The fastest way to remove an unwanted blank page
If you have a blank second page in Word that you want gone, the quickest fix is usually to go to the end of page one, position your cursor there, and press the Delete key once or twice. Word often creates an extra page because of extra paragraph marks, page breaks, or spacing settings — not because you actually need the space. Deleting those invisible characters removes the page itself.
The reason this works: Word treats each paragraph mark, manual page break, and spacing setting as a real object that takes up space. If you have paragraph marks or a page break pushing content onto page two, deleting them collapses the document back to one page. This is different from other programs that might handle page breaks differently, so the method is specific to how Word organizes its documents.
Key Takeaways
- Position your cursor at the very end of page one and press Delete to remove paragraph marks or page breaks that are creating page two.
- If Delete does not work, you may have a manual page break instead of extra spacing — use Ctrl+H to find and remove it.
- Turning on formatting marks (Ctrl+* on Windows, Cmd+8 on Mac) shows you exactly what is creating the extra page.
- If the second page contains actual content you want to keep, select and cut that content, paste it onto page one, then delete the now-empty page.
Show formatting marks to see what is creating the extra page
Before you start deleting, turn on formatting marks so you can see what Word is actually storing. On Windows, press Ctrl+* (Ctrl+Shift+8). On Mac, press Cmd+8. You will now see dots for spaces, paragraph marks (¶) for line breaks, and a special symbol for manual page breaks.
Look at the end of page one. If you see multiple paragraph marks stacked together, those are creating the blank space. If you see a page break symbol that looks like a dashed line with "Page Break" written on it, that is a manual page break doing the work. Knowing which one you have tells you exactly what to delete. Leave formatting marks on while you work — it makes the next steps much clearer.
Delete extra paragraph marks at the end of page one
Click at the very end of the last line of text on page one, right after the final word or punctuation. Then press Delete. If page two disappears, you are done. If it does not, press Delete again. Keep pressing until either page two is gone or you see a manual page break symbol appear.
Do not press Delete more than three or four times in a row — if the page is still there after that, you have a manual page break, not extra paragraph marks. Stop and move to the next section instead. Pressing Delete too many times can accidentally remove text you want to keep, so watch what disappears as you go.
Remove a manual page break
If you see a dashed line with "Page Break" written on it, Word inserted a manual page break — either you did it, or the document was set up that way. To remove it, click right before the page break symbol and press Delete once. The page break disappears and page two collapses into page one.
If you cannot see the page break symbol even with formatting marks on, use Find and Replace to locate it. Press Ctrl+H (Windows) or Cmd+H (Mac) to open Find and Replace. In the "Find" field, type ^m (that is a caret and the letter m). Leave "Replace" blank and click "Replace All". This removes all manual page breaks in the document at once. If you only want to remove one, click "Replace" instead of "Replace All" and it will remove them one at a time.
Check for section breaks or table settings
Sometimes page two exists because of a section break rather than a page break. Section breaks are used when different parts of a document need different formatting — different headers, different column layouts, or different page orientations. If you see a dashed line that says "Section Break (Next Page)" instead of "Page Break", that is creating your extra page.
To remove a section break, click right before it and press Delete. If the section break is protecting formatting you want to keep in another part of the document, deleting it might change how that section looks. If that happens, undo the deletion (Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z) and leave the section break alone. If you have a table at the end of page one, Word sometimes adds a blank page after it automatically — delete the paragraph mark right after the table to remove it.
Move content from page two to page one if you need to keep it
If page two contains text or images you want to save, do not delete the page yet. Instead, select all the content on page two by clicking at the start of it and dragging to the end, or by clicking once and pressing Ctrl+Shift+End (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+End (Mac). Then press Ctrl+X (Windows) or Cmd+X (Mac) to cut it.
Click at the end of page one and press Ctrl+V (Windows) or Cmd+V (Mac) to paste the content there. Now page two should be empty. Go back to the start of the now-empty page two and delete the paragraph marks or page break that is keeping it alive. The content is safe on page one and the blank page is gone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Word keep creating a second page when I delete it?
Word is probably set to keep a certain amount of space at the bottom of each page, or a table at the end of page one is forcing a new page. Check the paragraph spacing: right-click the last paragraph on page one, select "Paragraph", and look at the spacing settings. If "Keep with next" is checked, uncheck it. If spacing values are very large, reduce them.
I deleted the page break but the second page is still there — what now?
You may have multiple page breaks or a section break instead. Turn on formatting marks again and look for more dashed lines. Delete each one. If you see "Section Break (Next Page)" instead of "Page Break", that is a section break — delete it the same way. If the page still will not go away, the document may have minimum page settings in the page setup menu.
Will deleting a page break affect the rest of my document?
Deleting a page break collapses the pages together, so content from page two moves up to page one. If page two had different formatting (different headers, margins, or columns), that formatting will change when you delete the break. If you need that formatting to stay different, keep the section break and instead delete only the extra paragraph marks before it.
What if the second page has a header or footer I want to remove?
Headers and footers are separate from page breaks. To remove a header or footer from page two only, you need a section break between page one and page two. Double-click the header or footer area on page two, then look for a "Link to Previous" button in the header/footer tools. Click it to unlink page two's header from page one's, then delete the content in page two's header.
Can I delete a page without using the Delete key?
Yes. Select the entire page by clicking anywhere on it and pressing Ctrl+A three times (Windows) or Cmd+A three times (Mac) until the whole page is highlighted, then press Delete. Or use Find and Replace to search for page breaks and remove them all at once. The Delete key method is usually fastest, but these alternatives work if Delete is not responding.