How to Delete a Page in Word (Including Blank Pages)

To delete a page in Word, click anywhere on that page, press Ctrl + G, type \page in the Enter page number box, press Enter, and click Close. This selects everything on the page, so you can press Delete. To remove a blank page, turn on paragraph marks with Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Cmd + 8 on a Mac), then select and delete the extra paragraph marks, page breaks, or section breaks causing it.

Blank pages at the end of a document are the most common problem, and they have a few different causes. Here’s how to fix each one in Word for Windows, Mac, and the web.

How to delete a page with content

Method 1: Select the page with Go To

1. Click anywhere on the page you want to delete.
2. Press Ctrl + G (Option + Cmd + G on a Mac) to open Find and Replace on the Go To tab.
3. Type \page in the Enter page number box and press Enter.
4. Click Close. The entire page is now selected.
5. Press Delete or Backspace.

Method 2: Select it with your mouse

1. Click at the very start of the page’s text.
2. Scroll to the end of the page, hold Shift, and click after the last word.
3. Press Delete.

Method 3: Use the Navigation pane (headings)

If your document uses heading styles, go to View and check Navigation Pane. Right-click a heading and choose Delete to remove that heading and all the text under it, which is handy for removing whole sections at once.

How to delete a blank page in Word

First, turn on formatting marks so you can see what’s taking up the space. Click Show/Hide ¶ on the Home tab, or press Ctrl + Shift + 8.

Then use the fix that matches what you see.

Extra paragraph marks (¶)

Select the empty ¶ marks on or before the blank page and press Delete.

A manual page break

Click just before the dotted line labeled Page Break and press Delete. You can also double-click it to select it first.

A section break

Section breaks (labeled Section Break (Next Page), Odd Page, or Even Page) can create blank pages. Click right before the break and press Delete.

Deleting a section break can change the formatting of the text before it, like margins, orientation, or headers. If that happens, press Ctrl + Z and change the break instead: double-click the section after it, go to Layout > Page Setup launcher > Layout tab, and set Section start to Continuous.

A table at the end of the document

Word always adds a paragraph mark after a table, and it can’t be deleted. If the table fills the page, that mark gets pushed to a new blank page. To fix it:

1. Select the ¶ mark after the table.
2. Type 1 in the Font Size box on the Home tab and press Enter.
3. If the page is still there, click the Paragraph launcher and set Spacing Before and After to 0 and Line spacing to Exactly 1 pt.
4. Still there? Select the ¶ mark, press Ctrl + D, and check Hidden.

Paragraph settings that push text to a new page

If text jumps to the next page for no clear reason, select it, open the Paragraph launcher, go to Line and Page Breaks, and uncheck Page break before, Keep with next, and Keep lines together.

Delete a page in Word on a Mac

• Show formatting marks with Cmd + 8, or click ¶ on the Home tab.
• Use Option + Cmd + G to open Go To and type \page.
• Delete breaks and extra paragraph marks the same way as on Windows.

Delete a page in Word for the web

Word for the web doesn’t support the \page shortcut. Select the page’s content by clicking at the start and Shift-clicking at the end, then press Delete. For blank pages, click Show/Hide ¶ on the Home tab (under the Paragraph options if collapsed) and delete the extra marks or breaks.

Blank page only shows up in the PDF or printout?

• When saving as PDF, choose File > Save As > PDF and click Options to set the page range.
• When printing, check that Print on Both Sides or an odd/even section break isn’t adding a blank page.

For long documents, add navigation with headings to find pages faster.

Frequently asked questions

Why can’t I delete the last blank page in Word?

It’s usually the paragraph mark after a table, or a section break. Use the table fix above, or delete the section break.

What’s the shortcut to delete a page in Word?

There’s no single shortcut, but Ctrl + G, then \page, Enter, Esc, and Delete removes the current page in a few keystrokes.

Can I undo deleting a page?

Yes. Press Ctrl + Z (Cmd + Z on a Mac) right away.

How do I delete multiple pages at once?

Click at the start of the first page, then hold Shift and click at the end of the last page you want to remove, and press Delete.