How to Delete a Page in Word Using Shortcut Keys

Blank pages, half-empty pages, unwanted section breaks — Microsoft Word has a habit of generating extra pages that refuse to disappear with a simple backspace. The good news: there are keyboard shortcuts and fast methods to clear them. The method that works best, though, depends on why the page exists in the first place.

Why Extra Pages Appear in Word

Before reaching for a shortcut, it helps to understand what's actually creating the page. Word doesn't insert blank pages randomly — there's always a structural reason:

• Empty paragraphs — Pressing Enter too many times pushes content (or nothing) onto a new page
• Manual page breaks — Inserted with Ctrl + Enter, these force a new page regardless of content
• Section breaks — Next Page section breaks behave like page breaks but carry formatting
• Table at the end of a document — Word requires a paragraph after every table, which can create an unavoidable trailing page
• Page layout settings — Large bottom margins or "page break before" paragraph settings can push content unexpectedly

Identifying the cause changes which shortcut or technique actually solves it.

The Fastest Shortcut: Select and Delete

The most direct keyboard approach works when the page contains content (text, images, or invisible characters):

1. Press Ctrl + G (or F5) to open the Go To dialog
2. In the "Enter page number" field, type page and press Enter
3. Press Close
4. Press the Delete key

This selects everything on the current page and deletes it in one action. It works well on pages with visible or semi-visible content, but it won't always catch invisible structural elements like section breaks.

Deleting a Blank Page Caused by Empty Paragraphs

If a blank page is sitting at the end of your document — or anywhere in it — and appears to be empty, it's almost certainly filled with invisible paragraph marks (¶).

Shortcut approach:

1. Press Ctrl + End to jump to the end of the document
2. Use the Backspace key to delete backwards through the empty paragraphs
3. Keep pressing until the blank page disappears

To see what you're deleting, press Ctrl + Shift + 8 (or Ctrl + * on some keyboards) to toggle Show/Hide formatting marks. Paragraph marks (¶) will appear, showing exactly how many empty lines are generating the extra page.

Deleting a Page Break 🎯

Manual page breaks are invisible by default but straightforward to remove once you can see them.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + 8 to show formatting marks
2. Click directly on the Page Break line, or use arrow keys to position your cursor just before it
3. Press Delete (forward delete) to remove it

Alternatively, use Find & Replace to remove all manual page breaks at once:

• Press Ctrl + H to open Find & Replace
• In Find what, type ^m (the code for a manual page break)
• Leave Replace with empty
• Click Replace All

This is especially useful when a document has multiple unwanted breaks scattered throughout.

Dealing With Section Breaks

Section breaks are trickier. A Next Page section break acts like a page break, but deleting it can merge the formatting of two sections — sometimes causing layout changes you didn't intend.

To find and delete a section break:

1. Toggle formatting marks with Ctrl + Shift + 8
2. Position your cursor just before the section break marker
3. Press Delete

⚠️ If the deletion causes formatting to shift (page orientation, headers, columns), press Ctrl + Z immediately to undo. In those cases, changing the section break type to Continuous (via Layout > Breaks) may be a cleaner solution than deleting it outright.

The Trailing Page After a Table

This is one of Word's most persistent quirks. When a document ends with a table, Word inserts a mandatory paragraph mark after it — and if there's not enough room on the same page, that paragraph pushes onto a new blank page.

You can't delete this paragraph mark, but you can make it invisible:

1. Select the paragraph mark after the table (use Ctrl + End, then Shift + Up Arrow if needed)
2. Press Ctrl + D to open Font settings
3. Check Hidden and click OK

Alternatively, reduce the font size of that paragraph mark to 1pt — it takes up almost no vertical space and the trailing page disappears.

Quick Reference: Shortcuts by Scenario

The Variables That Affect Which Method Works

The right shortcut depends on several factors that vary by user:

• Word version — Some shortcuts behave slightly differently between Word 2016, 2019, Microsoft 365, and the web version of Word
• Document structure — A document built with section breaks for different page orientations needs more care than a simple single-section file
• Operating system — On a Mac, Ctrl is replaced by Command for most shortcuts, and Ctrl + Shift + 8 becomes ⌘ + 8
• Track Changes status — If Track Changes is on, deletions may appear as redlines rather than removing content immediately
• Document protection — Protected or form documents may block deletions entirely

A blank page that looks identical in two different documents can have completely different root causes — one might be an empty paragraph, the other a section break tied to a landscape-orientation page. The shortcut that fixes one won't necessarily fix the other.

Understanding the formatting structure of your specific document is ultimately what determines which approach will work cleanly — and whether removing a page element will have downstream effects on the rest of the layout.