Occasionally, you may see an extra blank page in your paper. This can happen for a couple of reasons, both of which are easily resolved.
Most often, the extra page is caused by pressing the Enter key a few extra times after the last line of text on the previous page, inserting blank lines that push content onto a new page.
Deleting Extra Blank Lines
- Go to Word's Home tab.
- Click the Show Hidden Characters button.
This is the button showing a paragraph symbol (¶). Once clicked, all section breaks, page breaks, tabs, hard returns, and other hidden characters will be visible throughout the document. - Find the section break or page break on the extra blank page.
- Place your cursor above the section break or page break.
- Press the Delete or Backspace key to remove the extra blank lines (marked by ¶) above the section break or page break.
Repeat until the section break or page break moves up to the previous page.
The extra blank page has been removed from your paper.
Another cause of extra blank pages is an extra section break or page break being inserted. For example, after the last line of the body, there is a page break separating the body from the reference section. If an extra page break or section break gets inserted after that one, a blank page will appear between the body and the references.
Deleting Extra Section Breaks or Page Breaks
- Go to Word's Home tab.
- Click the Show Hidden Characters button.
This is the button showing a paragraph symbol (¶). Once clicked, all section breaks, page breaks, tabs, hard returns, and other hidden characters will be visible throughout the document. - Find the extra section break or page break on the blank page.
If you don't see another section break or page break on the previous page and only see blank lines marked with ¶, follow the steps under Deleting Extra Blank Lines above instead. - Place your cursor to the left of the section break or page break.
- Hold Shift and press the Right Arrow key to highlight the section break or page break.
- Press the Delete key to remove the highlighted section break or page break.
The extra blank page should now be gone from your paper.