How to Delete a Page in Word on Mobile & Desktop [2024]
Reviewed by Huzaifa Haroon- Deleting a page in Word can be done through various methods, including using the Backspace/Delete key, navigating via the Find and Replace tool, or utilizing the Navigation Pane to locate and remove unwanted pages.
- To tackle blank pages caused by breaks or table formatting, Word provides tools like showing paragraph marks and modifying section breaks, which help identify and resolve hidden formatting issues that lead to extra pages.
- The steps to delete a page are consistent across different versions of Microsoft Word, including Office 365, ensuring users can manage their documents effectively regardless of the version they are using.
Blank or extra pages in a Microsoft Word document can make your work look unprofessional and lead to issues when printing or converting the file to other formats. This can occur for various reasons, such as extra paragraph markers, page breaks, or formatting inconsistencies.
Whether you’re using Microsoft Word 2007, 2016, 2019, 2021, or Office 265, knowing how to remove these unwanted pages is essential. This guide will explore multiple methods to delete a page in Word efficiently, ensuring your documents appear clean and polished.
Table of Contents:
How do pages work in MS Word?
In Microsoft Word, pages are the fundamental units of a document, providing structure and organization to your content. As you type continuously, Word automatically moves text to the next page once the current one is filled, ensuring a seamless flow of information.
This automation helps maintain the document’s readability and layout without manual intervention. Microsoft Word does not impose a maximum page limit, allowing users to create documents of any length.
However, extremely large documents can impact performance and may become challenging to manage. Understanding how pages function in Word enables users to format their documents effectively, ensuring a professional appearance and ease of navigation.
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How to delete a page in Word?
Blank pages can mess up the continuity of your document in Microsoft Word. Let’s look at straightforward methods to identify and delete these pages:
How to delete a page in Word on mobile?
Deleting a page in Microsoft Word on mobile devices follows a slightly different process than on desktop due to the touchscreen interface and condensed menu options. Here’s how you can remove a page from a Word document using the Word app on iOS or Android:
- Launch the Microsoft Word app on your mobile device and open the document from which you want to delete a page.
Open the Document - Scroll through your document to find the page you want to delete. You’ll quickly notice it if it’s a blank page as you scroll.
Go to the page you want to delete - Tap and hold to select the text or images on the page you wish to delete. On iOS, you might use the selection handles to adjust your selection; on Android, tap “Select” and then drag the handles to include all content on the page.
Select the text or empty area - Once everything on the page is selected, tap “Delete” or “Backspace” on your on-screen keyboard. This action should remove all selected content.
Tap on Delete - After deleting the content, if the page was not automatically removed (sometimes there may still be hidden paragraph marks or page breaks), place your cursor at the beginning of the next page and use the backspace key to remove any remaining blank spaces that might be forcing a new page start.
Select the remaining text and tap backspace - Don’t forget to save the changes to your document or tap “Done” to ensure the page is permanently removed.
Tap Done
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How to delete a page in Word on a desktop?
Deleting a page in Microsoft Word on a desktop can quickly clean up your document and eliminate unnecessary content. The steps for deleting a page in Microsoft Word are generally similar for both Windows (including all versions of Word and Microsoft 365) and Mac, with a few key differences, primarily in the keyboard shortcuts and some menu options:
- Keyboard shortcuts: On Windows, you might use Ctrl + G to open the “Go To” dialog, whereas on Mac, the equivalent shortcut is Option + Command + G.
- Menus and interface: The interface and menu options might also differ slightly between the two operating systems due to their unique design guidelines.
Here’s a straightforward guide on how to efficiently remove any page, whether it’s blank or filled with text:
1. Use the backspace/delete key
A simple way to remove unwanted pages in your Microsoft Word document is by using the Backspace (on Windows) or Delete (on Mac) keys. This method works across different versions of Microsoft Word, including 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Microsoft 365.
- Click at the beginning of the content on the page you wish to delete. Drag your cursor to the end of the page to select all the content.
Select the whole content - Once everything on the page is highlighted, press the “Backspace” key (Windows) or “Delete” key (Mac) to remove the selected content. If the page is between other text, it will automatically be removed once empty.
Delete the content
2. Use the Navigation Pane
For more visual management of your document, significantly longer ones, the Navigation Pane in Microsoft Word provides an effective way to quickly find and delete blank pages. The Navigation Pane is available and functions the same in Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Microsoft 365. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to the “View” tab on the ribbon and check the box labeled “Navigation Pane.
