Delete a page in Word – Three methods

Computer Basics

Three ways to delete a full page in Microsoft Word

If you need to delete a page in Microsoft Word you have two methods to choose from in this post. Here is the easiest way to do that using easy step by step instructions:

Method # 1 – The Simplest Way To Delete a Page in Microsoft Word

  1. First, place your cursor (it is the mouse symbol that moves when you move your computer mouse – it looks like an I) at the very top of the empty page
  2. Hit the delete key on your keyboard. The blank page will disappear and the cursor will be brought to the bottom of the previous page.

See our video below on How to Delete a Page in Word:

How to delete a page in Microsoft Word on Vimeo.

Or see it this Word tip video on YouTube

Method # 2 – How To Delete a Page in Microsoft Word With Mutliple Blank Lines

If you use the method above to delete the page and it doesn’t work it could be that there are more than one invisible characters in the page. You likely have multiple blank lines in your unwanted Word page. Here is what to do.

  1. Go to the top of the blank page and insert your cursor with a mouse click.
  2. Then hold your SHIFT key down and tap the down arrow on your keyboard.
  3. This will select any characters on the line where the cursor is. Then tap again to delete the next line, if there is one. And keep going until you get to the end of the page on on to the next page.

Here is a how to video to help explain:

 



Method #3 – Reveal hidden characters in a Word page to delete it

Here is one more method of deleting a page from a Microsoft Word document.

Reveal your page breaks. They are hidden characters that tell MS Word where to start a new page. If a manual page break has been inserted, this may create an unwanted blank page in the Word document you are working on.

  • To reveal manual page breaks, switch to showing paragraph marks: Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (⌘+8 on a Mac).
  • Now select the page break with your cursor and hit the delete key to remove it.
  • The Next Page, Odd Page, and Even Page section containing page breaks may also create a blank page in Word document.
  • If the blank page shows at the end of your document, and there is a section break located there, then place your cursor before the section break, and then hit the Delete key.  To help find section breaks, you can try flipping to Draft mode on the View tab.

How to change section break to not generate a new page

Also note that when working in the middle of a document, if you delete a section break there, it can cause page formatting issues. In this scenario, change the section break to one that won’t generate a new page. Here’s how:

  1. Double click on the section break.
  2. In the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box, click the Section start drop down menu and select Continuous.
  3. Select OK.