175

How do I turn off page breaks in Google Docs so I just have a single continuous scrolling document?

I don't think this method applies anymore.

I never want to print out my Google Docs. The page breaks are distracting and mess up my formatting. (For example, when I have footnotes inside a table that crosses a page boundary, the footnotes break up the table!)

Let Me Tink About It
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  • method Compact Controls is for menu minimisation – AndriuZ Oct 16 '16 at 02:46
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    @AndriuZ, You appear to have suggested an edit which is intended to make the question more closely match the answer which you have provided. That is not an acceptable thing to do. – Makyen Oct 16 '16 at 06:12
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    @Alex: My conclusion is there is no perfect solution. It depends on which set of problems you want to live with. [The selected answer is fine](https://stackoverflow.com/a/33204032/1640892) if the end consumer (document reader) is not a collaborator or editor. For collaborators, [there is the Page Sizer add-on solution](https://stackoverflow.com/a/41817193/1640892). But the problem there is it limits the page height to 120 inches. – Let Me Tink About It Jul 09 '17 at 20:19
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    @Alex: I think the newly accepted answer plus the hack suggested in a comment [which is summarized here](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45044947/1640892) is now the best answer IMHO. – Let Me Tink About It Jul 11 '17 at 21:57
  • The workaround is installing the following addon and making page size tall enough to fit the whole content into one page. https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/page_sizer/595382898724 – ya.teck Jan 19 '22 at 04:58
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    @NicFoster Old questions can't be migrated but [webapps.se] already have a similar question https://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/159500/88163. P.S. Few days ago (Feb 2022) Google announced the launch of "Pageless" mode in Google Docs. Open a document in Google Docs web app then click on the File menu > Page Setup. The page setup dialog now shows a "Pageless" tab. – Rubén Feb 25 '22 at 23:00
  • Some new pageless format: https://i.imgur.com/InyIn95.png – stevec Jul 22 '22 at 08:42
  • As of 2022: go to File -> Page Setup -> Pageless. – stevec Oct 25 '22 at 04:26

9 Answers9

287

In 2016: Turn off "Print Layout" from the "View" menu.

Now, 2022, there is a specific feature extending these capabilities in "File / Page Setup" : https://support.google.com/docs/thread/150905607/google-docs-new-feature-pageless?hl=en

Krastanov
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    That still doesn't actually turn off the page breaks. They are still there. They are just rendered differently. They are not shown as gaps between the pages. Instead, they are shown as dotted lines. But if you render the page by publishing it, for example, they are still there. – Let Me Tink About It May 18 '16 at 02:02
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    The biggest problem with this technique is that you still get page break markers in tables — which look a bit like cell dividers. – Sam Dutton Aug 24 '18 at 11:33
  • Ehh, why is this not the accepted answer. This should be the first one! Reported to mods to accept it! – Playdome.io Oct 23 '18 at 05:37
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    You still see a faint line, but I don't mind it (some may even want it). It's the continuous page I was after, and this one gives it. – Álex Jun 17 '19 at 09:18
  • I do not understand why this is not the top answer. I don't mind the faint dotted lines, but Page Sizer can make the page too long (I never used Page Sizer). – BlueStaggo Jan 11 '21 at 09:57
98

I also rarely want to print my google docs, and the breaks annoyed me as well.

I installed the Page Sizer add-on from the add-ons menu within google docs, and made the page really long.

The page settings work globally. So your collaborators will also enjoy a page page-break-free experience in google docs, unlike the style-bot solution.

Update

Google now provides this feature out of the box.

File > Page Setup > Pageless

BjarkeCK
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  • best, most simple answer here – bgenchel Mar 13 '17 at 00:51
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    This is pretty good! Page breaks are specially problematic when I just want to create a large doc with a collection of images, and only 2 rows enter in one page before it jumps to a new one, leaving a whole lot of empty space, grrr – Zamaroht Apr 26 '17 at 22:32
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    @BjarkeCK problem is it allows just a maximum height of 10 pages. What if I need more height for the document? – Alex Jul 09 '17 at 16:10
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    @Alex Just change or remove the max attribute from the number field in page-sizer. https://jumpshare.com/v/rnE1Kxb6UkbHl7NWrGTR Worked for me! – BjarkeCK Jul 10 '17 at 16:55
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    This plugin does not work anymore. I cant change values and apply them to the document... – Telion Mar 27 '18 at 21:28
  • Does anyone know how to use this method to set the default page size for new documents? – Apollys supports Monica Sep 28 '18 at 20:32
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    This still seems to work for me, even though it didn't for @Telion – Taylor R Jan 29 '19 at 21:39
  • Everyone in comments to that plugin was saying that the plugin was broken. Maybe it is fixed now. @Taylor R – Telion Jan 30 '19 at 02:05
  • Please be SUPER cautious about this. I've got some crazy massively duplicated content appearing on multiple pages and this is on a document I started today. There's no way I accidentally did Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, down arrow, Ctrl+V. Figuring out the mess now :-/ – Simon_Weaver Feb 08 '19 at 22:38
55

One option is to just double click the page break line and Google will automatically removed them.

