The quickest way to remove a blank or unwanted page
To delete a page in 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 pressed Enter too many times, or because a page break was inserted intentionally. Word does not have a "delete page" button; you remove pages by removing what fills them.
Key Takeaways
- Blank pages at the end of a document usually come from extra paragraph marks — select them and press Delete to remove the page.
- Pages in the middle of a document that are blank often contain a page break you inserted yourself; find it with Find & Replace and delete it.
- A page full of text disappears when you select all content on it and press Delete, but this only works if the content does not flow to the next page.
- The Show/Hide button (¶) reveals paragraph marks and page breaks so you can see exactly what is creating the blank space.
Removing a blank page at the end of your document
Blank pages at the end happen most often because someone pressed Enter repeatedly after the last sentence. Word treats each Enter keystroke as a paragraph mark, and enough of them push content onto a new page.
Click at the very end of your document, after the last word. Press Ctrl+End to jump to the absolute end. Now hold Shift and press Ctrl+End again — this selects everything from your cursor to the end of the document. Press Delete. If the blank page is gone, you are done. If it remains, repeat the process; sometimes multiple paragraph marks stack up.
If you want to see what you are deleting before you do it, turn on the Show/Hide button first. It is the ¶ symbol in the Home tab of the ribbon. Paragraph marks appear as small ¶ symbols, and page breaks appear as a line labeled "Page Break". This makes it obvious what is creating the blank space.
Deleting a page break in the middle of your document
A blank page in the middle of your document usually means someone inserted a page break intentionally. Page breaks are invisible by default, so the page looks empty but will not go away when you press Delete.
Turn on Show/Hide (the ¶ button in Home) so you can see the page break. Look for a line that says "Page Break" — it will be obvious once you can see it. Click directly on that line and press Delete. The page break vanishes and the content from the next page flows up to fill the space.
If you have many page breaks and want to find them all at once, use Find & Replace. Press Ctrl+H to open Find & Replace. In the Find field, click the "No Formatting" button, then click "Special" and choose "Manual Page Break". Leave the Replace field empty and click "Replace All". Word removes every manual page break in the document at once.
Removing a page that contains text
If the page you want gone is full of actual content — paragraphs, sentences, images — you need to select that content and delete it. This only works cleanly if the content does not continue onto the next page. If it does, deleting it will just move the remaining text up, and you will not actually remove a page.
Click at the start of the content you want to remove. Hold Shift and click at the end of it. Press Delete. The content is gone. If the page is now blank because of leftover paragraph marks, use the method from the first section above to clean those up.
If the content you want to delete spans multiple pages, or if you are not sure whether it continues beyond what you see, it is safer to select the text, cut it (Ctrl+X), and then undo (Ctrl+Z) if the page count changes in a way you did not expect. This lets you see the result before committing to it.
When a page refuses to delete
Sometimes a page stays blank no matter what you delete. This usually means a table, image, or section break is forcing the page to exist. Tables in particular can be stubborn — Word reserves space for them even if they are mostly empty.
Turn on Show/Hide and look for a table grid or a line labeled "Section Break". If you see a table, click inside it and right-click. Choose "Delete Table". If you see a section break, click on it and press Delete. Section breaks are less common in everyday documents but can appear if someone used different margins or column layouts on different pages.
If you still cannot find what is holding the page open, try selecting the entire page (click at the top, hold Shift, click at the bottom) and pressing Delete. If Word will not let you delete it, the page is probably required by the document structure — for instance, some templates reserve the last page for signatures. In that case, you may need to accept the blank page or rebuild the document without that template.
Preventing extra pages in the future
The easiest way to avoid blank pages is to be intentional about line breaks. Use Enter only to start a new paragraph, not to create space. If you need space between sections, use paragraph spacing instead: select the paragraph, go to Home, click the arrow next to "Paragraph", and set "Spacing After" to add room below it.
Avoid pressing Enter multiple times at the end of a document. If you need a page break between sections, insert one deliberately: place your cursor where you want the break, go to Insert, click "Page Break", and Word creates a clean break. This is much easier to find and remove later than a string of Enter keypresses.
If you work with others on shared documents, ask them to turn on Show/Hide before editing. It makes accidental blank pages visible when ready, so they get caught and fixed before the document is finalized.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my document have a blank page I cannot see?
Turn on Show/Hide (the ¶ button) to reveal paragraph marks and page breaks. Blank pages are usually caused by extra paragraph marks, a manual page break, or a table or image that Word is reserving space for. Once you can see it, you can delete it.
Will deleting a page break mess up my document formatting?
Deleting a manual page break will cause text from the next page to flow up and join the previous page. If that page is now too long, Word may push some content to a new page anyway. The formatting of the text itself does not change — only where the page ends.
What if I delete content by accident?
Press Ctrl+Z when ready to undo. Word keeps a history of recent changes, so you can undo multiple steps if needed. If you closed the document without saving, reopen it and the changes will not be there.
Can I delete a page without deleting the content on it?
No. A page exists because content fills it. If you remove the content, the page goes away. If you want to keep the content but move it elsewhere, cut it (Ctrl+X), navigate to where you want it, and paste it (Ctrl+V).
Why does my last page stay blank even after I delete everything on it?
Word always reserves at least one page, even if it is empty. If you have deleted all content and the page remains, it is the final page of the document. This is normal behavior. If you want to remove it, you would need to delete the entire document.