We have all experienced the frustration of finishing a polished Microsoft Word document, only to scroll down and find a stubborn blank page refusing to disappear at the very end. Or perhaps you have a 50-page report and need to quickly delete page 17 without messing up the formatting for the rest of the document.
Whether you are dealing with an empty extra page or want to remove a page full of text and graphics, here are the easiest and most effective ways to delete a page in Microsoft Word on both Windows and Mac.
🗑️ Method 1: The Basic “Backspace” (Best for Simple Documents)
If you just need to delete a single page of text, the standard highlighting method is usually the fastest.
- Scroll to the page you want to delete.
- Click and drag your mouse to highlight all the text and images on that page.
- Press the Backspace key (Windows) or Delete key (Mac).
- If the blank page remains, press Backspace/Delete one more time to remove the underlying page break.
🔍 Method 2: Using the Navigation Pane (Best for Large Documents)
If you are working on a massive document, scrolling to find the exact page can be tedious. The Navigation Pane makes this process visual and fast.
- Click on the View tab in the top ribbon.
- Check the box next to Navigation Pane. A sidebar will appear on the left side of your screen.
- Click on the Pages tab within that left sidebar to see thumbnail images of every page.
- Click on the thumbnail of the page you want to delete.
- Ensure your blinking cursor is on that page, highlight the content, and press your Backspace/Delete key until the page disappears from the thumbnail list.
👻 Method 3: The “Paragraph Marks” Trick (Best for Stubborn Blank Pages)
This is the ultimate solution for that annoying blank page at the end of your document that just won’t go away. Usually, this happens because Word is hiding invisible paragraph returns or page breaks.
- Go to the Home tab in the top ribbon.
- Find the paragraph section and click on the Show/Hide ¶ icon (it looks like a backward ‘P’). Alternatively, press Ctrl + *** on Windows or Cmd + 8 on Mac.
- Your document will suddenly show all the invisible formatting marks.
- Scroll to your stubborn blank page. You will likely see a symbol that says
-------Page Break-------or several¶symbols. - Highlight those symbols and press Backspace or Delete.
- Click the Show/Hide ¶ icon again to hide the marks. Your blank page should now be gone!
⌨️ Method 4: The “Go To” Shortcut (The Pro Method)
If you want to look like a Word power user, you can delete a specific page using a quick keyboard shortcut command.
- Click anywhere on the page you want to delete.
- Press Ctrl + G (Windows) or Option + Cmd + G (Mac) to open the “Find and Replace” box.
- In the “Enter page number” box, type
\page. - Click Go To, and then click Close. This action automatically highlights all the contents of that specific page.
- Simply press your Backspace or Delete key.

