how to delete a final, blank page?

[ben000]

In Word 2007, there's a blank page at the end of report, with nothing on it but a paragraph return symbol (visible only in the show paragraph marks and other formatting symbols). No amount of backspacing or deleting of this symbol, or of the final such symbol on the preceding page, will delete this mark and the final page. How do I accomplish this seemingly simple procedure?

Also, I notice that in a Word 2007 report that I am viewing in PDF form (we have to view all reports in PDF b/c PDF is the format we send reports to clients in), the Draft watermark is sometimes "behind" (i.e. partially covered by) a .png image in the report, but other times the Draft watermark is "in front of" (i.e., covering) a .png image in the report. These images have been pasted with the Insert>Picture method, so I cannot understand why the watermark would affect them differently. There's no consistency with it either (i.e., behind one image, in front of the next, behind the next, etc.). I did do some resizing of some of the images, so that might be the reason, but I don't understand why that would result in this.

B/c we eventually remove the Draft watermark, as long as the images look clear in PDF form, it's not a big problem. It is weird and inconsistent, though.

[HansV]

You cannot delete the final paragraph mark, but you can format it as hidden text, or you can set its font size to 1 point.

(This problem occurs most often if there is a table before this paragraph mark)

[janbphd]

Ben,

What is on the preceding page? Is there a table (as Hans suggests) or some other object that extends all the way to the bottom of that page? Or is there an empty paragraph (paragraph symbol) you can delete that might pull the last page up?

Let us know.

Jan

Author, "Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Office Word 2007"

For Word and WordPerfect tips, see my blog at http://compusavvy.wordpress.com

[ben000]

There is a table on the bottom of the penultimate page, with disclaimer text in it. Going to shrink the table somewhat to see if that allows me to delete this final paragraph mark.

edit--rats, there's no room to spare on that penultimate page. plenty of boilerplate legal text I cannot edit, and the table cannot be any smaller.

[ben000]

setting the font size to 1 pt for either this final paragraph return or the one at the end of the penultimate page doesn't solve the problem though- final page is still here, and I can't delete it.

Furthermore, Word is taking literally 3 mins. (or longer, at which point I just force Word to close/crash) to process a simple spacing change in PAge Layout>Paragraph. That seems ridiculous. What might be causing that?

[HansV]

You can also decrease the bottom page margin slighty (in addition to setting the font size for the last paragraph to 1 point).

Please keep in mind that formatting the final paragraph mark as hidden should work in the printed output, but on screen only if you do *not* display hidden text.

[janbphd]

Is there any way you could widen one of the table rows so that the text moves up by a line? That might do the trick...

Just a thought.

Jan

[ben000]

losing faith in Word 2007- I cannot open the document now....cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents>some parts are missing or invalid


All this from changing the spacing of a single paragraph return?!?

[ben000]

increased the bottom page margin but that final table expands with it and when I compress the table, it compresses the page margin.

[janbphd]

I don't have Word 2007 here at work, so I can't test with that version, but it might be worth trying the following:

(1) Via Windows Explorer, make a copy of the document; then
(2) From within Word, click the Office button, Open, select the original file, and instead of clicking the Open button, click the drop-down on the Open button, then click Open and Repair.

Any luck?

Sorry to hear the problem is getting worse. Word documents with lots of tables in them sometimes get corrupted, for reasons unknown (at least, unknown to me). Hoping that the Open and Repair function works for you.

If it does, then maybe you can try other options to get the table to shrink on the page. (I don't think it's normal for the page margin and the table to expand and contract together... but again, I can't test for you now. Will take a look tonight after I get home from work.)

Keeping fingers crossed.

Jan

[jscher2000]

[quote name='ben000' post='786131' date='24-Jul-2009 13:09']increased the bottom page margin but that final table expands with it[/quote]
That's strange. If you check the table properties, does it have automatic resizing turned on? If so, try disabling that. Of course, the table then might run onto the next page but at least you will have manual control.

[janbphd]

But doesn't that option (Table Design Layout tab, Properties, Options, "Automatically resize to fit contents") refer solely to resizing of a cell in order to accommodate text? Would it also affect the size of the table as a whole if no new text is added to the table and the only change has to do with the page margins? That doesn't sound right to me, just on an intuitive basis (in addition to the fact that I can't remember ever seeing a table behave that way in any version of Word).

I have a feeling the table is corrupted.

Jan

[jscher2000]

[quote name='janbphd' post='786144' date='24-Jul-2009 15:36']But doesn't that option (Table Design Layout tab, Properties, Options, "Automatically resize to fit contents") refer solely to resizing of a cell in order to accommodate text?[/quote]
I had the suspicion that Word might have reduced the font size of the table contents and might be increasing them to "fit" the available height (otherwise, I have no theory to explain vertical expansion). Turns out I was thinking of a different checkbox: Table > Table Properties > Cell tab > Options button > "Fit text" (or on the ribbon, Layout > [Table] Properties > Cell tab > Options button > "Fit text"). However, I have not tested the theory.

[ben000]

My colleague was able to delete this final paragraph return by accepting all tracked changes first, and then deleting it. What's the connection between track changes and being unable to remove a paragraph return?

[HansV]

If Track Changes is on, deleting text will not really delete it, just mark it as being deleted.