Deleting unnecessary pages in Microsoft Word can be crucial for maintaining the professionalism of your documents, especially when preparing official reports, manuscripts, or presentations. Blank or unwanted pages often appear due to various formatting actions or text deletions. This guide will explore several efficient methods to help you remove these pages, ensuring your document looks polished and reads seamlessly.

• At the end of the document
• In the middle of the document
• Dealing with stubborn blank page

Remove a blank page

Blank pages can disrupt the visual flow and integrity of your document. Whether they appear at the end or in the middle of your document, removing them efficiently is key to maintaining your document's cleanliness and professionalism.

Remove a blank page at the end of the document

Often, blank pages at the end of documents result from extra paragraphs. Here’s how to cleanly remove them.

1. Navigate to the end of your document.
   Tip: You can use the Ctrl + End shortcut to quickly go to the last page.
2. Turn on paragraph markers by clicking the ¶ button on the Home tab to reveal hidden formatting symbols. If the blank page contains multiple blank paragraphs, select all these paragraphs.
   
3. Press the Delete key to delete all the extra paragraph markers, which should delete the blank page as well.

Result

The blank page at the end of the document has been removed as shown in the screenshot below.

Remove a blank page in the middle of the document

Blank pages in the middle of a document can disrupt the flow and readability. Follow these steps to remove them.

1. You can enable the Navigation pane for quickly navigating to the blank page.
   There are two methods to open the Navigation pane:
   • Click on the page number indicator on the bottom-left corner of the document.
     
   • Go to the View tab, check the Navigation Pane checkbox in the Show group.
     
2. The Navigation pane will appear on the left side of the document. Click on the Pages tab within the Navigation pane to view a list of all pages. You can then click to select and navigate to the blank page you wish to remove.
   
3. After navigating to the blank page you want to remove, press Ctrl + G to open the Find and Replace dialog box, and switch to the Go To tab. Then you need to configure as follows:
   1. Ensure Page is selected in the Go to what list.
   2. Enter \page in the Enter page number text box.
   3. Click the Go To button to select all blank paragraphs on the currently active blank page.
   4. Close this Find and Replace dialog box.
      
4. When it returns to the document, directly press the Backspace key to remove the blank page.
   

Dealing with stubborn blank page

Some blank pages are challenging to remove due to hidden formatting or layout settings. As demonstrated below, for the blank page at the end of the document, attempting to delete the blank paragraphs on this blank page can be futile; no matter how many times you hit that Delete button, the blank page just won't disappear.

To solve this problem, please do as follows:

1. Turn on paragraph markers by clicking the ¶ button on the Home tab. This will reveal hidden formatting symbols.
   
2. At the end of the page preceding the blank one, you might notice a Section Break symbol. This section break prevents the removal of the blank page by simply deleting empty paragraphs. To resolve this, press Ctrl + H keys to open the Find and Replace dialog bo, and then you need to delete the Section Break as follows.
   1. Under the Replace tab, enter ^b into the Find what text box.
   2. Keep the Replace with text box empty.
   3. Click the Find Next button until the corresponding section break is selected.
   4. Click the Replace button to remove the selected section break. And then close this Find and Replace dialog box.
      

Result

Removing the section break will also eliminate the blank page immediately following it.

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Remove an extra page containing text

Sometimes, you may need to remove pages containing unwanted text to streamline your document. For short documents, it's easy to identify and manually delete an unwanted page by selecting all the text on that page and pressing Backspace. However, for longer documents, such as when needing to remove a specific page like the 15th from a lengthy document, a more efficient method is recommended.

1. In the document from which you want to remove a certain extra page, press the Ctrl + G keys to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, you need to:
   1. Ensure Page is selected in the Go to what list.
   2. Enter a certain page number in the Enter page number text box. Here I enter number 15.
   3. Click the Go To button to jump to the specified page (the cursor will be moved to the beginning of that page).
   4. Close this Find and Replace dialog box.
      
3. Click and drag to select all the text on that page.
   
4. And then press the Backspace or Delete key to delete that page immediately.

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Efficiently managing blank and unwanted pages in Word is essential for creating professional documents. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can tackle common issues associated with page deletion, from stubborn blank pages to unwanted text pages. Remember, regularly checking your document’s layout and formatting can prevent these issues from occurring, ensuring your final document is both clean and correctly formatted. For those eager to delve deeper into Word's capabilities, our website boasts a wealth of tutorials. Discover more Word tips and tricks here.

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