Troubleshooting
Unintended blank pages
How you'd notice this
The previewer or printed proof shows a completely blank page where you didn't expect one, often right before a chapter, or at the very end of the file.
Why it happens
This is almost always caused by page or section breaks. A common cause is a chapter set to always start on an odd (right-hand) page, if the previous chapter happens to end on an odd page too, the program inserts a blank even page to push the next chapter to the next odd page, which is expected. Less expected causes are stray extra page breaks left over from editing, or an empty paragraph at the very end of the document rendering as its own page.
How to fix it
You haven't picked a formatting program yet, so every program's steps are shown below, pick a tab for the one you're using.
- Turn on formatting marks (Home > ¶ button, or Ctrl+Shift+8) to see page/section break marks directly and spot stray extra breaks.
- If a blank page appears specifically because you're using "Odd Page" chapter breaks and this is intentional book convention, that's correct, leave it. If it's unwanted, change that chapter's break to a plain Page Break instead (Layout > Breaks > Page).
- Check the very last page of the document for a trailing empty paragraph, delete it if it's producing an extra blank page at the end.
- Go to View > Show print layout / formatting marks if your version has them, or manually scroll and use Ctrl+End to check the very end of the document for a stray blank paragraph.
- Docs has no "odd page" break type, so an unwanted blank page is more likely a leftover manual page break, click just before it and press Backspace/Delete to remove it.
- Check the chapter/section in the outline sidebar around where the blank page appears. Atticus's Chapter Break styles sometimes force odd-page starts by design; confirm in the live preview whether this is intentional.
- If it's not intentional, check for an empty Front Matter or Back Matter page type accidentally left in your outline with no content.
- Open the Pages panel (Window > Pages) and look for an actual blank page thumbnail in the sequence, click it to confirm nothing is on it, then right-click and Delete Page if it's not needed.
- If pages were set with "Start Page Numbering at" an odd number for a section, that setting can force an extra blank page to align numbering, check Layout > Numbering & Section Options for that section.
- Check the Binder for an empty document accidentally included in your Compile selection, an empty chapter document compiles as a blank page.
- If the blank page appears only after compiling to Word, it's likely a Word-side page/section break issue, fix it there per Word's guidance above rather than in Scrivener.
- Check for stray section breaks (Insert > Section Break) left over from editing, click just before a suspicious blank page and press Delete to remove an extra break.
- Check the very last page for a trailing empty paragraph and delete it if it's producing a blank page at the end.
- Check your chapter/front-matter outline for an empty entry accidentally left in the structure, an empty element typesets as its own blank page.
- If a theme forces chapters to start on an odd page as a design choice, a blank page before some chapters may be intentional, check the print preview to confirm.
- Check Vellum's chapter/element list for an empty entry accidentally left in, an empty element typesets as its own page.
- Preview the Paperback view and confirm whether the blank page is an intentional odd-page chapter start (a common book convention) rather than a mistake.
- Enable formatting marks (View > Formatting Marks, Ctrl+F10) to see page/section break marks directly and spot stray extra breaks.
- Check the very end of the document (Ctrl+End) for a trailing empty paragraph that's rendering as its own page, delete it if found.