How to Rearrange Pages in Word

Word doesn’t let you drag pages around the way you drag slides in PowerPoint. To rearrange pages, you move the content on them. If your document uses headings, drag a heading in the Navigation pane or use Outline view, and everything under it moves too. If it has no headings, select the page’s content, cut it, and paste it where it belongs.

Save a copy before you reorganize a long document, so you can go back if a move goes wrong.

Why there’s no drag-a-page thumbnail view in Word

A Word document is one continuous stream of text. Pages are created on the fly as text flows from one to the next, so a “page” isn’t a fixed object Word can pick up and move. Change the font size or margins, and the same text lands on different pages.

That’s why the Pages tab in the Navigation pane shows thumbnails you can click to jump to a page, but can’t drag to reorder. The tools that do reorder a document work on headings and selected text instead.

Choose a method

• Navigation pane headings: fastest when each section starts with a heading style. Best in Word for Windows.
• Outline view: also uses headings, works in Word for Windows and Mac, and is handy for long documents.
• Cut and paste: works in any document and any version of Word, including Word for the web.

Method 1: Move sections with the Navigation pane

1. Make sure each section you want to move starts with a built-in heading style, such as Heading 1 or Heading 2. Bold text that only looks like a heading won’t appear. Our guide to making headings in Word shows how to apply them.
2. Select View > Navigation Pane, or press Ctrl+F.
3. Select the Headings tab.
4. Drag a heading up or down to its new place in the list. A line shows where it will drop. Word moves all the text, tables, and pictures under that heading with it.
5. Scroll through the document and check the new order, including subheadings and the pages around the move.

You can also right-click a heading in the pane to promote or demote it or add a new heading. For more, see our Navigation pane guide.

Headings inside tables, text boxes, headers, and footers don’t show in the list. Microsoft also notes that if a document has protected regions, you may not be able to drag a section past the last one. The pane works differently in Word for Mac and Word for the web, so use Outline view or cut and paste there if dragging isn’t available. Details are in Microsoft’s Navigation pane article.

Method 2: Rearrange sections in Outline view

Outline view shows only your headings, so you can move whole sections without scrolling through pages of text. It’s available in Word for Windows and Word for Mac.

1. Select View > Outline.
2. In Show Level on the Outlining tab, choose Level 1 or Level 2 so only headings appear.
3. Click a heading and select Move Up or Move Down on the Outlining tab. You can also drag the plus sign beside the heading. The collapsed text underneath moves with it.
4. Select Close Outline View, then check the new page order in Print Layout.

Method 3: Cut and paste the content of a page

Use this when your document has no headings, or when you need to move part of a section.

1. Turn on Home > Show/Hide ¶ so you can see page breaks and section breaks.
2. Select all the content you want to move, including any table, picture, caption, or break that should travel with it. A page number alone doesn’t mark a fixed block of content.
3. Cut the selection with Ctrl+X on Windows or Command+X on a Mac.
4. Click where the content should start. In a long document, you can jump to the destination page with Go To instead of scrolling.
5. Paste with Ctrl+V or Command+V.
6. Check the page order, headings, page numbers, and section formatting. If the selection was wrong, press Ctrl+Z (Command+Z on a Mac) right away.

Select exactly one page

Dragging to select a full page is fiddly. Word for Windows has a built-in shortcut:

1. Click anywhere on the page you want to move.
2. Press Ctrl+G to open the Go To tab of Find and Replace.
3. Type \page in Enter page number, select Go To, and then select Close.

Word selects everything on that page, ready to cut.

Select several pages in a row

Click at the very start of the first page, scroll to the end of the last page, and hold Shift while you click there. Everything between the two clicks is selected.

For a closer look at selecting a full page’s contents and pasting them elsewhere, see our guide on how to cut a page in Word.

After you move pages: fix breaks, numbering, and the table of contents

Why did the page count change?

Moving content changes where Word breaks pages. A table, picture, or long paragraph may no longer fit at the bottom of a page, so it flows onto the next one and adds or removes a page. If a section must always start on a new page, put a page break before its heading with Insert > Page Break or Ctrl+Enter. Don’t press Enter over and over to push text down, because the spacing breaks again as soon as anything above it changes.

Check section breaks

A section break can carry its own orientation, headers, footers, and page numbering. If a moved page suddenly turns landscape or shows the wrong header, a section break probably moved with it or was left behind. Our guide to finding section breaks helps you spot them.

Update the table of contents

Page numbers added with Insert > Page Number renumber themselves as content moves. A table of contents doesn’t, so refresh it after you rearrange sections:

1. Click inside the table of contents.
2. Select References > Update Table.
3. Choose Update entire table and select OK.

Frequently asked questions

How do I swap two pages?

Move one of them. For example, to swap pages 3 and 4, select the content of page 4, cut it, and paste it at the start of page 3. The old page 3 then becomes page 4.

Can I rearrange pages in Word for the web?

Yes, by cutting and pasting the content. Word for the web doesn’t have Outline view, so heading-based moves need the desktop app.

How do I copy a page instead of moving it?

Use Ctrl+C instead of Ctrl+X, then paste. Our guide to duplicating a page in Word covers this in detail.

What if I just want a page gone?

If you need to remove a page rather than move it, see our page-deletion troubleshooting guide.