Why You Can't Get Rid of an Extra Page in Word and How to Finally Fix It

Microsoft Word is a marvel of engineering that has somehow managed to frustrate billions of people for decades. You’re staring at it right now. That blank page at the end of your resume or your 40-page report that just won't go away. You hit backspace. Nothing. You try to delete the page break. Still there. It’s like the software is gaslighting you. Honestly, figuring out how to get rid of extra page in word shouldn't feel like performing digital exorcism, but here we are.

The problem is rarely a "ghost" page. Word doesn't just create matter out of thin air. Usually, there’s a hidden character or a stubborn non-deletable paragraph mark that is forcing that white space into existence. Most people just give up and print the document anyway, leaving a blank sheet in the tray. Don't do that. It’s unprofessional and, frankly, we can beat the machine.

The Nuclear Option: The Show/Hide Button

If you take one thing away from this, let it be the "Show/Hide" button. It looks like a backward P—technically a pilcrow symbol ($\P$). You’ll find it on the Home tab in the Paragraph section. Click it. Suddenly, your clean document looks like a chaotic mess of dots and symbols. This is where the truth lives.

Those little symbols represent every time you hit Enter. Word sees a paragraph mark as a physical object. If you have a bunch of these at the end of your text, they’re pushing the boundaries of the page. To fix this, just highlight those symbols and tap Delete. It’s satisfying. It’s like cleaning a dusty shelf. But sometimes, there’s a single paragraph mark that refuses to move. This usually happens right after a table or a large image.

Word has a hard-coded rule: every table must be followed by a paragraph. No exceptions. If your table ends at the very bottom of a page, that mandatory paragraph gets pushed to the next page. You can’t delete it. If you try, Word just sits there. The workaround is a bit of a hack. Select that stubborn paragraph mark on the blank page, go to the font size box, and type "1." Press Enter. By shrinking the font to the smallest possible size, you often "suck" that mark back onto the previous page, and the blank one vanishes instantly.

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Dealing with Manual Page Breaks and Section Breaks

Sometimes the culprit is you. Or at least, a past version of you.

When you’re rushing to finish a document, it’s tempting to hit Ctrl + Enter to start a new section. This inserts a hard page break. Later, you might delete the text around it, but the break stays. With the Show/Hide tool turned on, you’ll see a line that literally says "Page Break." Click right before it and hit the Delete key.

Section breaks are more insidious. They don't just move text; they change the entire formatting of the document. If you have a "Next Page" section break, Word is told to start a brand new section on a fresh sheet of paper. If you delete a section break, be careful. The formatting of the section below the break will suddenly apply to the section above it. It can mess up your margins or your headers in a heartbeat.

If you see "Section Break (Next Page)" at the end of your document, that is almost certainly why you have an extra page. Hover your cursor at the start of that line and delete it. If the formatting goes haywire, hit Ctrl + Z and try a different approach, like changing the section break type to "Continuous" through the Layout tab under "Breaks."

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The Ghost of Tables Past

Let's talk about tables again because they are the primary reason people search for how to get rid of extra page in word. Tables are bulky. They have margins and padding.

If your table is just a hair too long, it triggers the "overflow" behavior. Even if the table looks like it fits, the invisible "end of table" paragraph mark might be over the limit. You can try to fix this by adjusting the row height. Go to Table Properties, look at the Row tab, and see if "Specify height" is checked. Uncheck it. Or, better yet, slightly decrease the bottom margin of your document. Go to Layout > Margins > Custom Margins and shave 0.2 inches off the bottom. Usually, this provides just enough breathing room for the blank page to collapse back into the void.

Navigating the Navigation Pane

If you're dealing with a massive 100-page document, scrolling to find one blank page is a nightmare. Use the Navigation Pane. Hit Ctrl + F and click on the "Pages" tab. This gives you a bird's-eye view of your entire file.

You’ll see the thumbnails. If page 42 is blank, click it. Word jumps right there. Now you can use the Show/Hide trick to see what's actually taking up space. Maybe it’s a bunch of empty spaces. Maybe it’s a hidden text box you forgot about three drafts ago.

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When Word Simply Refuses to Cooperate

There is a rare bug, often cited by power users on forums like Stack Overflow or Microsoft Community, where a document becomes "corrupted" in a way that preserves empty space. It’s weird.

If you’ve tried deleting paragraph marks, shrinking fonts to size 1, and removing section breaks, and the page is still there, try this:
Save your document as a .pdf first to see if the page exists in the final render. If it doesn’t, it’s just a display glitch in Word. If it does, try saving the file as a "Plain Text" (.txt) file, then re-opening it in Word. This strips all formatting. Obviously, this is a last resort because you’ll lose your bolding, your fonts, and your images. But it’s a clean slate.

Alternatively, copy everything except the very last paragraph mark of the document and paste it into a brand new, empty Word file. Often, the "corruption" or the weird formatting instruction is attached to that final paragraph mark. By leaving it behind, you leave the ghost page behind too.

Actionable Next Steps to Fix Your Document

Don't panic and don't start from scratch. Follow this specific order to reclaim your document's layout:

1. Toggle the Pilcrow ($\P$): Use Ctrl + Shift + 8 to see hidden formatting. Delete every symbol on the extra page.
2. The "Size 1" Trick: If a mark won't delete after a table, highlight it, change the font size to 1, and set the line spacing to "Exactly" 0 pt in the Paragraph settings.
3. Check for Section Breaks: Look for "Section Break (Next Page)" at the end of the previous page. Delete it if it's unnecessary.
4. Adjust Margins: If the page is caused by a table being slightly too long, go to Layout > Margins and reduce the bottom margin slightly.
5. The Fresh Start: As a final move, select all your content (Ctrl + A), deselect the very last paragraph mark by holding Shift and pressing the Left Arrow, then copy-paste into a new document.

Following these steps ensures you aren't just fighting the symptoms, but actually cleaning up the underlying code Word uses to render your pages.