This tutorial shows how to insert a blank page in Microsoft Word (without repeatedly pressing the Enter or Return key on your keyboard). We will also look at how to delete a blank page.

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This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

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If you need to delete a page in Microsoft Word, this tutorial is for you. While Microsoft Word is an incredibly powerful word processor and has a feature for almost anything, there is no quick way. Word includes a non-deleteable end-paragraph that sometimes gets pushed out to a new, blank page at the end of a document. The way to delete the page is to make the end-paragraph fit onto the preceding page. The most sure-fire way is to make the end-paragraph very small (1 point): Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (⌘+8 on a Mac) to show paragraph marks.

1. Turning on the paragraph marks in the method detailed above will also let you see the page breaks. Remove the page breaks and it will help to get rid of the blank page in Word as well. A quirk of the way Microsoft Word works means that if your document ends with a table, Word will automatically enter a paragraph mark after it.
2. Jan 01, 2021 How to Delete Pages in Microsoft Word. To remove all the material on a page, select the text and position the cursor at the end of the text you want to remove. Then press and hold the Backspace key (or Delete key on a Mac). Depending on how much text you have, consider using a shortcut to highlight the text.

Mar 09, 2021 Delete a Blank Page in Word Via the View Menu This method of deleting a blank page from a Word document is good for deleting any blank page, no matter where it is in the document. Select the View tab on the menu ribbon. Next, in the Show section of the menu, check the box next to Navigation Pane.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. These steps will also work for Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word for Mac.

How to Insert a Blank Page in Microsoft Word

1. Place your cursor where you would like to insert the blank page.
2. Select the Insert tab in the ribbon.

How To Delete A Page On Microsoft Word For Office

3. Select Blank Page in the Pages group.

Your blank page should be inserted into your document.

How to Delete a Blank Page in Microsoft Word

These steps show how to delete a blank page inserted using the steps above. If this method doesn’t work for you, please see the bonus section below for two additional deletion methods.

1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

How To Delete A Page On Microsoft Word Mac

2. Select the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph group to show the hidden formatting marks in your document.

3. Place your cursor at the start of the page break automatically created when you inserted your blank page.

Important Note: Mac users may have to place their cursor at the end of the page break rather than the start in order to delete the break.

4. Press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete the page break.
5. (Optional) If your blank page was inserted between existing content rather than at the end of your document, also delete the page break automatically created after the existing content.

Your blank page should be deleted.

Two More Ways to Delete Blank Pages

Blank pages can be created by several other issues, including leftover section breaks and unnecessary paragraph marks.

Delete Blank Pages Created by Section Breaks

If your unwanted blank page was created by a section break, you must delete the section break to delete the blank page.

1. Select the Show/Hide button in the Home tab (see figure 4) to locate the section break.
2. Place your cursor at the start of the break and press the Delete key on your keyboard. (Mac users may have to place their cursor at the end of the break in order to delete it.)

Delete Blank Pages Created by Paragraph Marks

Blank pages can be created by unnecessary paragraph marks.

1. Select the Show/Hide button in the Home tab (see figure 4) to locate the paragraph marks.
2. Select the paragraph mark or place your cursor directly in front of it, and then press the Delete key on your keyboard until the blank page is removed.

Related Resources

Microsoft Word is the most popular word processor in the world. Most people have already worked with the software, written a letter, created invitations or put together a resume. Therefore, most users know how to delete the content of a page. Just like with many other programs, any content can be deleted again with the backspace or deletekeys. But can you also delete an empty page? Yes, Word also has a solution for this.

Removing a blank page in Word - Why would you need to?

Often, when writing documents, anything you need to get rid of can be deleted with the backspace key. This way you can remove individual letters, whole words or even complete paragraphs from the document. But sometimes a whole page has got to go. For example, a page without content might sneak into your document. Sometimes, undesired blank pages only appear at the end, sometimes in the middle. Either way, it can sometimes be harder than it seems to delete this blank page in Word. In other cases, you need to delete whole pages of content, because you are no longer satisfied with the text.

How to delete a page in Word

Unwanted blank pages are usually caused by manual page breaks. In the default view, Word hides the appropriate control characters, so it's difficult to spot the correct place to delete the page. It’s easier if you adjust the view.

The function Show/hide paragraph marks helps you with that. You activate this function by clicking in the “Home” tab on the paragraph sign “¶”. Now all break characters are displayed.

You can also use the shortcut [Ctrl] + [Shift] + 8 to display the control characters.

This will help you to delete in the right places. Paragraph marks and page breaks are clearly displayed in this view. Move the cursor in front of the corresponding character and press the deletekey. Word automatically deletes the offending page once there are no characters left on the page to be deleted, and you have also removed the page break.

If it is not a blank page, but one with content, you must first remove text, images, and tables. The easiest way to do this should be if you use the mouse to highlight the area you want to delete and then hit the delete key. You can then remove any remaining paragraph marks and finally get rid of the entire page as explained above.

To swiftly navigate pages in large documents, you can use the Go to function. You can use the shortcut [Ctrl] + [G] to open the window and either enter the specific page number or use [+] and [-] to jump relative to your current position in the document.