How to Delete a Page in Google Docs

While working on Google Docs, you might come across extra pages in your document now and then. It could be accidentally hitting Ctrl + Enter or pasting content with different formatting. Regardless, these unwanted blank pages can make your document appear less polished.

The good news is that removing these blank pages in Google Docs is an easy task. There are several quick and easy methods to achieve this, and we’ll show you how to delete pages in Google Docs, along with a couple of handy tips about the application in general.

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs?

There might be multiple possible scenarios when it comes to deleting a page or a blank page in Google Docs. You might want to remove a page from the middle of the document or simply from the end. It is also possible that you are looking to delete an empty page or in other cases, a page with some text.

Therefore, we have included all possible cases with the ultimate goal of deleting a page in Google Docs.

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs Using the Delete Key

Use this method to remove a page or a blank page present anywhere in the document.

Step 1: Open Google Docs and Locate the page you wish to delete

Go to the page you wish to delete and place the mouse cursor at the beginning of the page.

place the cursor on the desired page

Step 2: Select the page

Press and hold the mouse cursor to select the entire text until you reach the end. Alternately, Press Ctrl+ A shortcut key for Windows or Cmd+A for Mac to select everything.

select entire text

If you have an empty page, simply drag through it in a similar manner. It would look like this:

select empty page

Step 3: Click Delete

Simply click the Delete key on your keyboard and the page would be deleted. Repeat these steps to delete other such pages.

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Page Breaks

Use this method to remove a blank page from the middle of the document.

Step 1: Uncheck Show Print Layout option

Go to the View tab and uncheck Show print layout option by clicking on it.

uncheck show print layout

Step 2: Select the page break and delete

You must see the different page breaks present in the document as a Gray line. Simply click any page break to select it and hit Delete.

select and delete the page break

This is how the document will look like:

result

You can then again check the Show Print Layout option to confirm if the page is removed:

recheck by turning print layout on

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Custom Spacing

Use this method to remove a blank page present anywhere in the document.

There might be a paragraph in your document with a custom spacing such that it leads to the creation of a blank page, especially at the end of the document. Custom spacing is nothing but the extra space before or after a paragraph. As an example, we have added a custom spacing of 50 after one paragraph:

custom spacing example

The problem with custom spacing is that you cannot remove it using the backspace or delete it. If custom spacing is the reason a new blank page is being created at the end of your document, then you must change the custom spacing:

Step 1: Select the paragraph with spacing issues

Select the paragraph that has problems with custom spacing. You can see that the selection goes beyond the selected text showing the custom space present after this paragraph.

select the paragrph

Step 2: Go to Format and Select Custom Spacing

Click on the Format tab and select Custom Spacing from the Line & Paragraph spacing drop-down.

custom spacing option

Step 3: Change the spacing

Change the custom spacing to the default spacing, i.e, 12. and click on Apply.

change the spacing

You will see that the extra page would be automatically removed right after clicking Apply:

result

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Margins

Use this method to remove a page with a few lines of text present anywhere in the document.

Sometimes, there might be a few lines of text that move over to the new page in Google Docs. Having just a single or two lines on a new page does not only look unpleasant but also isn’t feasible in case you want to print the document later on.

a new page with a few lines

Thus, you can adjust the margins in this case to make sure that those few lines are accommodated in the previous page and the new page(that is mostly blank) is deleted.

Step 1: Go to File Tab and Select page setup

Click on the File tab and go to the Page setup option.

page setup

Step 2: Change margins

Reduce the left and right margins and click ok.

edit margins

Note that the margins will be changed for the entire document, thus, creating more space.

You can see that the text is adjusted and the last page is automatically removed.

result

How to Delete a Page in the Google Docs Mobile App

Step 1: Click on the Edit (pen) Icon

Open the document and click on the pen icon to enter editing mode.

click on the pen icon

Step 2: Go to the menu bar (three dots)

Click on the three dots present at the top.

click on the three dots

Step 3: Go to page setup

Click on Page setup from the list.

page setup

Step 4: Switch off the pageless toggle

Swipe the toggle next to the Pageless option to turn it off.

pageless toggle

Step 5: Go to the three dots

Come back to the document and click on the three dots again.

three dots

Step 6: Turn on print layout

Turn on print layout to see all the pages of the document.

print layout

Step 7: Select the page

Go to the page that you want to delete and press and hold the cursor to start selection. Drag the cursor if needed and press delete.

select page and hit delete

Note that if you have some text on your page, then in step 7, you can simply select the text and hit delete. It works in the same manner.

How to Prevent Blank Pages in Google Docs

Blank pages might appear in Google Docs because of a number of reasons. You can prevent them from appearing if you take care of a few things:

1. Use “Ctrl + Enter” Carefully

The shortcut Ctrl + Enter is used to insert a new page in the document. It is possible that you insert one without meaning to. So take care as you use those shortcuts to avoid adding an unnecessary new page in your document.

2. Check Section Breaks

Section breaks might be added in a Google Docs mistakenly and they simply lead to the appearance of a new page. Although deleting a section break is quite simple but only if you can see them. Thus, make sure you turn off the Show print layout option from the View tab to see these section breaks.

uncheck show print layout

3. Check Page Break

Sometimes a blank page might appear because of a page break. To remove such a blank page, simply use delete to remove the page.

4. Clear Formatting

If you have copied the content from somewhere, and it has extra spaces in it, then you can simply remove the formatting to get rid of extra spaces.

clear formatting

5. Check Custom Spacing

As discussed in one of the above sections, a custom space after a paragraph might be causing the insertion of a blank page at the end. So, make sure you check of the custom spacing is set to default.

custom spacing

Conclusion

In this article, we saw how we can delete a page in Google Docs. You can delete a blank page as well as a page with content by simply selecting the content or the page and hitting Delete. But sometimes, when the reason of extra spaces is custom spacing or a page break, then you might have to follow a few extra steps.

A custom space does not only create extra space after a paragraph, but also before it. So don’t get confused in such a situation and change the spacing in the before box. Hopefully, all your queries regarding the deletion of a page in Google Docs are clear now. You can next read how to remove a green line in Google Docs.

How to Delete a Page in Google Docs – FAQs

How to delete a blank page in Google Docs?

To delete a blank page in Google Docs, simply select the page and hit delete. If this does not work, then you might need to change the custom spacing or delete the page breaks as explained above.

How to delete a page in Google Docs?

Simply select the page with the text that you want to delete and hit enter.

Why can’t I Delete a page in Google Docs?

There are two main reasons you can’t delete a page

• Hidden page breaks
• Formatting issues like extra spacing

How to delete an empty page from the end of the document in Google Docs?

Selecting the page and hitting delete should solve the problem. But if does not, then check and adjust the custom spacing of the paragraph above. 

How do you Delete an extra page on Google Docs Mobile?

There are two ways to delete an extra page on Google Docs Mobile:

1. Highlight and Delete: Place your cursor at the very end of the text before the extra page. Then, simply highlight all the content on the extra page (text or blank) and tap Delete.
2. Remove Page Break: If it’s a hidden page break, tap the spot next to the break and hit Backspace to delete it.

How to delete a page in pages without deleting the whole document in Google Docs?

In Google Docs, you can’t delete individual “pages” since it displays continuously. But you can remove extra page breaks:

1. Place cursor before the extra page.
2. Highlight content on the extra page (text or blank).
3. Press Backspace or Delete.