How to Delete a Blank Page in Word (Even the Stubborn Ones)
There's nothing more annoying than an empty page in the middle or at the end of your document that refuses to go away. The good news: there's always a reason for it, and once you can see what's causing it, it's easy to delete.
Step 1: Show the hidden formatting marks
Word hides the characters that create space — paragraph marks, page breaks and section breaks. Let's reveal them.
• Press Ctrl + Shift + 8, or
• Click the ¶ button on the Home tab.
• Click the ¶ button on the Home tab.
On a Mac, press Command + 8.
You'll now see a ¶ symbol at the end of every paragraph and labels like Page Break or Section Break. Don't worry — these never print.
Step 2: Delete what's on the blank page
Go to the blank page and look at what's there:
• Lots of ¶ marks — someone pressed Enter many times. Select them all and press Delete.
• Page Break — click just before it and press Delete.
• Section Break — click just before it and press Delete. (Be careful: this can change the layout of the section above, such as margins or orientation.)
• Page Break — click just before it and press Delete.
• Section Break — click just before it and press Delete. (Be careful: this can change the layout of the section above, such as margins or orientation.)
That fixes most blank pages.
The blank page after a table
This is the stubborn one. Word always puts a paragraph mark after a table, and if the table fills the page, that little ¶ gets pushed onto a new page by itself. You can't delete it — but you can make it so small it fits.
1. Select the ¶ mark on the blank page.
2. Click in the font size box on the Home tab, type 1 and press Enter.
2. Click in the font size box on the Home tab, type 1 and press Enter.
If the page is still there:
3. With the ¶ still selected, go to the Layout tab and set Spacing Before and After to 0.
Still there? Right-click the ¶, choose Font, tick Hidden and click OK. Then turn formatting marks off — the page disappears.
Find blank pages quickly
In a long document, go to View and tick Navigation Pane, then click Pages. You'll see thumbnails of every page. Click a blank one to jump straight to it.
A blank page in the middle of the document
Look for a section break that says Section Break (Odd Page) or (Even Page). These force the next section to start on an odd or even page, adding a blank page if needed — common in printed books, confusing everywhere else.
To change it:
1. Click in the section after the break.
2. Go to Layout and click the small arrow in the corner of the Page Setup group.
3. On the Layout tab of that window, change Section start to New page.
4. Click OK.
2. Go to Layout and click the small arrow in the corner of the Page Setup group.
3. On the Layout tab of that window, change Section start to New page.
4. Click OK.
Other causes to check
• Page break before — right-click the first paragraph on the next page, choose Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks, and untick Page break before.
• A large image or empty table row pushing content over. Make it slightly smaller.
• A large image or empty table row pushing content over. Make it slightly smaller.
It only appears when printing or in the PDF
Turn on Print Layout view (View > Print Layout) — that's what your printed pages will look like. Also check your printer settings aren't set to print a separator page.
Wrapping up
Press Ctrl + Shift + 8 to see what's really on the page, delete the extra marks or breaks, and shrink the stubborn ¶ after a table to size 1. Press Ctrl + Shift + 8 again to hide the marks when you're done.
