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?
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.
Table of Content
- How to Delete a Page in Google Docs Using the Delete Key
- How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Page Breaks
- How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Custom Spacing
- How to Delete a Page in Google Docs by Adjusting the Margins
- How to Delete a Page in the Google Docs Mobile App
- How to Prevent Blank Pages 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.
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.
If you have an empty page, simply drag through it in a similar manner. It would look like this:
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.
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.
This is how the document will look like:
You can then again check the Show Print Layout option to confirm if the page is removed:
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:
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.
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.
Step 3: Change the spacing
Change the custom spacing to the default spacing, i.e, 12. and click on Apply.
You will see that the extra page would be automatically removed right after clicking Apply:
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.
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.
Step 2: Change margins
Reduce the left and right margins and click ok.
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.
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.
Step 2: Go to the menu bar (three dots)
Click on the three dots present at the top.
Step 3: Go to page setup
Click on Page setup from the list.
Step 4: Switch off the pageless toggle
Swipe the toggle next to the Pageless option to turn it off.
Step 5: Go to the three dots
Come back to the document and click on the three dots again.
Step 6: Turn on print layout
Turn on print layout to see all the pages of the document.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
- 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.
- 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:
- Place cursor before the extra page.
- Highlight content on the extra page (text or blank).
- Press Backspace or Delete.
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