The fastest way to remove a blank page

A blank page at the end of your Word document usually exists because of extra paragraph marks, page breaks, or section breaks you cannot see. To find and remove it, turn on formatting marks so you can see what is actually there.

In Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac, press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Command + A (Mac) to select all text. Then look at the Home tab and click the ¶ symbol (called the pilcrow) to show formatting marks. You will now see dots for spaces, arrows for tabs, and bent arrows for paragraph breaks. Scroll to the blank page and look for extra paragraph marks — they appear as ¶ symbols stacked together with nothing between them.

Click right before the first extra paragraph mark on the blank page and drag to select all the empty marks below it, then press Delete. If the blank page is caused by a page break instead, you will see the words "Page Break" highlighted in the formatting marks. Select that line and delete it.

Key Takeaways

  • Turn on formatting marks by pressing Ctrl + A then clicking the ¶ symbol in the Home tab so you can see what is creating the blank page.
  • Extra paragraph marks (¶ symbols) are the most common cause — select and delete them to remove the blank page.
  • Page breaks and section breaks can also create unwanted blank pages; look for "Page Break" or "Section Break" text in the formatting marks and delete those lines.
  • In Google Docs, use the same approach but access formatting marks through File > Settings, then check "Use the same formatting marks as Microsoft Word".

Why blank pages happen in Word

Word treats each paragraph mark as a line, even if that line contains no text. If you press Enter at the end of your document or between sections, you create paragraph marks that take up space. A single paragraph mark at the very end of a document usually does not create a visible blank page, but multiple marks stacked together will push content onto a new page.

Page breaks and section breaks work differently — they force content to start on a new page regardless of how much space is left on the current one. If you inserted a page break to separate chapters or sections and then deleted the content that came after it, the page break itself remains and creates an empty page.

Removing extra paragraph marks

Once you have formatting marks visible, navigate to the blank page by scrolling down or using Ctrl + End (Windows) or Command + End (Mac) to jump to the very end of the document. Look at the last few lines — if you see multiple ¶ symbols in a row with nothing between them, those are the culprits.

Click at the start of the first extra paragraph mark and hold Shift while clicking after the last one to select them all at once. Then press Delete. Be careful not to delete a paragraph mark that belongs to actual content above it — you only want to remove the ones creating empty space.

If the blank page is in the middle of your document rather than at the end, the same method applies. Find the section with extra marks and delete only the empty ones, leaving the marks that separate your actual content in place.

Deleting page breaks and section breaks

Page breaks appear in formatting marks as a line that says "Page Break" in a box. Section breaks look similar but say "Section Break (Next Page)" or another section break type. These are different from paragraph marks and require you to select the entire line and delete it.

Click at the very beginning of the page break line and drag to select the entire thing, including the paragraph mark after it. Then press Delete. The page break disappears and content from the next page moves up to fill the space.

Be aware that deleting a section break can change the formatting of the page before it — headers, footers, margins, or column layouts tied to that section may shift. If that happens, press Ctrl + Z (Windows) or Command + Z (Mac) to undo and try a different approach.

Checking table and image settings

Sometimes a blank page appears because a table or image is set to "keep with next paragraph" or has a page break before it. These settings force the object onto a new page even if there is room for it on the current one. To check this, right-click the table or image and select Table Properties (for tables) or Wrap Text (for images).

For tables, look for a tab called Row and uncheck "Allow row to break across pages" if it is checked. For images, click More Layout Options and go to the Text Wrapping tab, then check the Position tab to see if there is a page break setting forcing it to a new page.

Blank pages in Google Docs

Google Docs handles blank pages differently because it does not use traditional page breaks in the same way. However, extra paragraph marks still create blank pages. To see formatting marks in Google Docs, go to Tools and select Preferences, then check the box for "Use the same formatting marks as Microsoft Word".

Once formatting marks are visible, scroll to the blank page and delete extra paragraph marks the same way you would in Word. Google Docs also allows you to insert page breaks through Insert > Break > Page Break, and these can be deleted by selecting them and pressing Delete.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my blank page keep coming back after I delete it?

The page may be caused by a table or image set to stay on its own page, or by formatting that forces a page break. Check the properties of any tables or images near the blank page. You can also try selecting all content and changing the paragraph spacing to 0 points before and after to remove hidden spacing.

Can I delete a blank page without turning on formatting marks?

It is much harder without them. You can try placing your cursor on the blank page and pressing Backspace repeatedly, but you will not know what you are actually deleting. Formatting marks take two seconds to enable and show you exactly what needs to go.

What if the blank page is in the middle of my document and I need it there?

If you intentionally want a page break between sections, use Insert > Page Break instead of pressing Enter multiple times. This keeps your document cleaner and makes it easier to edit later without accidentally creating extra blank pages.

Does deleting a blank page affect my document's formatting?

Deleting extra paragraph marks will not affect formatting. Deleting a section break might change headers, footers, or margins on the surrounding pages. If that happens, undo the deletion and try removing paragraph marks instead.