How Do I Delete The Blank Page at the end of Word Document?

August 7, 2022 8:45 AM

So like a fool, I used a template I wasn't intimately familiar with, and now I've got a blank empty page at the end of the document. I have tried all the "solutions" suggested by MS support including changing the font size of the first para in the blank page to one (?!), reducing the bottom margin to 0.3, and using ctl-g. None work. Halp! I can't believe I've already spent 15 minutes on this. OMG hilarious.
posted by storybored to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Response by poster: Here are some other things I am going to try right now:

1. Make a char siu sandwich
2. Eat sandwich.
3. Put on socks.
4. Walk around.
posted by storybored at 8:47 AM on August 7, 2022 [18 favorites]

Best answer: Have you turned on the view with paragraph markers etc and checked to see if there’s anything in the header or footer of the last page? I bet there’s a section break before the last page that you need to remove.
posted by music for skeletons at 8:49 AM on August 7, 2022 [21 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh God, that's it, thanks so much music-for-skeletons. I luv you!! :)

For future reference, I went to View, selected Draft, and scrolled down to the end. Then I just deleted the section break.
posted by storybored at 8:53 AM on August 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have never related so hard to any Ask. Storybored, thank you.
posted by MiraK at 11:41 AM on August 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

Traditional solution involves typing


This page intentionally left blank

right in the middle of any page you can't work out how to get rid of.

This is and always has been an obvious, barefaced and completely gratuitous lie, so your section break deletion solution does seem preferable.
posted by flabdablet at 12:42 PM on August 7, 2022 [20 favorites]

Flabdablet giving away secrets of the legal industry right there.
posted by notjustthefish at 1:20 PM on August 7, 2022 [9 favorites]

Flabdablet, I am horrified to learn how naive I’ve been! I always assumed A R C A N E R E A S O N S
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:41 PM on August 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is and always has been an obvious, barefaced and completely gratuitous lie,

Sometimes it's because someone did internal page number citations manually and then the document got edited and leaving a blank page is easier than fixing all the citations
posted by solotoro at 6:59 PM on August 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

(Often it’s actually so the page count is an even multiple of 2 or 4 for physical print layout reasons)
posted by music for skeletons at 8:20 PM on August 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

Are you sure it wasn't putting on the socks that really did the trick??
posted by metahawk at 12:16 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Of course, as soon as you type 'This page intentionally left blank' it's no longer blank...
posted by Chairboy at 3:48 PM on August 8, 2022

This page intentionally left blank

That's my pub-trivia team name.
posted by pompomtom at 9:22 PM on August 8, 2022

as soon as you type 'This page intentionally left blank' it's no longer blank

Exactly. It's just a barefaced, shameless lie. I don't understand why we keep letting them get away with it.
posted by flabdablet at 1:45 AM on August 9, 2022 [3 favorites]