Can’t Delete a Blank Page in Word (Try These Quick Methods!)
A blank page in Microsoft Word can be surprisingly frustrating. You may press Backspace repeatedly, try selecting the empty page, or even delete everything you can see, yet the page stubbornly remains. This usually happens because Word is keeping a paragraph mark, page break, section break, table, or formatting element that is not immediately visible.
Don’t rebuild your document, try this guide, in which I have explained how to delete a blank page in Word on Windows, including the most common causes and several solutions.
Quick Answer: Try This First
The quickest solution is to turn on Word’s formatting marks, find what is creating the blank page, and remove it.
Open your Word document and go to Home > Show/Hide ¶. Look at the blank page for a paragraph mark, page break, or section break. Select the unwanted formatting mark and press Delete or Backspace. If the blank page is caused by a table at the end of the document, select the paragraph mark immediately after the table and reduce its font size to 1 point.
Can’t Delete Blank Page in Word
Word documents contain more than the text you can see. Behind the scenes, Word uses paragraph marks, page breaks, section breaks, spacing, margins, and tables to control how content is displayed.
A blank page often appears because one of these elements has been pushed onto another page.
The key is to make these hidden formatting elements visible.
1: Turn On Formatting Marks
The first thing to do is make Word show the hidden formatting marks. This is the easiest way to determine what is actually creating the blank page.
Open the document containing the unwanted page. Go to Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶. You can also press Ctrl + Shift + 8 on your keyboard to turn formatting marks on or off.
Once enabled, Word displays symbols that normally remain hidden. You may see a ¶ paragraph mark, a Page Break label, or a Section Break label on the blank page.
Do not worry if your document suddenly looks more complicated. These symbols are only formatting indicators and will not appear when you print the document.
2: Delete Extra Paragraph Marks
Sometimes the blank page contains nothing except one or more empty paragraph marks. These can be created accidentally when you press Enter several times.
Go to the blank page and look for the ¶ symbols. If you see several paragraph marks, click immediately before the first unwanted mark and drag your mouse across the extra marks. Then press Delete.
Another method is to click at the beginning of the blank page and press Backspace repeatedly until the unwanted page disappears.
If the blank page is at the very end of your document, click after the final visible text and press Delete. Watch the page count as you delete the extra paragraph marks.
Be careful not to remove paragraph marks that contain formatting you actually need. If deleting a mark changes the appearance of your document, use Ctrl + Z to undo the change.
3: Remove a Manual Page Break
A manual page break is another common reason Word creates an unwanted blank page. A page break tells Word to move everything following it to the next page, even if there is plenty of available space.
With formatting marks enabled, go to the blank page and look for the text Page Break.
Click directly before the Page Break indicator and press Delete. You can also click after it and press Backspace.
Go to Home > Show/Hide ¶ first if you cannot see the page break. After removing it, Word should automatically pull the following content back onto the previous page.
If the page break was intentional but you only want to remove the blank page, check the surrounding text before deleting it. Removing a page break can change where the next section of your document begins.
4: Check for a Section Break
A section break can be slightly more complicated because it controls document formatting such as headers, footers, page orientation, margins, columns, and numbering.
Go to Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶ and look at the area around the blank page. You may see something such as Section Break (Next Page).
If that section break is responsible for the blank page, place your cursor immediately before it and press Delete.
However, deleting a section break can also change the formatting of the sections before and after it. For example, the header, footer, page orientation, or page numbering may change.
If you need to preserve the section formatting, do not immediately delete the break. Instead, change its type.
Go to Layout > Page Setup dialog launcher > Layout > Section start and choose an appropriate option, such as Continuous, when applicable. Then select OK and check whether the blank page disappears.
5: Check Whether a Table Is Creating the Blank Page
A table at the end of a Word document is a particularly common cause of an unwanted final page. Word requires a paragraph mark after a table, and sometimes that paragraph gets pushed onto a new page.
Go to Home > Show/Hide ¶ and look immediately after the table. You may see a ¶ paragraph mark on the blank page.
Click the paragraph mark after the table. Then go to Home > Font Size and enter 1.
The paragraph still exists, but making it 1 point can allow it to fit on the previous page. In many cases, this immediately removes the blank page.
If the page still exists, select the paragraph mark and go to Home > Paragraph dialog launcher > Indents and Spacing. Reduce the Before and After spacing to 0 pt, and set the Line spacing appropriately. Then select OK.
6: Reduce Paragraph Spacing or Font Size
Sometimes there is no obvious page break. Instead, the final paragraph is simply being pushed onto another page because there is not enough room.
Click inside the paragraph immediately before the blank page. Go to Home > Paragraph dialog launcher > Indents and Spacing.
Check the Before and After spacing settings. If either value is unusually large, reduce it to a smaller value.
You can also check the font size by going to Home > Font. If the final paragraph is unexpectedly large, reducing the font size may bring it back onto the previous page.
This method is useful when you want to preserve the document’s structure instead of deleting formatting elements.
7: Check the Page Margins
Large margins can reduce the amount of usable space on a page and push a final paragraph onto an additional page.
Go to Layout > Margins and select Normal to restore Word’s standard margin settings.
