How to Move Pages in Microsoft Word

Typing up a document in Microsoft Word can prove to be nothing short of a power struggle, especially when there’s document formatting and layout to take into account. Various aspects of formatting a document and perfecting its layout can be significantly difficult, one of the worst ones being moving around pages existing pages in a document. Word simply creates new pages as needed when you’re typing up a document, but it’s when you want to move around pages that already exist that things get a bit tricky. Why? Well, Word does not have a native option or feature that allows users to freely and easily move pages around in a Word document, at least not under normal circumstances.

That’s not to say that it is impossible to move pages around in a Word document, however – it is certainly possible, and not too difficult either. In addition, one way or another, it is possible to move entire pages around in all versions of Word. There are two different ways a Word user can move existing pages in a Word document – they can either move pages using headings (if they’re using Word 2010 or later) or by moving every single word on the pages they want to move to a new location in the document (the pages will automatically be moved when you move their content). Without further ado, here’s how you can move existing pages in a Word document:

Method 1: Using the Navigation Pane (Word 2010 or later)

First and foremost, you can move pages in a Word document using the Navigation Pane feature to move entire headings and all the content that comes under them. This method can only be used on Word 2010 or an ever newer version of the word processor, and only works if you have added headings to the document. To move pages in a Word document using this method, you need to:

1. Open the Word document you want to rearrange pages in.
2. Navigate to the View tab in Word’s toolbar.
3. In the Show section, check the checkbox located directly beside the Navigation Pane option to enable the Navigation Pane.
4. Navigate to the Browse the headings in your document tab in the Navigation Pane. The Word document will not look like one very long page, and it will be broken down into different sections by headings.
5. Click on the heading of the section of text you want to move to a new location in the Word document, and with the click still held, drag the heading to the new location you want it in. Everything under the heading will be moved to the new location with the heading, and Word will automatically reformat and move the document’s pages as required.

Method 2: Move the contents of the target page to a new location

You move pages in any Word document on any version of Microsoft Word by simply cutting the contents of the target page(s) from their current location and pasting them to whatever location in the document you you to move them to. In order to do so, simply:

1. Open the Word document you want to rearrange pages in.
2. Right-click and drag your mouse pointer over everything on the page(s) you want to move to highlight and select the contents.
3. Press Ctrl + X to Cut the selection of text. The page(s) the text was on will be eliminated once it has been Cut.
4. Place your mouse pointer in the location within the Word document you want the pages moved to.
5. Press Ctrl + V to Paste the contents of the target page(s). The contents will be moved to the new location and Word will automatically create space to accommodate the text that you have pasted, successfully moving the target page(s) from their previous location to the new location you have chosen.