The fastest way to remove a blank or unwanted page

To delete a page in Microsoft Word, select all the content on that page and press Delete or Backspace. The page will disappear when the content is gone. If the page is blank because of extra paragraph marks or page breaks, find and remove those instead — the blank space will collapse on its own.

The method you use depends on why the page exists. A page filled with text requires different steps than a page that is blank because someone inserted a manual page break. Word does not have a "delete page" button, so you are always removing the content or formatting that created the page in the first place.

Key Takeaways

  • A blank page at the end of your document usually contains invisible paragraph marks or a page break — select them and press Delete to remove the page.
  • If a page contains text you want to keep, select only that page's content, then press Delete to remove it without affecting other pages.
  • Manual page breaks (inserted with Ctrl+Enter on Windows or Command+Enter on Mac) create pages that will not collapse on their own — you must delete the break itself.
  • Showing formatting marks (Ctrl+* on Windows, Command+* on Mac) reveals paragraph marks and page breaks so you can see exactly what is creating the blank space.
  • A page that is blank because of a table or image at the bottom can be fixed by deleting that object or moving it to the previous page.

How to select and delete a full page of text

Click at the very beginning of the page you want to remove. Hold Shift and click at the end of the page, or use Shift+Ctrl+End (Windows) or Shift+Command+End (Mac) to select from your cursor to the end of the document, then adjust by clicking where you want the selection to stop. You can also triple-click to select an entire paragraph, then hold Shift and click below the last paragraph on that page.

Once the page is selected, press Delete or Backspace. The selected content disappears, and the following page moves up. If you selected too much or too little, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac) to undo and try again.

Removing a blank page caused by paragraph marks or page breaks

Blank pages often exist because of invisible formatting. To see what is creating the blank space, press Ctrl+* (Windows) or Command+* (Mac). This shows all paragraph marks (¶) and page breaks (a line labeled "Page Break"). These symbols do not print — they are just visible markers of formatting.

If you see a paragraph mark or page break on the blank page, click directly on it and press Delete. The blank page will disappear. If the blank page is at the very end of your document and contains only a single paragraph mark, click before that mark and press Delete once.

If you see many paragraph marks stacked on top of each other, select all of them at once by clicking before the first one, holding Shift, and clicking after the last one. Then press Delete. This is common when someone has pressed Enter many times to push content down the page.

Dealing with a page break you did not intentionally create

Word sometimes inserts automatic page breaks when a table, image, or section reaches the bottom of a page. These breaks are not the same as manual page breaks — they happen because of the document's layout, not because someone pressed Ctrl+Enter.

To remove an automatic page break, try moving the object that caused it. Click on the table or image, then drag it up slightly or to the previous page. If that does not work, select the object and press Delete to remove it entirely, then re-insert it in a better location if you need it.

If you inserted a manual page break yourself and want to remove it, show formatting marks (Ctrl+* or Command+*), find the line that says "Page Break", click on it, and press Delete. The page break disappears and content from the next page moves up.

Removing a page in the middle of your document

Deleting a page in the middle works the same way as deleting any other page — select the content and press Delete. Click at the start of the page you want to remove, then hold Shift and click at the end of that page. Press Delete, and the page is gone.

Be careful when selecting: if you select part of a paragraph that continues on the next page, deleting it will break that paragraph in half. To avoid this, select complete paragraphs only. A paragraph ends with a paragraph mark (¶), which you can see by pressing Ctrl+* or Command+*.

When a page will not delete

If you cannot delete a page, the page may be protected or part of a template. Check the Review tab (Windows) or the Tools menu (Mac) to see if the document is protected. If it is, you may need a password to unprotect it, or the document owner may have locked certain sections.

Another reason a page will not delete is if it is created by a section break rather than a page break. Section breaks are used to change margins, headers, or column layouts for part of a document. To remove a section break, show formatting marks, find the line that says "Section Break", click on it, and press Delete. This will merge the section with the previous one and may change the formatting of that content.

If the page is still there after you delete all visible content, try selecting the entire page again and pressing Backspace instead of Delete — sometimes one works when the other does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I delete a page without deleting the content on it?

You cannot move a page without moving its content — the page exists only because the content is there. If you want to keep the text but move it elsewhere, cut the text (Ctrl+X or Command+X), click where you want it, and paste it (Ctrl+V or Command+V). Then delete the now-empty page.

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

This usually means the page is being created by a table or image at the bottom of the previous page, or by a section break. Show formatting marks to see what is there. If it is a table, try moving the table up or deleting a row. If it is a section break, delete the break itself.

Can I delete a page from a PDF in Word?

Word can open PDFs, but deleting pages from a PDF inside Word does not work the same way. You can delete content, but the page structure of a PDF is fixed. To truly delete a page from a PDF, use a dedicated PDF editor or convert the PDF to Word format first, delete the page, then save it as a PDF again.

What is the difference between Delete and Backspace?

Delete removes content after your cursor. Backspace removes content before your cursor. When you have selected content, both keys delete the selection. If one is not working, try the other — occasionally one behaves differently depending on what you selected.

How do I delete multiple pages at once?

Select content from the first page you want to remove through the last page, then press Delete. You can do this by clicking at the start of the first page, holding Shift, and clicking at the end of the last page. All selected content disappears at once.