Word for Microsoft 365, Word 20XX

Page breaks tell Word where to start a new page. A manual page break might be making an unwanted blank page in your document.

1. To see manual page breaks, switch to showing paragraph marks: Press Ctrl+Shift+8.
2. Now you can select the page break and delete it.

Section break problems

In the middle of a document, deleting section breaks can cause formatting problems. In these cases, try changing the section break to one that doesn’t generate a new page. Here’s how:

1. Double select the section break.
2. On the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box, select the Section start drop down and select Continuous.
3. Select OK.

Odd, Even, and Next cause blank pages
Next Page, Odd Page, and Even Page section breaks may create a blank page in your document. If the blank page occurs at the end of your document and you have a section break there, place your cursor directly before the section break and press Delete.

Tip: To more easily find section breaks, try switching to Draft on the View tab.

Word for Microsoft 365 Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac Word 2021

Word includes a non-deleteable end-paragraph that sometimes gets pushed out to a new, blank page at the end of a document. The way to delete the page is to make the end-paragraph fit onto the preceding page. The most sure-fire way is to make the end-paragraph very small (1 point):

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 to show paragraph marks.
2. Select the paragraph mark.
3. Select inside the Font size box, type 01, and then press Enter .
4. The paragraph now fits on the preceding page, removing the unwanted blank page.
5. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 again to hide the paragraph marks (⌘+8 on a Mac).

If that paragraph still doesn’t fit on the preceding page, you can make the bottom margin smaller (Layout tab > Margins > Custom Margins, and set the bottom margin to something small, like 0.3 inches).

Tip: If the paragraph mark has a square bullet next to it, the paragraph might have the Page break before option turned on. To turn it off, right-select the empty paragraph, select Paragraph Settings (Home tab), and on the Lines and Page Breaks tab of the dialog box, uncheck Page break before.