Cannot Delete a Blank Page in Word? Shrink One Mark

You have a blank page at the end of a document and it will not go. You have pressed Backspace twenty times, and the cursor simply refuses to move any further.

That is not a bug and you are not doing it wrong. There is one character on that page that Word will never let you delete. The fix is to make it small rather than to remove it.

I checked which version of Word this machine carries before writing. The box you need sits in the same place in current builds, and the shortcut has not changed.

Word has no such thing as a page

Start here, because it changes what you are trying to do.

⭐ A page is not an object in Word. It is where the text happens to run out of room. You cannot select one, and there is no delete-page command.

⚡ So every fix is really about deleting content, or about making content take up less room.

⚠️ Documented by Microsoft for a page you can see content on: select what you want gone and press Delete. That case is easy and it is not why you are here.

⛔ The blank one at the end is the hard case. The thing filling it is invisible until you switch it on.

Turn on the marks first

One shortcut, and the page stops being a mystery.

⚡ Microsoft opens its blank page article with it: "Press Ctrl+Shift+8 (⌘+8 on a Mac) to show paragraph marks."

⭐ Suddenly you can see what is there. Every paragraph ends in a mark, and your blank page has at least one sitting on it.

⚠️ Most people have never pressed that combination. So the page looks empty, and unfixable.

⛔ Press it again when you are done to hide them. Microsoft's own steps end with exactly that.

The last paragraph mark cannot be deleted

This is the whole reason the page will not go.

⭐ Every Word document ends with a paragraph mark, and Word will not let you remove it. There has to be somewhere for the cursor to be.

⚡ If your content ends exactly at the bottom of a page, that mark has nowhere to sit. Except the next page. So Word makes one.

⛔ Backspace will never fix that. You are trying to delete something the program is built to keep.

⚠️ So you make it smaller instead, which is Microsoft's own answer rather than a workaround somebody invented.

Microsoft's fix, in its own steps

Four steps, and the number in the third one matters.

⚡ Microsoft says to select the paragraph mark, then: "Select inside the Font size box, type 01, and then press Enter."

⭐ Type it into the box. Do not pick from the list. One point is not in the dropdown, which is why people report the trick as not working.

⚠️ A one point paragraph fits on the previous page, so the blank page has nothing left to hold and disappears.

⛔ Then press Ctrl+Shift+8 again to hide the marks, and the document looks exactly as it did.

The other cause: a break you cannot see

Different problem, same invisible-character shape.

⭐ Microsoft says: "A manual page break might be making an unwanted blank page in your document."

⚡ With the marks showing, a page break appears as a labeled line. Click just before it. Press Delete.

⚠️ A section break is not the same thing. Deleting one can change the headers, footers and page numbering of everything around it.

⛔ Read the label before you delete a break. They look alike and they do very different jobs.

⭐ Office is full of buttons that do more than they say. The one in Excel that clears duplicates is the sharpest of them.

The one Microsoft's page does not cover

Ours, and it accounts for a lot of stubborn blank pages.

⭐ A table that ends exactly at the bottom of a page forces a paragraph after it. Word will not let a table be the last thing in a document.

⚡ That forced paragraph is what lands on the new page. You cannot delete it any more than the final one.

⚠️ Same fix applies: show the marks, select that paragraph, set it to one point.

⛔ If the page still will not go after that, look at two more things. The table's own row height, and whether that paragraph has spacing set before it.

When it is not the last page at all

Three cases worth separating.

⚡ A blank page in the middle is almost always a break, not a paragraph mark. Show the marks and look for the labeled line.

⭐ A page that only appears when you print is a printer setting rather than a document one. Check the print preview against the document.

⚠️ And a page that appears only in one person's copy is not yours. It is usually a different paper size or a font substitution on their machine.

⛔ Send a PDF if the layout matters. It is the only way to guarantee that what you see is what they get.

⚡ And if the document is fine but the mail carrying it is the problem, that is a different job. Unsending one has narrower rules than people expect.

Status: Microsoft's blank page article read and quoted, 28 August 2026, with the installed Word version checked here. ⛔ No document was created or edited to test any step.

Why can I not delete the last page in Word?

Because the thing holding it there is the final paragraph mark, and Word will not let you delete that. Every document has to end in one. If your text finishes at the bottom of a page, that mark spills onto a new one. The answer is to make it one point tall rather than to remove it.

How do I show paragraph marks in Word?

Press Ctrl+Shift+8, or Command and 8 on a Mac. That is Microsoft's own instruction, and it makes every paragraph mark and page break visible. Press it again afterwards to hide them. Almost every stubborn blank page becomes obvious the moment you do this.

What font size do I set the paragraph mark to?

One point. Microsoft's steps say to select inside the Font size box, type 01 and press Enter. You have to type it. One point is not an option in the dropdown list, and that is why the trick gets reported as not working.

Why does my table create a blank page after it?

Because Word will not allow a table to be the last thing in a document. So it adds a paragraph after it. If the table ends at the bottom of a page, that forced paragraph lands on a new one. Shrink it to one point the same way and the page goes.

The Short Version

• Word has no page object. You are always deleting content, not a page.
• Press Ctrl+Shift+8 to show paragraph marks before anything else.
• The final paragraph mark cannot be deleted. That is by design.
• Select it and type 01 into the Font size box, then press Enter.
• Type the size, do not pick it. One point is not in the list.
• A blank page in the middle is usually a manual page break.
• A section break is different and deleting one changes headers and numbering.
• A table at the bottom of a page forces the paragraph that makes the page.

Where to Next

If the document is fine and it is a download that will not finish, that is a different wait entirely. Apple Intelligence stalling has known causes.

Press Ctrl+Shift+8 before you press Backspace again. Everything about this problem is invisible until you do.

If the blank page is at the end, select the paragraph mark on it and type 01 into the Font size box. Type it rather than choosing it.

If the blank page is in the middle, look for a labeled break line instead. Read the label before you delete it.

If a table sits just above the gap, that table is the cause and the same one point trick clears it.

And if you have a document where none of this worked, tell me what was on the page in the comments. The odd ones are usually a table or a section break doing something unexpected.