Why Is There a Blank White Page in the Middle of My Exported PDF Book? (Layout Fix)

In most cases the blank page is not a bug. Your document is set up so that every chapter starts on a right-hand page, and right-hand pages always have odd numbers. When a chapter ends on an odd page, the next odd page is two pages away, so the software inserts an empty even page to fill the gap. Word does this with an Odd Page section break, LaTeX's book class does it by default, and InDesign does it when a book is told to continue on the next odd page.

The other usual suspects are a stray manual page break, a heading style that already starts a new page, and a table that fills a page so exactly that the paragraph mark after it spills onto a page of its own. Each one has a quick fix below. If the PDF is already finished and you just want the page gone, skip to the last section.

First, decide whether the blank page belongs there

In a printed book, odd pages sit on the right and even pages on the left. Chapters traditionally open on the right, so an empty left-hand page before a chapter is normal in print and nobody notices it on paper. If this PDF is the interior file for a printer or a print-on-demand service, those pages may be exactly right.

If the PDF is for reading on screen, attaching to an email or submitting online, the filler pages are just clutter, and you should remove them.

Why Word adds a page you cannot see in Word

Word does not show these filler pages in Print Layout view. You scroll from page 7 straight to page 9 and never see page 8, yet the preview under File > Print and the exported PDF both include it. That is why the blank page seems to exist only in the PDF.

The page comes from a section break whose start type is Odd page (or Even page). To change it:

1. 1.Press Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows or Command+8 on a Mac to show formatting marks. The ¶ button on the Home tab does the same.
2. 2.Go to the end of the chapter just before the blank page and look for a double dotted line labeled Section Break (Odd Page). Switching to View > Draft makes breaks easier to spot in a long file.
3. 3.Click anywhere in the chapter that follows the break, then open the Page Setup dialog with the small arrow in the corner of the Layout > Page Setup group. Double-clicking the break also opens it.
4. 4.On the Layout tab, change Section start from Odd page to New page, and click OK.
5. 5.Repeat for each chapter, then export again with File > Save As and PDF as the file type.

Changing the start type is better than deleting the break. The chapter keeps its own section, so its headers, footers and numbering stay as you set them. Deleting the break merges two chapters into one section, and one of them loses its own header and footer settings.

Two page breaks, or a page break on top of a heading style

If there is no section break, look for two page breaks in a row. With formatting marks on, each one shows as a dotted line labeled Page Break. Ctrl+Enter inserts one, and it is easy to press it twice or to add one at the end of a chapter that already ends with a break. Select the extra one and press Delete.

Then check your chapter heading style. Right-click Heading 1 in the Styles gallery, choose Modify > Format > Paragraph, and open Line and Page Breaks. If Page break before is ticked, every chapter already starts on a new page, so a manual page break before it creates an empty page every time. Use the style setting or manual breaks, not both.

The table that pushes an empty paragraph onto its own page

Word always keeps a paragraph mark after a table, and it cannot be deleted. When a table reaches the bottom margin, that mark has nowhere to go except the next page, which then exports blank. The same thing happens with the final paragraph mark at the very end of a document.

1. 1.Show formatting marks and click the ¶ sitting alone on the blank page.
2. 2.Click in the Font size box on the Home tab, type 1 and press Enter.
3. 3.If it still spills over, open the Paragraph dialog and set Spacing Before and After to 0 and Line spacing to Exactly at 1 pt.
4. 4.If that is still not enough, reduce the bottom margin a little in Layout > Margins > Custom Margins.

InDesign: pages inserted by the Book panel

In an InDesign book, each chapter is a separate document. Open the Book panel menu and choose Book Page Numbering Options. If Continue on next odd page is selected and Insert Blank Page is ticked, InDesign adds an empty page to the end of any chapter that finishes on an odd page. Choose Continue from previous document for straight-through numbering, or untick Insert Blank Page. Pages added this way have no master applied and no page number, which helps you tell them apart from pages someone added on purpose.

Also check Smart Text Reflow under Preferences > Type. It adds pages when text overflows a frame. If the text later got shorter, those pages stay behind unless Delete Empty Pages is ticked in the same panel.

LaTeX: the book class opens chapters on the right

The standard book class is two-sided and uses openright by default, so each \chapter calls \cleardoublepage and adds a blank page when needed. The filler page even gets the running header, which makes it look like a mistake. To let chapters start on any page, add one class option:

\documentclass[openany]{book}

If you want right-hand chapter openings for print but want the filler pages truly empty, the TeX FAQ shows how to give them an empty page style. KOMA-Script's scrbook class has a cleardoubleempty option for the same purpose.

Already exported? Delete the page from the PDF

If you no longer have the source file, or you only need a screen copy, remove the page from the PDF itself:

1. 1.Open Organize PDF and add your file. It works in your browser, so the book is not uploaded anywhere.
2. 2.Find the blank page in the thumbnail grid. Filler pages stand out as plain white tiles.
3. 3.Hover over the page and click its delete button. Repeat for any others.
4. 4.Click Save PDF. You get a new copy, and your original file is left untouched.

On a Mac you can also do this in Preview: choose View > Thumbnails, select the blank page in the sidebar, press Delete, and save.

One limitation: deleting pages does not renumber anything. Page numbers printed in the footer stay as they were, so the PDF's twelfth page may now be labeled 13, and a table of contents will point one page off. For a final edition, fixing the source and exporting again is the cleaner route.