For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qq3KxGHm3g

Ken C
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    This is a good solution. +1. And it would be the undisputed best solution IMO except for one use case: when you are using tables that cross a page boundary. As this solution adds a solid horizontal line that makes the cells crossing the page boundary look like they are two cells instead of one. – Let Me Tink About It May 09 '19 at 00:47
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    This actually just unchecks "Print Layout" from the "View" menu. – k3a Mar 20 '20 at 13:07
  • I like this solution, as it is built into Docs. – Jason R Stevens CFA Apr 07 '20 at 16:39
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    Nice solution, This doesn't disable them completely - just make them thick lines (which still confuse on tables...) – Ohad Cohen Jun 06 '20 at 11:24
  • Ha! I've literally been looking for this solution for months. Cheers. – KECG Jan 08 '22 at 12:16
13

The solution I came up with was to use the publishing feature.

File > Publish to the web...

Then in the URL you can just replace the .../edit path with .../pub

This solves the problem described in the question of breaking up a table with footnotes.

Let Me Tink About It
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  • Thank you, this is what I was looking for. I dont care about page breaks when editing, easy to ignore. But I wanted it to be a continuous stream for the viewer, just like it looks when editing and this gave me that. – PAEz Nov 08 '21 at 04:51
  • Does this make the document public? – ctrl-alt-delor Feb 15 '22 at 08:03
11

The only way to remove the dotted line (to my knowledge) is with css hacking using plugin.

  • Install the User CSS (or User JS & CSS) plugin, which allows adding CSS rules per site.

  • Once on Google Docs, click the plugins icon, toggle the OFF to ON button, and add the following css code:

.

.kix-page-compact::before{
    border-top: none;
}

enter image description here

Should work like a charm.

Baumr
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Jeremy Chone
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    Once on google doc, I click the User CSS icon and... nothing. I was able to right click and give the extension read & write access. That didn't help though. Oh, I see now. I had to reload the page. Now it works. – JohnMudd Jan 31 '20 at 13:53
  • Thanks for the answer, Jeremy! I posted a follow-up question here — having an issue with tables in Google Docs: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/145470/how-to-remove-horizontal-page-break-line-dotted-and-bold-that-appear-on-tables – Baumr Aug 07 '20 at 14:21
10

This answer is a summary of comments; but it really deserves its own answer.

The accepted answer (by @BjarkeCK) works, but as written, there is a maximum allowable page height of about 120 inches — roughly the height of 11 normal sized pages. So this is not a perfect solution.

However, there is a hack. You have to edit the source code of your local browser which renders the Page-Sizer settings window and either increase or delete the max attribute for the page height input. As shown in the following screen shot.

Page-Sizer Add-on

enter image description here

To access the source code you need to edit, position your cursor inside the custom height field, right-click, then choose inspect element.

Note that you also have to delete all the page breaks in your original document otherwise no data will render after the first one.

Let Me Tink About It
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9

If You want to REMOVE page break from document

use Edit / Find-Replace \f with regex

If You want to TURN OFF (as You asked)

uncheck "Print Layout" from the "View" menu, but dotted lines will remain indicating page breaks

AndriuZ
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    This only removes added page breaks, not automatic page breaks – momeara Mar 24 '17 at 14:58
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    best simplest answer ("uncheck print layout in 'view' ") - good enough for my everyday note-keeping uses (where 'real' page-breaks are really distracting, but the dotted line is an acceptable annoyance, and a plus since I can still 'jump to page') – oyd11 May 09 '18 at 10:31
7

Other than that open the "View" menu at the top of the screen and un-check "Print Layout." Page breaks will now only be shown as a dashed line.

crua9
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  • ``` .kix-page-compact::before { border-style: none } ``` – Micah Stubbs Jan 15 '20 at 20:14
  • Thanks for your answer, this works, but the limitation is when there's a table: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/145470/how-to-remove-horizontal-page-break-line-dotted-and-bold-that-appear-on-tables — any ideas how to fix? – Baumr Aug 07 '20 at 14:23
5

A long-term solution: userscript

You can use a userscript like Tampermonkey (if you are using Chrome or Edge-Chromium, here is the extension)

Then create a script and paste this in it:

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Google docs
// @include      https://*docs.google.*/document/*
// @grant    GM_addStyle
// ==/UserScript==

GM_addStyle ( `
    .kix-page-compact::before {
        border-top: none;
    }
` );

A temporary fix: developer console

You can use the developper console. In Chrome:
1. open your document on google docs
2. click in the url field and press ctrl+shift+I (or right click just above help and select "view page source)

Then modify the css (cf the steps on the printscreen below) :
1. once the console is loaded press ctrl+F and paste this : kix-page kix-page-compact
2. click on the div just below the one that is highlighted in yellow
3. in the right part, paste this in the filter box : .kix-page-compact::before
4. click on 1px dotted #aaa next to border-top and replace it by none
enter image description here

MagTun
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  • or just add this script (after installing Tamper Monkey, go this github repo click on `raw` to install it: https://gist.github.com/WiliTest/b78ad2c234565ba8ce40df15440540d9 – JinSnow Oct 18 '18 at 09:48
  • Great answer. This works but whenever there's a table, it doesn't work: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/145470/how-to-remove-horizontal-page-break-line-dotted-and-bold-that-appear-on-tables — any suggestions? – Baumr Aug 07 '20 at 14:22