How to Delete a Page in Word | Delete a Page in Word Mac

Rick Akura on
Formatting Microsoft Word can get funky. Here are ways to delete a page in Word including how to delete a page in Word Mac to manage invisible page breaks.

Formatting Microsoft Word can get funky. Here are ways to delete a page in Word, including how to delete a page in Word Mac to manage invisible page breaks.

How to delete a page in word

Microsoft Word is the most popular word-processing application for Windows and Mac systems. It allows you to write content professionally with advanced features to aid your work process.

But blank pages in a Word document can make an unprofessional impression on editors or potential employers. Yet, Microsoft Word sometimes create blank pages in a document. So, you should ensure to delete the these blank pages in Word whenever possible before sharing the document with anyone else.

In this article, we’ll discuss several basic solutions about how to delete a page in Word with step-by-step instructions regardless of your Office skills. This article applies to Word for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Word for Windows, Word for Mac, and Microsoft Word 2021.

If you want to delete a page containing text, graphics, or other content in a Microsoft Word document, or if you’re wanting to get rid of blank pages at the end of your report that won’t appear to go away, here’s how.

Let's roll our sleeves and get started.

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Summary: Delete a page in Word

  • To delete a page in MS Word that contains text, graphics, or empty paragraphs, you can select the content to delete and press Delete.
  • You can also do this:
    1. Click/tap anywhere on the page you want to delete > press Ctrl+G.
    2. In the Enter page number box, type \page.
    3. On your Keyboard, Press Enter > then select Close.
    4. Verify that a page of content is selected > then press Delete on your keyboard.
    5. Voila! You've deleted a page!
  • If you're using macOS or Word for Mac, here's how to delete a page in Word Mac:
    1. Click/tap anywhere on the page you wish to delete > then press Option+⌘+G.
    2. In the Enter page number box, type \page.
    3. Next, press Enter on the keyboard > then select Close.
    4. Verify that a page of content is selected > then press the Delete button on the keyboard.

Why you Can’t Delete a Page in Microsoft Word? 

Word users sometimes struggle to delete pages, often ones that appear empty. At first, this may seem like an error in the application itself. In reality, the problem has simple solutions depending on its cause.

While formatting, you might’ve inserted a page break, which may be hidden from you until you enable visibility for special symbols. This creates a seemingly blank page or whitespace in Word. A similar thing happens if the text color matches your page’s color - for example, white text on a white background. The page will appear blank despite having content on it.

Some users also found text written in a formatted font barely visible. For example, a 1pt font size is incredibly hard to notice on the default zoom setting. If you simply can’t remove a page with content on it, our methods below will help you sort the issue out.

How To Delete a Page in Word with Content (for Windows and Mac)

Don’t give your mouse a workout trying to delete a persistently blank page. Follow our steps to eliminate unwanted pages, blank pages, or whitespace in a Word document.

Method 1. Hold the Backspace or Delete Key

An easy way to delete an entire page in Word is by holding the backspace or delete key to erase every character on the page. This can be tedious for documents with lots of content, but it works.

hold the backspace or delete key to delete a page in word

This method might also work for empty pages, as you might have spaces or other filler characters you can’t see but can delete. Simply move your blinking cursor to the end of the Word document, then press and hold the backspace key or delete key until the page is removed.

Method 2. Select the Page Content and Delete It

A quick way to remove a page in Word is using the Go To function. This is available on all platforms, making it an accessible solution that you can memorize for future use in all environments. Here are the instructions on how to remove a page in Word using the Go-To feature.

  1. Open the Find and Replace window using the Ctrl + G keyboard shortcut on Windows or ⌘ + option + G on Mac.
  2. Switch to the Go To tab. In the Enter page number input box, type in “/page” without quotation marks.
    delet page by content
  3. Hit the Enter key on your keyboard, then click Close. This will select all the content on your page. Press the backspace key or the delete key once to erase everything.

Method 3. Remove a Page From the Navigation Pane

The Navigation pane shows a document preview and allows you to jump to specific pages quickly. However, you can also use it to delete blank pages in Word as well. You can easily spot a blank page and complete the steps below to erase them from your document.

  1. Go to the View tab in the ribbon displayed on top of your window, and then place a check next to the Navigation Pane option. If you’re using Windows, use the Ctrl + H keyboard shortcut to quickly toggle the pane.
    remove a page from the navigation pane
  2. Switch to the Pages tab in the left panel, and click on the blank page thumbnail preview to instantly jump to the beginning of the page. If you’re deleting a page with content, locate it.
    remove a page from the navigation pane
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click once while holding the Shift key on your keyboard. This will select everything on the page.
  4. Press the backspace key or the delete key once to remove all contents and delete the page. This should help you remove the page from your document.

Method 4. How to delete a page in Word - Delete Extra Paragraph Mark

In some cases, invisible characters you can’t see by default stop you from deleting a blank page. Pilcrow symbols, displayed with the ¶ character, are used to mark where you begin a new paragraph. They’re not visible by default until you change some of your settings.

Here are the steps to make the paragraph symbol visible in a Word document, then delete it to remove a seemingly blank page or whitespace in your document.

