How to Delete Unwanted Spaces and Pages in Word that Won’t Delete

This tutorial explores how to get rid of unwanted spaces and blank pages in your Microsoft Word document.

Your first step is to display non-printing characters. To do this click on the Show/Hide button on Word’s Home ribbon in the Paragraph group. The Show/Hide button appears with a paragraph mark on it (a bit like a back-to-front P).

Here are some solutions for getting rid of unwanted spaces and blank pages:

• Once you can see the non-printing characters that are causing your spacing issues, it is easy to delete them. For example, unwanted spacing may be caused by empty carriage returns (empty paragraphs). The paragraph marks will appear as a back-to-front P character in your document: you can select the paragraph marks and delete them to close the gaps in your document.
• Another non-printing character that might be causing spacing issues in your document is a page break. A page break forces text to start at the top of the next page. With the Show/Hide button on, page breaks appear like this: ——–Page Break——–. To delete a page break, first select it by clicking in the left margin adjacent to it and then press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete it.
• Section breaks are another non-printing character that can cause unwanted spacing in your document. Like page breaks, some section breaks also force the following text to start at the top of the next page. Section breaks appear a bit like page breaks in your document once the Show/Hide button has been turned on. If a section break is causing a spacing issue it will probably appear with the text: Section Break (Next Page). To delete a section break, first select it by clicking in the left margin adjacent to it and then press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete it.

• Sometimes section breaks are a little bit trickier to spot and delete. If you see a double line at the end of a paragraph, this is probably a section break. To delete these section breaks, click immediately to the left of the double line and press the Enter key on your keyboard twice. This will bring the section break down onto a separate paragraph. You can then easily delete the section break as described above.
• If you see a small black square, top-left of a paragraph, this could also be the reason you have unwanted spacing in your document. To get rid of this type of space, right-click somewhere in the paragraph and select Paragraph… in the menu. In the Paragraph dialog, select the Line and Page Breaks tab and untick Page break before and then click on OK. If this doesn’t work try unticking the other options under Pagination.
• If you have an unwanted blank page at the end of your document with a table at the end of the previous page, it is the table that is causing the unwanted blank page. When you insert a table, Word always includes an empty paragraph after it and this empty paragraph cannot be deleted. What you can do, however, is reduce the font size of the empty paragraph until it moves up onto the previous page. To reduce the font-size of the paragraph, select the paragraph character (back-to-front P) and use the Decrease Font Size button on the ribbon’s Home tab until the blank page disappears.

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Miss Palmer
 
2024-05-23
 
 
 
 
Chester delivered his Intermediate Excel training course to our team yesterday and I have to say I was already looking forward to upskilling in Excel but I was blown away by how easy Chester made it to follow and how confident I felt the whole way through the training day. He managed to strike the perfect balance between teaching the concepts and letting us have a go ourselves. The comments around the room were audible - a lot of Wows, OMGs, and the occasional "Why have I been wasting my life doing it this way?!". He made jokes about it being a religious experience and honestly, sarcasm aside - life changing!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2024-04-25
 
 
 
 
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2024-04-24
 
 
 
 
Chester delivered Excel training course over two weeks for us. He was accommodating to our needs throughout the whole process. There has been nothing but positive feedback from all attendees. The course was delivered at the right pace and Chester was extremely patient. I would recommend have no hesitation in recommending Blue Pecan Computer Training Ltd.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2022-05-19
 
 
 
 
Very impressed with the service from Chester. My team were extremely enthusiastic after the training and are already excited to start using the skills they have learned. They have commented on the quality and quantity of examples and how much easier that made the course. They even got to analyse inhouse spreadsheets which helped to make the experience more familiar. The resources provided were great and the experience has given me the confidence to already consider the next level course in the near future for my team. Thanks Chester!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2022-04-26
 
 
 
 
Chester was a great trainer, I personally learnt so much in one day and it was all down to his calm, friendly demeanour and huge knowledge - we covered many areas which will help us to develop ourselves and the work we do. Thank you Chester, was lovely to meet you :-)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
emmie BL
 
2022-04-21
 
 
 
 
Myself and my team had an absolutely fab day with Chester going over excel - it was quite revelatory, with lots of really helpful hints & tips, great clear explanations and plenty of time to ask questions. Being able to work on things in real time, use our own data spreadsheets and his practice ones and have things properly explained has been so useful. Chester's a great instructor/facilitator - pitches to your needs and is very flexible. I would completely recommend him if you're needing to get a grip on all things excel! Thanks very much, Chester!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2022-02-28
 
 
 
 
Chester was a great tutor understanding our needs and allowing time to understand and digest. Great humor too which always lightens a training day. Look forward to another session soon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2022-02-25
 
 
 
 
Detailed, informative and fun, Chester made the class enjoyable and engaging - i have learnt a huge amount from the time we had together
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2022-02-25
 
 
 
 
We booked Chester for several in-house training sessions including Fundamentals, Intermediate and Advanced Excel. He was brilliant with each, very inclusive and patient with all team members. Would fully recommend.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2021-10-01
 
 
 
 
A great online one on one intermediate training session in excel - the tools and activities Chester has developed and used are great. His teaching style was highly responsive to my needs (applications I wanted, my learning style). I would strongly recommend him - whatever your level of excel expertise and whatever level you are aiming for!
 
 
 
 
 
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