why is there a blank page in my word document

This behavior occurs because Word for Windows cannot position two odd or two even pages in a row therefore, it inserts an even or odd page between the pages.

: “In Microsoft Word, if the insertion point is positioned on an odd page and you insert an odd-page section break, a blank page will be generated after the section break….

Once you select Different Odd/Even H&Fs in Page Layout, Odd will always be on the right and Word will always slip in a blank even page when necessary.” (comment by TerFar (Terry Farrell?), 29 August 2011) : “That’s normal and always have been so.: “If you are using Odd/Even pages, Word will always start a new section on the right hand (odd) page which is convention.” (Scomment from Terry Farrell, Microsoft Word MVP).Here’s some further reading/explanation for this blank page: You won’t see these ‘blanks’ on screen when you’re viewing the Word document, or in a PDF created from that Word document. This convention has been part of Word since forever, and is a carry-over from the book printing industry. A portrait page will NOT print on a landscape page if they are in two sections with different page orientations. Again, if you’re printing double-sided, this is what you want to happen, but it’s disconcerting when you’re printing single-sided. If you have a landscape section in amongst your portrait pages, and there’s only enough content to fit on a single landscape page, then the back of that page will print as a blank page.Check some printed books on your shelves to see the evidence of this convention - you’ll typically find every new chapter starting on an odd page.)

(BTW, starting a new chapter or major section on an odd page is a print publishing convention that has likely been around for centuries. This is fine and how you expect it to be if you’re printing double-sided but it seems strange to find blank pages scattered throughout when you print on just one side of the paper. If you set a section break to start on an odd-numbered page AND the text in the previous section finished on an odd page, then the even page between those two odd pages will be blank and the two odd pages will be numbered as odd numbers (the blank even page won’t get a page number printed on it, but it’s still counted as a page).Well, the answer is that this is ‘by design’. But when you print that document onto paper, you may find that you end up with several blank pages (no headers/footers - just blank) scattered throughout the printout. If you have a long document with many section breaks (especially for odd/even pages and landscape/portrait orientations) it will look fine on screen and as a PDF.

Why is there a blank page in my word document