How to Delete a Page in Microsoft Word (Any Version)

Deleting a page in Microsoft Word sounds simple — but it trips up a surprising number of people because Word doesn't have a dedicated "Delete Page" button. The method you use depends on why the page exists in the first place, and that's where most of the confusion comes from.

Why Word Doesn't Have a Simple "Delete Page" Button

Word is a flow-based document editor. Content fills pages automatically as you type, and pages appear or disappear based on what's in them. A page exists because something is on it — text, images, paragraph marks, page breaks, or section breaks. To delete the page, you need to remove whatever is causing it to exist.

This matters because the fix for a blank page at the end of a document is completely different from the fix for a page full of content in the middle, which is different again from a page created by a section break.

How to Delete a Page Full of Content

This is the most straightforward case. If the page has text, images, or other visible content:

1. Click anywhere on the page you want to delete
2. Press Ctrl+G (Windows) or Cmd+Option+G (Mac) to open the Go To dialog
3. In the "Enter page number" field, type page (with the backslash)
4. Click Go To, then Close — this selects everything on the current page
5. Press Delete or Backspace

Alternatively, you can manually click and drag to select all content on the page, then press Delete. For longer pages, click at the start of the content, scroll to the end of that page, then Shift+Click to select everything between those two points.

How to Delete a Blank Page 🗑️

Blank pages are the most common frustration. They almost always exist because of one of three things:

• An extra paragraph mark — Word always requires at least one paragraph mark at the end of a document, but extra ones push content onto a new page
• A manual page break — someone pressed Ctrl+Enter, inserting a hard page break
• A section break — section breaks, particularly "Next Page" section breaks, can generate blank pages that resist normal deletion

The fastest way to diagnose the problem:

Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (Windows) or Cmd+8 (Mac) to toggle on Show Formatting Marks. You'll now see paragraph symbols (¶), dots for spaces, and labels for any breaks. This tells you exactly what's sitting on that blank page.

Deleting an Extra Paragraph Mark

Click directly on the paragraph mark sitting on the blank page and press Backspace. If the mark is at the very end of the document and won't delete, try selecting it and changing its font size to 1pt — this shrinks it enough that it no longer pushes a new page into existence without removing the required end-of-document marker.

Deleting a Manual Page Break

With formatting marks visible, the page break will appear as a dotted line labeled "Page Break". Click on it to place your cursor there, or click the line itself to select it, then press Delete.

Deleting a Section Break Causing a Blank Page

Section breaks are trickier. Deleting a section break merges the formatting of the two sections, which can unintentionally change page orientation, margins, headers, or footers in the surrounding pages.

If you need to keep the section structure but eliminate the blank page, consider:

• Changing the section break type from "Next Page" to "Continuous" via Layout → Breaks
• Checking whether the blank page exists due to odd/even page section settings, which force a blank page to maintain left/right page balance in book-style documents

How to Delete a Page in the Middle of a Document

If the page is surrounded by other content and you want to remove just that page without disrupting the flow:

1. Use the Ctrl+G / page method described above to select the entire page
2. Press Delete
3. Check the surrounding content to make sure the text reflowed correctly

Word will automatically reflow everything after the deleted page. If paragraph spacing or section formatting looks off afterward, check for leftover breaks using the formatting marks view.

Quick Reference: Page Deletion Methods

The Variable That Changes Everything

The method that works cleanly for one user may cause formatting chaos for another. A short, lightly formatted document — a letter or a resume — behaves very differently from a long document with multiple sections, different headers per chapter, mixed page orientations, or tracked changes active. 📄

Version also plays a role. Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, and older versions all handle section breaks and formatting marks consistently in their core behavior, but the menu locations and keyboard shortcuts can vary slightly between the desktop app, the web version (Word Online), and the Mac version.

Word Online, in particular, has a more limited formatting toolbar — some break types are harder to manipulate there than in the full desktop application.

If you're working in a heavily formatted document — one with custom styles, mail merge fields, linked text boxes, or complex section layouts — the ripple effects of deleting a page are worth checking carefully. What reads as "just a blank page" may be load-bearing structure in a document someone else built. Your own document's complexity, formatting history, and version of Word are ultimately what determine which approach will work cleanly for your situation.