How to Remove Page Breaks in Word

Get a step-by-step guide on removing page breaks in Microsoft Word documents. You’ll learn how to use Word to get rid of page breaks, both manual and automatic.

Page breaks are a double-edged sword when formatting Word documents. They can maintain readability but can also disrupt the flow or layout of your content.

If you've ever found yourself struggling with a page break in Word, you're not alone. We'll delve into the nitty-gritty of removing and dealing with page breaks in Word so you can edit them.

In this post, we’re covering how to:

• Remove manual page breaks in Word
• Adjust automatic page breaks in Word
• Remove page breaks in Word on Mac 
• Edit Word documents online

So let's jump in!

How to remove page breaks in Word

The first thing you should know is that page breaks come in two forms – Automatic page breaks, which are added by MS Word, and manual page breaks, which are manually added in.

While you can delete page breaks that were manually added, automatic page breaks can only be adjusted. In either case, we’ll show you how to get rid of page breaks in Word.

Remove manual page breaks in Word

To remove manual page breaks, you’ll first need to display where the page breaks are and then delete them:

1. Go to Home > Show/Hide. You should then see all the page break markers in the document.

2. Double-click on the page break and then simply use the Backspace or Delete key on your keyboard.

Expert Tip #1: If there’s more than one page break, you can quickly find and delete them all with the Find and Replace dialog.

Go to the Home tab > Editing menu. Click on the Find drop-down menu and select Advanced Find...

Go to the Replace tab and in the Find what: field, type in ^m and in the Replace with: tab, add a space. Click on Replace All.

Adjust automatic page breaks in Word

MS Word uses and automatically adds page breaks to your document. These are the breaks between the pages in your document that make them look like physical individual pages.

You can’t delete these, but you can control how the paragraph content breaks or doesn’t break around them. Here’s how:

1. Select the paragraphs around the page break you wish to adjust.

2. Go to Layout and from the Paragraph section, click on the arrow in the corner.

3. From the Line and Page Breaks tab in the Paragraph dialog, select your option depending on how you want to layout your content across the page break.

Here’s a brief look at your options:

• Widow/Orphan control: Place at least two lines of a paragraph at the top or bottom of a page.
• Keep with next: Prevent breaks from occurring between paragraphs.
• Keep lines together: Prevent a page break in the middle of a paragraph.
• Page break before: Insert a page break before a specific paragraph.

4. Click on OK.

Note that automatic page breaks are important when it comes to printing. They designate where in the document one page ends and another begins. So choose and test out each option carefully.

How to remove a page break in Word Mac

The steps to remove page break formatting from Word documents are essentially the same in Word for macOS.

Simply follow the same steps above to access the same dialogs for displaying hidden page break marks and paragraph setting. Only instead of going to the Layout menu, you’ll have to go to the Format menu.

You can even use the same tip to quickly find and replace all the manual page breaks in the document. No matter what OS you’re on, you can still tweak and remove page break sections anywhere.

How to edit Word documents online

And this portability also applies to the post page break deletion. Once you’re done removing and adjusting them in your Word document, you can continue to work on it from anywhere online.

Xodo has an online DOCX Editor that works where you work – all you need is an internet connection. Follow the steps below to start editing your DOCX online:

1. Go to Xodo’s online DOCX Editor.

2. Upload your DOCX file.

3. Click anywhere on your document and start editing. You can start typing on the page to edit your text and use any of the options from the toolbar.

If you’re still finding some page breaks or disruption in the document, you can try to remove the section break Word didn’t catch and use the space bar and Enter key to manually adjust the text around them.

3. After you’re done, click on Download to save the edited DOCX document to your device or to your cloud storage.

Now that you know the best ways to remove page breaks for manually and automatically generated page breaks, you now have control over the readability and presentation of your content.

Enhance any digital document with Word and Xodo!

Removing manual and automatic page breaks in Word is a simple yet effective way to enhance any document layout and lets you focus on editing your Word content, which Xodo can do in a clutch. 

But Xodo doesn’t stop there. You can seamlessly manipulate and revise your digital documents with more than 30 tools. Summarize your PDFs with AI, edit PDF content, or sign PDFs – it's up to you.

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