Delete blank pages from Pages document

[wiltrust]

Need to delete about 400 blank pages at end of a Mac Pages document. Not exactly sure how it happened; perhaps inadvertently duplicated, and then erased.

Wiltrust

 

[chscag]

How large is the document? In other words, how many active pages of the document do you need to keep? I ask because it may be easier to copy the active pages to a new document and just delete the document with the 400 blank pages.

 

[wiltrust]

Should have added the 289 page document contains a lot of images and footnotes

 

[MacInWin]

A brute force way would be to go to the last page, last character (you may have to use the arrow keys until it won't move any more), and then just hold down the Delete key. I suspect that most of the blank pages have very little on them and the pages should go away pretty quickly. When you get close to the last page you want to keep, lift up on the Delete key and use the mouse to click-hold and move the mouse up the page to mark block of space.

Another way to do this quickly is to go to the LAST character you want to keep, click/hold and then scroll down with the mouse to the end, then Delete. Bottom line, most pages are mostly blank so it won't be THAT hard.

 

[wiltrust]

Did the last suggestion first-it didn't work. To clarify, the LAST character is text, and not the page number on which the text is.

As to your first suggestion (both much appreciated), I assume the last page there referred to is the actual last page- a blank, and the only thing on it is the page number.I scrolled down to it. My keyboard has three clustered arrows; an up and down and left and right to each side.

Scary: yesterday I used Thumbnail, started at the bottom, sliced and deleted each, and by the time I reached my actual document, it was gone. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve a backup.

 

[wiltrust]

“started at the bottom, sliced and deleted eat” should have read, “started at the bottom, clicked on and Deleted”. Maybe slicing would work better.

 

[MacInWin]

Ah, my bad, I had taken from your description that the blanks were at the END of the document.

Are the blanks right after each image? Sprinkled through the document? You may have to do the blunt force thing and go through the document page by page deleting the blanks by going to the first character of the next page and then using the "Delete" key to backspace over the blank page(s). PITA, but there you go.

 

[chscag]

Agree with Jake if the blank pages are scattered throughout the document. Just make sure you have a backup of that document before doing any deleting.

 

[wiltrust]

I do have backup, and goodness. The blank pages run consecutively after my “real” document. They are not scattered. There are a bunch

 

[MacInWin]

OK, I'm confused now. You said in post #1 they are at the END, then in Post #5 that the last page was "real" so they aren't at the end, but now say they are? Maybe I'm totally out of it, but if they are at the end (ignore the page numbers, they are added from the options you picked and get skipped when you delete text), then the process of going all the way to the end, then forward arrow (right arrow) until the cursor won't move anymore will put you at the last character on the page. Now press the Delete key and the system will backspace, deleting one character. Hold it down and it will start moving across the page or up the page to the next character back. Keep holding down Delete until you get to the last word of what you want to keep. You should see pages being deleted. I suspect most have only a few characters you cannot see on them, so the backspacing will go pretty fast.

NOTE: The arrow keys only MOVE the cursor, not delete the material. The "Delete" key is the backspace key.

 

[wiltrust]

I apologize for contributing to confusion. Ignorance is not an excuse, it's a fact.

The entire document is over 1000 pages, and the blank pages follow the first 289 page, which are “legitimate”. The blank ages are not scattered throughout those first 289

 

[MacInWin]

OK, then follow what I said. I suspect the extra pages each have ONE symbol on them for "new page" that you cannot see. Just go to the end by going to the last page, then using the right arrow to move to the very last character (Cursor won't move any more) and then backspace (Delete) until you get back to page 289. Hold down DELETE and it will repeat.

 

[wiltrust]

Tried everything without success, then called Apple Support. Very cooperative, and after about an hour and a half of this 'n that, with no solution, the rep said, “lets copy and paste.” That we did, and it worked out. The copy/paste result was good, but am still doing some rearranging. e.g. images on the right shifted to the left and changed text wrap around. also, spacing seems to have changed somewhat.

Thanx much to you for your help, and that of Apple Support. And thank goodness for Time Machine

 

[chscag]

Looks like my first suggestion was what finally worked. And yes, keep making those Time Machine backups. ;D