Click on Navigation pane - This will open a sidebar showing a thumbnail view of all the pages in your document.
A new sidebar will open - Scroll through the thumbnails in the Navigation Pane to find the blank page. Click on the thumbnail to select it, then press the “Delete” key to remove it.
Press Delete
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3. Using the Find and Replace tool
The Find and Replace tool can also be used to navigate to and delete specific pages. This method is consistent across recent versions of Word from Word 2007 onwards.
- Press Ctrl+G (Windows) or Option+Command+G (Mac) to open the “Go To” tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Open Find and Replace tool - In the “Enter page number” box, type “\page” to select the entire page.
Enter page number - Press Enter to highlight the page, then hit “Close” in the dialog box. Once the page’s content is selected, press the Delete key to remove it.
Press Delete key
4. Remove the blank page from the end
Sometimes, documents end with an unwanted blank page due to invisible paragraph marks or formatting. Here’s how you can remove it:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (Windows) or Command+8 (Mac) to reveal formatting marks, including paragraph marks.
Press Ctrl+Shift+8 - Select the paragraph marker at the end of your document. Change its font size to the smallest possible (usually 1 pt) in the font size field to try and fit it on the preceding page.
Make the text short
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Additional tips and tricks
In Microsoft Word, managing pages efficiently is crucial for a polished document. Here are some additional tips and tricks to help you handle page breaks, section breaks, and tables that might cause unexpected blank pages:
↪ Using page breaks
Manual page breaks in Microsoft Word can often lead to unintentional blank pages within your document. To remove these blank pages, activate the paragraph marks by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8 (or Command+8 on a Mac).
This will reveal hidden formatting symbols, including page breaks. You can then select and delete these breaks to restore the continuity of your document.
↪ Dealing with section breaks
Section breaks can accidentally create blank pages, especially if they’re set to start a new page or section. To manage this, change the section break settings to Continuous. This adjustment ensures the text flows smoothly from one section to another without creating new pages.
Access this setting by double-clicking the section break and selecting Continuous under the section start dropdown in the Layout tab.
↪ Handling tables at the end of documents
Tables placed at the end of a document can push paragraph marks onto the next page, creating an unwanted blank page. To fix this, reduce the font size of the paragraph markers immediately following the table to the smallest possible size (usually 1 pt), allowing the marker to fit on the preceding page.
Alternatively, you can adjust the document’s layout settings to decrease the bottom margin, making additional space for the paragraph marker without starting a new page.
READ MORE: How to Remove Unwanted Pages from Microsoft Word? ➜
Final thoughts
Managing pages in Microsoft Word—whether using a Windows PC, a Mac, or even a mobile device is straightforward once you know the right steps. From using simple keyboard shortcuts to employing the Navigation Pane or handling specific elements like page and section breaks, the flexibility of Word allows you to maintain the professional appearance of your documents.
Whether working in an older version of Word or using Microsoft 365’s cloud capabilities, the fundamental methods for deleting pages remain consistent, ensuring a smooth and efficient document editing process.
FAQs
To recover a deleted page in Word, immediately use the undo function by pressing Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac before closing the document. Suppose the document has been closed after the deletion. In that case, you might be able to recover a previous version by checking the file’s version history, especially if using Word as part of Microsoft 365 or saving your files to a cloud service like OneDrive.
You can use the Navigation Pane to locate blank pages in a Word document. Activate it by going to the “View” tab and checking “Navigation Pane” in the Pages section. This pane will display thumbnails of all the pages in your document. Scroll through these thumbnails to quickly identify and select any blank pages.
If you can’t delete a page in Word, it may be due to hidden formatting marks like section breaks or page breaks you’re not seeing. To view these, enable the display of all formatting marks by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8 (or Command+8 on Mac). Once these are visible, you can delete the specific breaks causing the issue.
Yes, you can delete multiple pages at once in Word by selecting the content across those pages. Click at the beginning of the first page you want to delete, hold down the Shift key, and click at the end of the last page you want to delete to highlight all the content. Then press Delete or Backspace to remove the selected pages.
You can adjust how you use page and section breaks to prevent accidental page additions in Word. When essential, only insert manual page breaks (Ctrl+Enter on Windows, Command+Enter on Mac).
Reviewed by Huzaifa Haroon
