This is a very common and often frustrating occurrence that many users face while creating content within Microsoft Word. Here are some possible steps to delete your unwanted blank page in word.

How to Delete a Blank Page with different options

  • BackSpace: Go to the bottom of the unwanted blank page. Press the backspace key until the page is removed.

  • Navigation Pane: Go to the VIEW tab, select Navigation Pane in the Show section. Click on the pages and select the blank page thumbnail. Press the delete key until it is removed.

  • Page Setup: Go to the PAGE LAYOUT tab. Click the Margins button and select Custom Margins. Click the Layout tab. In the drop-down menu next to Section start, make sure that the New page is selected. Click OK.

  • Paragraph Symbol: You can Turn on the Paragraph Marks(¶) by clicking the ¶ button or use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + 8 from the toolbar to see where all of the line breaks are in your Word document. 

     – If your blank page is in the middle of the document, it may be due to a manual page break. With paragraph marks turned on, you will be able to see the page break. Select it and delete it.

  • Page Break: Page breaks tell Word where to start a new page. A manual page break might be making an unwanted blank page in your document.
    To see manual page breaks switch to showing paragraph marks:
      – Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (⌘+8 on a Mac).
      – Now you can select the page break and delete it.

  • Odd, Even, and Next: Next Page, Odd Page, and Even Page section breaks may create a blank page in your document. If the blank page occurs at the end of your document and you have a section break there, place your cursor directly before the section break and press Delete.

  • Section Break:  You can change the section break to continuous which does not generate a blank page.
     – Double select the section break.
     – On the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box, select the Section start to drop down and select Continuous.
     – Select OK.

  • Convert to PDF: You can get rid of a trailing blank page by saving the document as a PDF, leaving out the last page.