The fastest way to remove a blank page
A blank page at the end of your document usually exists because of extra paragraph marks, page breaks, or table spacing. The quickest fix is to go to the end of your document, select the blank space, and delete it.
Open your document and press Ctrl+End (or Cmd+End on Mac) to jump to the very end. If you see a blank page, click at the start of that blank area and drag to select all the white space. Then press Delete or Backspace. If the page disappears, you are done. If it stays, the blank page is caused by something else — read the sections below for your specific situation.
Key Takeaways
- Most blank pages come from extra paragraph marks, page breaks, or tables that push content onto a new page.
- Turning on formatting marks (Ctrl+* on Windows, Cmd+* on Mac) shows you exactly what is creating the blank space.
- A page break symbol looks like a line with "Page Break" written on it; a paragraph mark looks like a backwards P (¶).
- Deleting the symbol that causes the blank page removes the page itself — the document will reflow automatically.
- If a table sits at the end of your document, delete the paragraph mark after it to remove trailing blank pages.
Turn on formatting marks to see what is causing the blank page
Word hides the symbols that create structure — paragraph marks, page breaks, tabs — by default. Turning them on shows you exactly what is pushing content around. On Windows, press Ctrl+* (Ctrl and the asterisk key). On Mac, press Cmd+*. You will see small symbols appear throughout your document.
A paragraph mark looks like a backwards P (¶). A page break looks like a line across the page with the words "Page Break" written on it. A tab looks like a small arrow pointing right. Once you can see these symbols, scroll to the blank page and look at what is there. Usually you will see either a page break symbol, a cluster of paragraph marks, or both.
Delete a manual page break
If you see a line labeled "Page Break" on the blank page, someone inserted it manually — often to force a chapter or section to start on a new page. Click directly on that page break line and press Delete. The page will disappear and the content below will move up.
If you have multiple blank pages in a row, check whether there are multiple page break symbols stacked on top of each other. Delete each one. After you delete the last page break, the document will reflow and the blank pages will close up.
Remove extra paragraph marks at the end of the document
If you see several backwards P symbols (¶) clustered together on the blank page, those are extra paragraph marks. Click before the first one and drag to select all of them, then press Delete. Usually one paragraph mark at the end of a document is normal — delete the extras but leave one behind.
Paragraph marks pile up when someone presses Enter multiple times at the end of a document, or when content is pasted in from another source. Deleting them collapses the blank space. If you delete all of them and the blank page is still there, the issue is something else — check the sections below.
Handle a table at the end of your document
If your document ends with a table, Word automatically adds a paragraph mark after it. That paragraph mark counts as content, so if the table fills most of the page, the paragraph mark pushes onto a new blank page. To remove it, click right after the table (after the last cell) and look for the paragraph mark symbol. Click on it and press Delete.
Be careful not to delete the table itself — you only want to delete the paragraph mark that comes after the table ends. If you accidentally delete part of the table, press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) to undo and try again.
Check for hidden text or spacing settings
Sometimes a blank page exists because of spacing settings rather than actual content. With formatting marks still visible, look at the blank page. If it appears completely empty (no symbols at all), the blank space might be caused by a large bottom margin or extra spacing between paragraphs.
To check margins, go to the Layout tab (or Page Layout in older versions) and click Margins. Look at the bottom margin value — if it is unusually large, reduce it. To check paragraph spacing, select the last paragraph of actual content, go to Home, click the small arrow next to Paragraph, and look at the spacing values under "Spacing". If "After" is set to a large number, reduce it to zero.
Prevent blank pages from coming back
Once you remove the blank page, keep formatting marks visible while you work. This way you will see when ready if you accidentally create a page break or add extra paragraph marks. You can turn them off when you are done editing — press Ctrl+* again to hide them.
If you work with other people on the same document, ask them not to use Enter to create space between sections. Use page breaks instead (Insert > Page Break), which are cleaner and do not create accidental blank pages. If someone pastes content from another document, check the end of the pasted section for extra paragraph marks and delete them right away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my document keep adding a blank page no matter what I delete?
This usually means the blank page is caused by a setting rather than a symbol. Check your bottom margin and paragraph spacing (see the section above). You can also try selecting all content (Ctrl+A), then going to Home > Paragraph and setting spacing before and after to zero. If a table is at the end, make sure you deleted the paragraph mark after it, not the table itself.
Can I delete a page without deleting the content on it?
No — if you delete the page break or paragraph marks that create a page, the content moves to the previous page and reflows. If you want to keep the content but remove the page break, move the content to the previous page first, then delete the page break symbol.
What if I delete something by accident?
Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) when ready to undo. You can undo multiple times to go back several steps. If you closed the document without saving, reopen it and the changes will not be there.
Is there a way to delete all blank pages at once?
Not automatically, but you can use Find & Replace to remove multiple paragraph marks at once. Press Ctrl+H to open Find & Replace, type ^p^p in the Find field (which means two paragraph marks in a row), leave Replace blank, and click Replace All. This removes extra paragraph marks throughout the document. Do this once or twice, then check the result.
Why does Word keep creating a blank page when I paste content?
Pasted content sometimes brings formatting with it, including extra paragraph marks or page breaks. After you paste, when ready turn on formatting marks and delete any extra symbols. You can also use Paste Special (Ctrl+Shift+V) and choose "Unformatted Text" to paste without the extra formatting.