If you are working with a document that requires specific margins, do not change them simply to remove a blank page. Instead, first determine whether the page is caused by a paragraph mark, page break, or section break.
If changing the margins makes the blank page disappear, the issue was likely related to available page space rather than an actual empty page.
8: Use the Navigation Pane to Find the Blank Page
The Navigation Pane can make it easier to identify where the unwanted page is located, especially in a long document.
Go to View > Navigation Pane. The Navigation Pane appears on the left side of the Word window.
Select the Pages tab to see thumbnail previews of your document pages. Click the blank page thumbnail to jump directly to it.
Once you are there, turn on Home > Show/Hide ¶ and inspect the page for hidden formatting.
This approach is particularly useful for documents containing dozens or hundreds of pages because you do not have to scroll through the entire document manually.
9: Select and Delete the Entire Blank Page
If the page contains several unwanted elements and you are confident that you do not need anything on it, you can select its contents and delete them together.
Click somewhere on the blank page and press Ctrl + G. In the Go To dialog box, type \page in the Enter page number field and press Enter. Close the dialog box.
Word selects the current page. Press Delete to remove the selected content.
If the page remains, turn on Home > Show/Hide ¶ and check for a remaining section break or required paragraph mark.
Use this method carefully, especially in documents containing tables, images, or section formatting.
10: Check for Hidden Content
A page can appear blank even though it contains text or objects that are hidden.
Go to Home > Select > Selection Pane to inspect objects in the document. You can also select the area around the blank page and check whether there are hidden images, text boxes, shapes, or other objects.
If you find an unwanted object, select it and press Delete.
You should also check whether text has been formatted as hidden. Go to Home > Font dialog launcher and look at the Hidden option. Hidden text can sometimes affect pagination even though it is not visible normally.
11: Check the Paragraph’s Pagination Settings
Word has paragraph pagination settings that can force content onto a new page.
Click inside the paragraph before the blank page. Go to Home > Paragraph dialog launcher > Line and Page Breaks.
Look for settings such as Page break before, Keep with next, and Keep lines together.
If Page break before is selected unintentionally, clear it and select OK.
Be cautious with Keep with next because it can intentionally keep headings with the following paragraph. Removing this setting may change your document’s layout.
12: Save and Recheck the Document
After removing the cause of the blank page, save your document and check the page count again.
Go to File > Save or press Ctrl + S.
Then go to View > Print Layout if you are not already using it. Scroll through the document and confirm that the unwanted page is gone and that the rest of the formatting still looks correct.
If the document is important, it is a good idea to save a copy before making major formatting changes. This gives you a safe version to return to if deleting a section break or other formatting element changes the layout.
FAQs
Why can’t I delete a blank page in Word?
You may not be able to delete it because the page is being created by a paragraph mark, manual page break, section break, table, or pagination setting. Turn on Home > Show/Hide ¶ to identify the hidden element responsible for the page.
How do I delete a blank page at the end of a Word document?
Go to Home > Show/Hide ¶, click the final paragraph mark on the blank page, and press Backspace or Delete. If the document ends with a table, select the paragraph mark after the table and change its font size to 1 point.
Why does Word show an extra page after a table?
Word automatically keeps a paragraph mark after a table. If there is not enough room for that paragraph on the previous page, Word may move it to a new page. Selecting that paragraph mark and reducing its font size to 1 point often fixes the problem.
How do I remove a page break in Word?
Turn on Home > Show/Hide ¶, locate the Page Break indicator, click immediately before it, and press Delete. The content following the break should move back onto the previous page.
Can a section break cause a blank page?
Yes. A Section Break (Next Page) can force Word to start a new section on another page. You can remove the section break or, when appropriate, change the section start type to Continuous through Layout > Page Setup dialog launcher > Layout.
Will deleting a section break change my document?
It can. Section breaks can control headers, footers, page orientation, margins, columns, and page numbering. If your document uses different formatting sections, check the document carefully after deleting one.
Why is there a blank page in Word but I cannot see anything on it?
The page may contain hidden formatting marks or objects. Go to Home > Show/Hide ¶ and inspect the page. Also check for section breaks, page breaks, paragraph marks, tables, and hidden objects.
What is the easiest way to find a blank page in a long Word document?
Use View > Navigation Pane > Pages. The page thumbnails make it easier to locate the unwanted page. Select the blank page and then use Home > Show/Hide ¶ to identify what is creating it.
Summary
A blank page in Word is usually not truly empty. Word may be displaying an additional page because of an extra paragraph mark, page break, section break, table, spacing setting, margin, or pagination option.
The best troubleshooting method is to start with Home > Show/Hide ¶. Once the hidden formatting becomes visible, you can usually identify the exact reason for the extra page.
If you see an extra paragraph mark, delete it. If you see a Page Break, remove it. If you find a Section Break, review its effect before deleting it. If the document ends with a table, try reducing the paragraph mark after the table to 1-point font. For more complicated documents, check the pagination settings, margins, hidden objects, and section formatting.
In most cases, you can remove the unwanted page without changing the rest of your document.
The important thing is to identify what is creating the page first, instead of repeatedly pressing Backspace and potentially disturbing your document’s formatting.
