The fastest way to delete a page
To delete a page in Microsoft Word, select all the content on that page and press Delete or Backspace. The most reliable method is to click at the start of the page, hold Shift, click at the end, then press Delete. If the page is mostly blank space or formatting, you may need to delete extra paragraph marks or page breaks instead.
Word does not have a single "delete page" button. Pages exist only because of the content and formatting inside them — remove the content, and the page disappears. This is why deleting a page sometimes requires a different approach depending on what is actually on it.
Key Takeaways
- Select all content on the page using click-and-drag or Shift+Click, then press Delete to remove it and the page itself.
- If a page is mostly blank, look for extra paragraph marks (¶) or manual page breaks that are taking up space.
- Use Find & Replace to search for page breaks (^m) and delete them in bulk if you have many unwanted blank pages.
- Deleting a page in the middle of a document may shift content from the next page up, which can affect formatting and page numbers.
Selecting and deleting an entire page of content
Click anywhere on the page you want to remove. Then hold Shift and click at the very end of the page — after the last character. This selects everything on that page. Press Delete or Backspace, and the page and all its content disappear.
If you prefer using the keyboard, place your cursor at the start of the page and press Ctrl+Shift+End to select from that point to the end of the document. Then adjust by holding Shift and clicking where you actually want the selection to end. Once the page is highlighted in blue, press Delete.
For a page in the middle of your document, deleting it will pull content from the next page up. Check the pages after your deletion to make sure the layout still looks correct, especially if you have headers, footers, or images that depend on specific page positions.
Removing blank pages caused by paragraph marks
A blank page often exists because of extra paragraph marks (the ¶ symbol) taking up space. To see these invisible characters, press Ctrl+* (or Cmd+* on Mac). Paragraph marks appear as small ¶ symbols throughout your document.
If you see a page that is mostly ¶ symbols, click on that page and select those marks, then press Delete. Sometimes a single paragraph mark at the end of a page is enough to push content to the next page and create a blank page. Removing it collapses the pages together.
Be careful not to delete paragraph marks that separate sections intentionally — removing them can merge formatting from two different sections and cause unexpected changes to fonts, spacing, or margins.
Deleting pages created by manual page breaks
A page break is a manual instruction that forces Word to start a new page. If you inserted a page break and now want to remove it, turn on the paragraph marks view (Ctrl+*) so you can see where the break is. A page break appears as a line labeled "Page Break" or "---Page Break---".
Click directly on the page break line and press Delete. The page break disappears, and the content from the next page moves up to fill the space. This is the cleanest way to remove a page that exists only because of a manual break, not because of actual content.
If you do not see a page break line even with paragraph marks turned on, the blank page may be caused by section breaks instead. Section breaks look similar but are labeled "Section Break" and control formatting like margins or headers separately from the rest of the document. Deleting a section break merges the two sections and may change the formatting of the surrounding pages.
Using Find & Replace to remove multiple page breaks at once
If your document has many unwanted blank pages caused by page breaks, you can remove them all at once using Find & Replace. Press Ctrl+H to open the Find & Replace dialog.
In the "Find what" field, type ^m (the code for a manual page break in Word). Leave the "Replace with" field empty. Click "Replace All" to remove every manual page break in the document at once. Word will tell you how many replacements it made.
This method works only for manual page breaks, not for blank pages caused by paragraph marks or section breaks. If you use it and blank pages remain, those pages are caused by something else — go back to checking for extra paragraph marks or section breaks.
Handling pages with tables or images
A page that contains a large table or image may not delete cleanly by selecting and pressing Delete. Instead, click just before the table or image (at the very start of the line it sits on) and press Backspace. This removes the object and any extra space around it.
If a table spans multiple pages, deleting it removes all pages it occupies. Be sure you want to remove the entire table before doing this — there is no separate "delete this page of the table" option. If you only want to remove some rows, select those rows inside the table, right-click, and choose "Delete Rows" instead.
For images, click the image once to select it (you will see selection handles around it), then press Delete. The image disappears and the page collapses if nothing else is on it.
Checking your document after deletion
After you delete a page, scroll through the entire document to check that the remaining pages look correct. Page numbers may have shifted, and content that was on page 5 might now be on page 4. If you have a table of contents, it may need to be refreshed — right-click the table of contents and select "Update Field" so the page numbers match the new layout.
If deleting a page caused unexpected formatting changes (like a different font or margin on the next page), you may have accidentally deleted a section break. Press Ctrl+Z to undo the deletion and try a different approach, such as deleting only the paragraph marks instead of the entire page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my blank page keep coming back after I delete it?
The page is likely caused by a paragraph mark or page break that you did not see. Turn on paragraph marks (Ctrl+*) and look for the ¶ symbol or a page break line on that page. Delete the mark or break itself, not just the space around it. If it keeps returning, check whether a table or image is forcing content to the next page.
Can I delete a page without affecting the pages around it?
Deleting a page always shifts the content that comes after it. If you delete page 3, page 4 becomes page 3. You cannot delete a page and keep the surrounding pages in the same position. If you want to preserve formatting on nearby pages, delete only the specific content on that page rather than the entire page.
What if I delete a page by accident?
Press Ctrl+Z immediately to undo the deletion. Word keeps a history of recent changes, so you can undo multiple steps if needed. If you have already saved the document, the undo history is lost — you would need to use a previous version of the file if your system has one saved.
How do I delete a page in the middle of my document without messing up the formatting?
Before deleting, check what is on the page after the one you are removing. If that page has different margins, headers, or fonts, it may be in a different section. Deleting a page in the middle can merge sections and change formatting. Select only the content you want to remove rather than the entire page, or delete the page and then manually reapply formatting to the next page if needed.
Is there a way to delete every other page or multiple specific pages at once?
Word does not have a built-in feature to delete multiple non-consecutive pages at once. You must delete them one at a time. However, if the pages you want to remove all have the same cause (like manual page breaks), you can use Find & Replace to remove that cause across the entire document, which will delete all those pages together.