How to delete a blank page in word: The ultimate guide.
We have all been there. You write a professional paper, a resume, an assignment and press a print button or save as a PDF only to find a mysterious unreadable blank page at the end (or in the middle) of the paper.
The more times you press the back space button, the more it does not want to vanish.
The positive thing is that the page is not haunted, it only has some hidden formatting. The following are the steps that can be followed to locate and erase that blank page permanently.
Method 1: The “Show/Hide” Method
The most common reason for a blank page is hidden paragraphs or page breaks that you cannot see. To fix this, you need to make the invisible visible.
1. Turn on Paragraph Marks
Go to the Home tab in the ribbon. Look for the “Paragraph” section and click the Show/Hide icon that looks like a backward ‘P’ (¶).
Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Windows) or Command + 8 (Mac).
2. Identify the Culprit
Once clicked, you will see symbols all over your document. Look at the blank page. You will likely see one of two things:
A series of empty paragraph marks (¶) running down the page.
A specific marker that says Page Break or Section Break.
3. Delete the Formatting
If it’s empty paragraphs: Highlight all the ¶ marks on the blank page and press Delete.
If it’s a Page Break: Click directly before the words “Page Break,” and press Delete.
Method 2: The Navigation Pane
If you prefer a visual overview of your document to spot blank pages, use the Navigation Pane.
Go to the View tab in the top menu.
Check the box marked Navigation Pane.
A sidebar will appear on the left. In that left-hand sidebar, clicking on the Pages tab.
The thumbnails of all the pages in your document will appear. The thumbnail of the blank page is to be picked.
Keep on pressing the Delete or Back space key until the page vanishes.
Method 3: The “Table at the End” Problem
This is the trickiest scenario. When your document has the end of Table, word insists on the addition of empty paragraph in the end of the table. With that table all the way to the bottom of the page, that required blank paragraph will be forced to the other page, leaving you with a blank sheet that can not be deleted.
The Fix:
As you cannot remove this last paragraph, you must make it very small, so that it can occupy the former page.
Turn on Paragraph Marks (¶) so you can see the empty paragraph after the table on the blank page.
Highlight that solitary paragraph mark.
Go to the Home tab and change the Font Size to 1.
Press Enter.
The paragraph will become so small that it should snap back up to the bottom of the previous page, removing the blank sheet.
Method 4: Saving as PDF
If you are in a rush and simply need to send the document without the blank page, you can exclude it during the export process.
Go to File > Save As.
Choose PDF as the file format.
Click Options.
Under “Page range,” select Page(s) From: and enter the range of pages you actually want (e.g., 1 to 5), leaving out the blank page 6.
Click OK and Save.