  1. In most versions of Word, you can toggle the visibility of the paragraph mark from the Home tab in the Ribbon. Simply click on the button which displays the symbol until you start seeing the marks in your document.
    delete extra paragrapha mark
  2. Erase extra paragraphs where you see the ¶ symbol using the backspace key or the delete key on your keyboard. After removing the last paragraph marker, the page should be deleted.
  3. If the Show/Hide toggle didn’t work, try these alternative steps to make the paragraph mark visible in Word.

Word for Windows

To delete a blank page in Windows, by making the paragraph mark visible;

  1. Go to the File tab and select Options. This is going to open the Word Options dialog box.
    delete page break
  2. Switch to the Display tab in the left panel.
  3. Click on the Paragraph marks check box in the Always show these formatting marks on the screen section. You can also turn every mark visible by checking the Show all formatting marks option to reveal more symbols.
    delete page break
  4. Change how document content is displayed on the screen and when printed

In Word for Mac

  1. Click on Word from the menu bar on top of your screen and select Preferences. You can also use the ⌘ +, (comma) keyboard shortcut to open the dialog box.
  2. Select View from the Authoring and Proofing Tools section.
  3. Place a checkmark next to Paragraph marks in the Show non-printing Characters section. You can also turn every marker visible by selecting the All option.
    delete page break

Method 5. How To Delete Page Breaks in Word

A manual page break you inserted may be stopping you from being able to delete a page in Word. Page breaks usually serve to create separate pages on demand, which may be left in while you alter and delete parts of a Word document.

Below are the steps to learn how to remove a page in Word when you have one or more page breaks in your document.

  1. Find the ———— Page Break ———— in your document and place your cursor at the end of it.
    delete page break
  2. Press the backspace key or the delete key to remove the page break. This should also delete the page it was on if the page was empty.

Method 6. Use an Online Page Removal Tool

No luck deleting the unwanted page in Word? Your last solution could be an online tool. Smallpdf offers a way to convert your Word documents into a PDF file and then lets you make edits to the converted file. This includes a way to delete any unwanted pages, white pages, and empty pages.

Here’s how you can use the Smallpdf Word to PDF tool and the Delete Pages tool to remove a page in Word.

  1. Navigate to smallpdf.com/word-to-pdf using any web browser on your device.
  2. Click on the Choose Files button, or simply drag your Word document into the converter and wait for it to turn into a PDF. The process will automatically begin.
    delete page break online
  3. Once the conversion is complete, click on the Edit PDF button. You’ll be redirected to a new tool, which allows you to remove pages from a Word document.
    delete page break online
  4. Click on Tools from the page toolbar, and then select Delete PDF Pages.
    delete page break online
  5. Hover over the page you want to delete, and then click on the Delete icon displayed by a garbage bin. After deleting every unwanted page, click Apply changes.
    deelte page break online
  6. Click the Download button to save the edited file on your computer. If you want to convert the file back to a Word document, use the PDF to Word converter to change your file back to its original format.

How to delete a blank page in Word

Word includes a non-deletable end-paragraph that sometimes gets pushed out to a new, blank page at the end of a document. Wondering how to delete a page in Word - the blank page?

To delete blank pages in a word document, you must make the end-paragraph fit onto the preceding page. The most sure-fire way is to make the end paragraph very small (1 point).

Now, to delete a blank page in Word (including delete a blank page in Word for Mac:Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Word 2021 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, Word 2016 for Mac, Word 2013, Word 2010):

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (⌘+8 on a Mac) to show paragraph marks.
  2. Select the paragraph mark.
  3. Select inside the Font size box, type 01, and then press Enter. If you do this, the paragraph now fits on the preceding page, removing the unwanted blank page.
  4. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 again to hide the paragraph marks (⌘+8 on a Mac).

If that paragraph unfortunately still doesn't fit on the preceding page, you can make the bottom margin smaller (Layout tab > Margins > Custom Margins, and set the bottom margin to something small, like 0.3 inches). This should work.

Convert word to PDF

Another way to delete blank pages is to convert word to PDF. Here are the steps to help you convert word to pdf.

  1. Go to File > Save As
  2. Pick a place to save the file > then choose PDF for the Save as type.
  3. Select Options in the Save As dialog box.
  4. Under Page range, choose Page(s) > then specify your non-blank pages. For instance, if page 5 of your document is the blank page you can't get rid of, specify pages from 1 to 4.
  5. Select OK, and then select Save.

Recap: How to Delete  a page in Microsoft Word

  1. Click or tap anywhere in the page you want to delete, press Ctrl+G.
  2. In the Enter page number box, type \page.
  3. Press Enter on your keyboard, and then select Close.
  4. Verify that a page of content is selected, and then press Delete on your keyboard.

Final Thoughts

We hope you learned how to delete a page in Word. It's not difficult, right? Now that the pesky page is gone, you can continue working on your projects.

Our Help Center offers hundreds of guides to assist you if you require further help. Return to us for more informative articles, or contact our experts for immediate assistance.

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Tags: How To