How to Delete a Blank Page in Word

A blank page has appeared in the middle or at the end of a document and pressing Backspace does not remove it. Something invisible is holding that page: empty paragraphs, a page break, or a section break. Make it visible, then delete it.

Show formatting marks

Click Home, then the Show/Hide ¶ button in the Paragraph group, or press Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Mac: Cmd + 8). Every paragraph mark, page break, and section break is now displayed.

Delete the extra paragraph marks or page break

Go to the blank page. If it shows only ¶ symbols, click before the first one, drag to select all of them, and press Delete. If a line reads Page Break, click on it and press Delete, then remove the paragraph mark that follows it.

Fix a blank page after a table

When a document ends with a table, Word requires a paragraph mark after it, and that mark can spill onto a new page. Select the mark on the blank page, click Home, type 1 in the Font Size box, and press Enter. If the page remains, select the mark again, press Ctrl + D (Mac: Cmd + D) to open the Font dialog, tick Hidden, and click OK.

Remove or change a section break

If the blank page follows a line reading Section Break (Next Page), click at the end of the text before the break and press Delete. Deleting a section break can change the header, footer, or margin settings of the text before it. To keep those settings, click in the section after the break instead, click Layout, then the small arrow in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup group, open the Layout tab, set Section start to Continuous, and click OK.

Selecting a whole page. Click anywhere on the blank page, press Ctrl + G (Mac: Option + Cmd + G), type \page in the box, press Enter, and close the dialog. The entire page is selected, so press Delete to remove it. This works well when the page holds a mix of marks and breaks.

On Mac. Cmd + 8 toggles formatting marks, and the Font dialog with the Hidden option also opens from Format, Font in the menu bar.