How to Delete a Page With Content in Microsoft Word

To delete a page that contains text, pictures, or other content in Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, click on that page, press Ctrl+G, type \page, press Enter, close the Go To window, and press Delete. Check the highlighted selection first: Word pages reflow as content changes, so deleting a page can also change what appears on the pages that follow. Save a copy first if the document is important or uses complex formatting.

What You’ll Need

A Word document open in the desktop version of Word. These steps are for Microsoft 365 on Windows; the Mac shortcut is noted below.
A clear idea of which page to remove. Check its page number in the status bar, and confirm the page’s content before deleting it.
Optional: a backup copy of the document, especially if the page contains a table, section break, or carefully positioned images.

Step-by-Step

Save the document and identify the target page. Press Ctrl+S, then scroll to the page you want to remove. If Word shows page numbers at the bottom of the window, use them to confirm your location. If the status bar does not show a page number, right-click the status bar and enable Page Number. Be sure you are looking at the page in the document itself, not a page displayed in a preview or navigation result.
Put the insertion point on the page. Click in ordinary text on the page you intend to delete. If the page contains no text, click inside a table cell or near an image anchored to that page. This tells Word which page to select. Avoid clicking in the header or footer: those areas are edited separately and are not the page’s main body content.
Open the Go To command. Press Ctrl+G on Windows. In Word for Mac, press Option+Command+G. You can also use the ribbon: choose Home > Find > Go To. If the Find and Replace window opens, make sure its Go To tab is selected.
Select the current page’s contents. Click in the Enter page number box, type \page, and press Enter. The command selects the contents of the page where your insertion point is located. Close the Go To window using its Close button; do not click elsewhere in the document, because that would replace the selection. Look at the document to make sure the highlighted area is the page you mean to remove.
Delete the selection. Press Delete on your keyboard. Backspace also removes the selected content, but Delete is easier to distinguish from deleting a character when no selection is active. Word removes the selected material and repaginates the document. A page is a result of the document’s content and layout, rather than a separate object, so later pages may move up or their numbering may change.
Review the result and save. Check the area where the page was, plus the page before and after it. Confirm that no paragraph, image, table row, or heading that you wanted to keep was removed. If the result is wrong, press Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac immediately, then select a smaller, more precise range. When the document looks right, save it again.

If you prefer not to use Go To, you can drag across the page’s content and press Delete. This is less reliable when a page contains a long passage, tables, or objects, because it is easy to leave out a paragraph mark or select content from the next page. The Go To method is usually the quickest way to select the current page as a whole.

Common Mistakes

Deleting a page number instead of the page. A number in a header or footer is a field, not the page’s body content. Clicking it and pressing Delete may remove numbering from one or more pages. Click in the main text area before using Go To.
Assuming the page number stays put. Once Word removes content, the remaining document flows into the space. If you choose a page by its number, verify the selected page before deletion; after earlier edits, the page number you remember may have changed.
Removing only visible text. A page can remain because of an empty paragraph, a manual page break, or a section break after its visible content. Turn on formatting marks with Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows (Command+8 on Mac) to inspect paragraph marks and breaks. Delete a break only after checking what it controls.
Deleting part of a table unintentionally. A table can continue across pages. Selecting one page may select only the rows or cells displayed there, not the entire table. Inspect the highlighted cells carefully and use Undo if Word removes rows you need.
Clicking after selecting. A click elsewhere cancels the selection, and pressing Delete then may remove just one character. If the highlight disappears, repeat the Go To steps and check the selection again before pressing Delete.

Tips

Use the Navigation pane to locate, not delete, a page. Press Ctrl+F and search for a distinctive word on the page, or use the page thumbnails to find it. Then click in the page body and use Go To with \page. The Navigation pane helps you move around, but selecting a thumbnail does not select all of that page’s content.
Show formatting marks when the page will not go away. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows or Command+8 on Mac to reveal paragraph marks, page breaks, and section breaks. Press the same shortcut again to hide them. The marks are display aids; they do not print as ordinary text.
Be cautious with section breaks. A section break can control margins, page orientation, columns, headers, footers, and numbering. Removing it may apply the neighboring section’s formatting to other pages. If the target page is separated by a section break, decide whether to remove the break or keep the section settings before editing.
Check content that is anchored to a page. Pictures, text boxes, and shapes may be positioned relative to a paragraph or page. After deleting the page’s text, look for objects that moved, disappeared, or remain on a nearby page. If you need to keep an object, cut or copy it first and paste it where it belongs.
Use Undo as a safety net, not as your only backup. Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac can reverse a recent deletion, but later edits can make it harder to return to the right point. Save a separate copy before substantial changes to a long or formatted document.

Troubleshooting

The wrong page is highlighted: Close the Go To window, click in the body of the intended page, and repeat the selection. Make sure the insertion point is not in a header, footer, footnote, or endnote. If you are using multiple pages per screen, zoom in or switch to Print Layout so you can identify the page more clearly.
The page remains after deletion: Turn on formatting marks and inspect for an empty paragraph, a manual page break, or a section break. Select and remove only the mark that is creating the extra page. If the page follows a table at the end of a document, Word may require a final paragraph after the table; select that paragraph and reduce its font size or spacing rather than trying to remove the required paragraph mark.
A blank page appears in the middle of the document: Look for a manual page break or a section break set to start on an odd or even page. You can remove a manual break if it is no longer needed. For a section break, consider changing its type through Layout > Page Setup dialog launcher > Layout > Section start instead of deleting it, if the section’s formatting must remain. Menu labels can vary slightly by Word build.
Content from the next page disappears too: Press Ctrl+Z or Command+Z right away. Select the intended content in smaller pieces, or use the mouse to mark the exact start and end points. This can happen when the page contains a table spanning a page boundary or when the selection includes more than you expected.
The Go To command does not select anything: Click in the document body first, reopen Go To, and enter \page in the page number field. Press Enter, close the dialog, and check for a visible highlight. If you are using Word for the web and the command behaves differently, select the page’s content manually; for complicated layouts, open the file in the desktop app.
Images or layout change unexpectedly: Undo, then inspect the page for section breaks and anchored objects. If preserving the layout is more important than removing every item on the page, delete only the text or objects you do not want and adjust the remaining content’s page break or paragraph spacing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete a page without deleting its content?
Not exactly. Word creates pages from the document’s content and layout, so removing a page means removing, moving, or reformatting what occupies it. If you want to keep the material, cut or copy it and paste it elsewhere before removing it from the target page.

Does pressing Ctrl+G delete the page?
No. Ctrl+G opens Go To. Entering \page selects the current page’s contents; you still need to close the dialog, verify the selection, and press Delete.

Will deleting a page change the page numbers after it?
Usually, yes. Word updates pagination when content is removed, so later pages move forward and their displayed page numbers may change. Section-specific numbering can behave differently, so check the headers or footers after editing.

Can I delete a page from Word for Mac?
Yes. Click in the page, press Option+Command+G, enter \page, press Enter, close the Go To window, check the selection, and press Delete. Command+Z undoes the action on Mac.

Why does an extra blank page remain after I delete everything?
A paragraph mark, page break, section break, or a required paragraph after a table may be forcing Word to keep the page. Turn on formatting marks and inspect the end of the preceding page. Remove or adjust the cause, taking care not to disrupt section formatting.

Can I delete several pages at once?
You can select and remove a larger range, but \page selects the page containing the insertion point, not a specified range of pages. For several pages, select the exact text and objects across them, verify the highlight, and delete. Save a copy first and review the surrounding pages afterward.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

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Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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