Blank pages can appear in a Microsoft Word document for a few reasons. Oftentimes the doc may contain manual page breaks, empty paragraphs, or formatted section breaks based on the margins. The question is “How can you delete an unwanted blank page in a Microsoft Word document?”
The answer is easier than you’d think. It doesn’t take much to learn how to remove a blank page in Word. But what about page breaks? How about blank pages created due to tables inserted into the Word document? Follow the steps below to know exactly what you’ll need to do to delete empty pages in Word.
Method 1: Delete A Blank Page In Microsoft Word Document Using Your Keyboard
Encountering a blank page is common. If it happens to be the last page, removing it takes very few steps at all to accomplish.
- Navigate to the blank page and set your cursor to that page.
- With the cursor on the outer-edge of the page, either press the Backspace or Delete key on your keyboard to delete the blank page in Microsoft Word.
It’s possible that this was the result of an empty paragraph. You can press Ctrl + * to show/hide paragraph marks that indicate where a paragraph begins. If you notice a paragraph symbol on the blank page, it indicates an empty paragraph likely brought on by clicking Enter too many times.
Method 2: Delete A Blank Page In Microsoft Word Document via Single Page Break
While in Print Layout mode, a page break may have been inserted which would take up an entire page. To remove the created blank page, you’ll first need to view the line of the page break.
Step 1. While in Microsoft Word, at the top of the window, navigate over to the View tab.
Step 2. In the View tab, locate the Document Views, or Views, section and click Draft.
Step 3. Select and delete the page break line.
Method 3: Remove Multiple Page Breaks In Microsoft Word Document
With longer documents, it’s not uncommon to have multiple page breaks. Removal of multiple page breaks will require a different approach than that of a single page break.
Step 1. In Word 2010 or higher, navigate to the Home tab.
Step 2. Navigate to the Editing section and click Replace.
Step 3. While in the Find and Replace window, navigate to the Replace tab and click the More >> button.
Step 4. In the newly opened section of the window, click Special. From the pop-up menu, click Manual Page Break.
This will add a ^m to the “Replace with:” box.
Step 5. Add the ^m to the “Find what:” box, remove it from the “Replace with:” box, and click the Replace All button.
This will remove all page breaks from your Microsoft Word document.
Method 4: Delete A Blank Page In Microsoft Word Document By Reducing Margins
Tables that have been inserted into a Microsoft Word document can often take up an entire page. This will cause the Enter key to always push onward to another page even if there is visible blank space on the page. Resumes created in Microsoft Word can often be the culprits of this. Luckily, we can narrow things down a bit using custom margins.
Step 1. Navigate to the Layout tab, click Margins, and then select Custom Margins… at the bottom of the dropdown menu.
This will open a Page Setup window.
Step 2. In the Page Setup window, you can reduce the page margins forcing Word to remove the blank pages being added due to inserted tables.
Click OK to finalize your changes.
FAQs About Blank Pages in Word Document
Why Do Blank Pages Occur in a Microsoft Word Document?
Most blank pages are the result of extended paragraphs (clicking Enter too many times pushing the article forward without adding words), annoying page breaks, or the report body width exceeds the available page space.
Blank Pages Still Appear Even After Deleting Them All Using The Solutions Above. What Gives?
If you’ve exhausted all solutions provided and you still have a blank page after printing out your Word document, it’s possible that the Printer Properties are in need of tweaking. Head into the printer Properties and look to see if a separator page option has been enabled. If so, disable it.
How Can I Avoid Blank Pages When Printing Paginated Reports?
You’ll need to adjust the properties of the page orientation, dimensions, and margins of your Word document using either the Property Page or Properties pane. Either will allow you to change the page units, size, and margins for the report you wish to print out. It can also be beneficial to adjust the report body width and height to account for unwanted blank space. These criteria are also useful when attempting to avoid blank pages while exporting a Word document into a PDF.
Conclusion
Understanding what kind of “blank page” situation you’ve encountered will make it easier to remove pesky blank pages in a Word document. The above solutions will help in most cases and you should now know how to get rid of unwanted, annoying blank pages in Microsoft Word.
