How to Quickly Rearrange Pages in Microsoft Word

Moving content in a Microsoft Word document is easy most of the time; you can quickly select sentences, paragraphs, graphics, and more, then cut and paste or move the selection up or down using Shift + Alt + Up/Down. These are only a few of the many ways Word helps you rearrange content.

One element Word doesn’t support autonomously is the page; there’s no quick-click option to select and move an entire page. In this tutorial, I’ll show you three easy ways to rearrange Word pages.

SEE: How to Protect Header and Footer Areas in Microsoft Word

I’m using Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use earlier versions. Word for the web supports these methods. The Navigation Pane is available in Word 365 through Word 2007, while the Clipboard history is available in Word 365 through Word 2013. All methods are also applicable with Word on Windows 11, including desktop versions and Word for Microsoft 365.

For your convenience, you can download the demonstration .docs and .doc files. Please note that only  the first method will work in the older .doc format.

How to move a page using Windows’ cut-and-paste feature

It’s easy to jump right to Windows’ classic cut-and-paste feature when moving content, but it can be awkward when moving pages. Since cut and paste is a standard, here’s how to use it to move a page in Word.

1. Enable Word’s Show/Hide feature by pressing Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This displays hard page breaks, making it easier to locate and move pages.
2. Position the cursor at the beginning of the current page by pressing Ctrl + Home.
3. Select the entire page using one of these two options:
   1. If you prefer using the mouse, hold down the left mouse button and drag to the end of the page. This method is quick if you can see the entire page onscreen. Be sure to include the hard page break at the bottom of the page if there is one; if you leave it, you’ll leave an empty page.
   2. Hold down the Shift key while pressing PgDn (Page Down) key; this will highlight one screen at a time. Press PgDn until the selection reaches the end of the page.
4. Press Ctrl + X to cut the page and copy it to the Clipboard. Or, click Ctrl + C if you don’t want to delete the content.
5. Position the cursor where you want to copy the content and press Ctrl + V. If you want to paste the content without the original formatting, click Paste in the Clipboard group on the Home tab and choose Keep Text Values Only from the dropdown.

If you’re only moving one or two pages, cut and paste is adequate. If you have a lot of rearranging to do, consider using Word’s Navigation Pane.

If you change your mind or make a mistake, press Ctrl + Z to undo the move.

How to move a page using the Navigation Pane in Word

Word’s Navigation Pane displays your document by Headings and Pages. For this method to work, you must use World’s built-in heading styles.

To open Word’s Navigation Pane, click the View tab and check Navigation Pane in the Show menu. Then, click Pages.

Word displays a thumbnail for each page in the document. If the page you want to move begins with a built-in heading style, this is the quickest way to move an entire page. To demonstrate, do the following.

1. Open the Navigation Pane, which defaults to displaying headers.
2. In the Navigation Pane, click the heading that begins the page you want to move. In this case, that’s the first heading: Video. Notice that the page font color is red — that will matter in a minute.
3. Drag the Video header to the end of the list. This will display a bold, guiding line.
4. Drop the header into position.

If you’re working with the demonstration Word document, you can see the red page is now at the end of the document; the first page is green with the Themes heading.

If the page you want to move doesn’t have a built-in heading at the beginning of the page, you can still use the Navigation Pane.

1. Select the first few words or lines at the top of the page.
2. Click a heading style in the Styles group on the Home tab. The style is only temporary.
3. This page will now show up in the Headings section in the Navigation Pane. After moving the page, remove the temporary heading style.

SEE: 5 Ways to Delete a Page in Word

There’s one small catch to using the Navigation Pane: The first heading shows in the Navigation Pane. If there’s a higher-level heading elsewhere on the same page, the move begins with that higher-level heading, not the first heading on the page. This is something to watch out for because there’s no way for you to know that the heading in the Navigation Pane isn’t the highest-level heading on the page.

How to move pages using Windows’ extended Clipboard in Word

Sometimes you might want to move multiple pages in a Word document. For instance, you may want to swap the position of two pages or rearrange several pages. While you could do that with cut-and-paste or the Navigation Pane, there’s an easier way — the extended Clipboard, also known as the Clipboard history. Here’s how you can use this feature to move multiple pages efficiently.

1. Using the cut-and-paste method above, cut the first page to the Clipboard.
2. Repeat this process to cut the next page to the Clipboard.
3. Position your cursor where you want the first cut page to appear.
4. Press the Windows key + V to open the Clipboard history. Or click the Clipboard group’s dialog launcher.
5. In the history pane, click the page you want to insert at the cursor position.
6. Position your cursor where you want to insert the second page that you cut.
7. In the history pane, click the page you want to insert at the cursor position.

To learn more about the Clipboard history, read how to get more out of your Clipboards in Microsoft Office.

Your version of Word might limit you to the cut-and-paste method. However, if you have a recent version, the Clipboard history is probably the quickest method and eliminates the problem of moving a section of a page when the heading at the beginning of the page isn’t the highest-level heading on the page.

How to move pages using Outline View in Word

Outline View provides a similar view of a document’s content as the Navigation Pane; it displays the content as a hierarchical list of headings that can be easily rearranged. To use this feature, follow these steps.

1. Switch to Outline View by clicking the View tab, then Outline in the Views group.
2. To move a heading with all its subordinates, hover your mouse over the + symbol next to it until it becomes a four-headed arrow, then drag the selection up or down as desired. You could also click the + symbol to highlight the section, then use the green up and down arrows in the toolbar to move it.
3. To move the heading without its subordinates, click the text of the heading rather than the + symbol, so the text curser remains flashing. Then use the up and down arrows in the toolbar to move it, leaving all the subheadings where they are.
4. Once you’re satisfied, you can exit Outline View by returning to the View tab and clicking Print Layout.

Is it possible to rearrange pages in a Word document without using headings?

Word does not treat pages as independent entities, so moving them without headings can be tricky. You can cut and paste any body text to move it around as desired. Inserting manual page breaks (Ctrl+Enter/Return) between the sections can help you shift content without accidentally merging it with other text.

Another workaround is to input temporary headings and use the Navigation Pane or Outline View method. Once the content is in the desired order, you can delete the headings. Unfortunately, there is no smooth way to rearrange pages without them having designated headings.

TechnologyAdvice staff writer Fiona Jackson updated this article.