How to Delete an Extra Page in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the most used word processor, whether for creating documents, writing content, writing CVs, etc. It offers a host of formatting options that make it easy to customize pages according to specific requirements. However, sometimes it fails to charm due to minor but obvious flaws. For example, people often have trouble deleting blank pages or there is always an extra page at the end of the document.

Deleting these pages is not always a daunting task, but if you are an avid MS Word user, you will find cases where the page simply fails to delete itself. Let's do an overview of all the methods you can deploy to get rid of that extra page or blank page on MS Word. Of course, these are simple but effective methods that people of all ages and tech savvy can use.

How to delete an extra page in Microsoft Word?

Delete a page on MS Word with Backspace

Technically, the simplest of all, this is what most people do to get rid of an extra page at the end of the document.

Step 1: Go to the last page of the document

2nd step: In case some lines of written content or other elements overflow on the last unwanted page, you can try to adjust them in the previous pages, for example by reducing the font size, image size, etc. .

Step 3: Finally, tap the last line of the last page where it ends. For example, if there are 5 blank lines on the last blank page, you will need to delete those 5 blank lines first.

Step 4: Once you reach the top of the blank page, simply press the Backspace button and the last page should disappear.

Step #5: Check the number of pages before and after in the lower left corner of the MS Word application.

Delete page on MS Word with page function

Here is a simple method you can use to delete a page on MS Word on Windows and Mac devices.

Step 1: Go to the page you want to delete (say, page 2 of 5)

2nd step: Press Ctrl+G (Windows) or Option+⌘+G (Mac) to open a “Find and Replace” dialog box and load you into the “Go To” function.

Step 3: Select “Page” from the left menu, go to the right side and enter “page” in the “Enter page number” field.

Step 4: Press “Enter” on your keyboard and select “Close” in the dialog box.

Note: This will automatically select the entire page you want to select, which is page 2 of 5 in this example.

Step #5: Press “Delete” on your keyboard and the page will automatically delete itself.

Note: Although this works on pages with little or a lot of content, it does not work on empty pages. You can always enter an alphabet or number on the page to be deleted and repeat the above-mentioned steps to get rid of it.

Check if stopping paragraph marks is enabled

You must have accidentally enabled paragraph mark stopping (or Pilcrow) which looks like this “¶”. Well, they are formatting marks that indicate the end of a paragraph. These can be sticky since you might view them as a useless item that won't remove itself no matter what you do. This is because these are not visible once you print that particular document. Coming back to the topic, you can check if any paragraph marks stop on the page you want to delete. This could indicate why you may have deleted this page in the first place. You can enable them via Home >> Paragraph >> Show paragraph mark.

Tables in MS Word could create an extra page

MS Word lets you do wonders, including creating tables, adding details, etc. However, when you add a table to the end of the document, you will see an extra paragraph breakpoint at the end that is impossible to get rid of.

A workaround is to select it, change its font size to 1, and mark it with a “white” font color. This should make the pillow invisible or transparent. You will need to adjust the table so that it falls on the actual last page and not the one you want to delete.

Document margins in MS Word can prevent you from deleting pages

Margins are imaginary lines around a page in MS Word beyond which you cannot type or add anything. Depending on the use case, these margins prevent document elements from overflowing or being cut off after printing or opening on different systems.

However, a large page margin also means you have limited space to write. Sometimes your content can go too far to a new page. Reducing the margins to default settings can help remove that extra page in Word without any hassle.

Also Read: Access Word, Excel & More for Free: Legal Ways to Get Microsoft 365 in 2024

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