If you’re not a tech-savvy person, sometimes very small things in computers seem like a big headache. But never mind! You’re not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people out there face the problem of how to delete a document. A TechWelkin reader sent me an email yesterday and asked about a Microsoft Word tip on how she could delete a document!
Delete an MS Word Document
If you’re looking for a delete button within MS Word window —then stop! There is no such button. You can not delete a document from inside the Word window. So, how do you go about it?
1. Close the document: An opened document can not be deleted. So, first of all, if you have it opened, close the document that you want to delete
2. Locate the document in computer: Open Windows Explorer. Select “Computer” or “My Computer” from the left side pane. Type your document’s name in search box and hit enter. System will find and show the document.
Delete a document from your computer.3. Now delete it: Take right click on the document you want to delete and select Delete from the pop-up menu. You computer may ask for confirmation. Confirm and the document will be shifted to Recycle Bin (that means it is deleted)
4. Permanent deletion: You’ve deleted the file. However, a document can be easily retrieved from Recycle Bin. If you want to permanently delete it, select Recycle Bin from left pane of the Windows Explorer. Computer will show content of Recycle Bin in right pane. Select the document you want to permanently delete, take right click on it and select delete from the menu. Now the document is permanently gone!
Delete a Document from Mac
- Close the document (in case you have opened it)
- Type document’s name in Finder and search it.
- Press Command key and click on the document and select Move to Trash. Or just drag the document’s icon onto the Trash icon. Or press Command key and then press Delete key
This is it! Now you know how to delete a Word document from your computer. By the way, we have published an article on how to automatically find and delete duplicate files from your compute. You might be interested in it because deleting duplicate files saves you storage space in computer.
Should you have any question on this topic, please feel free to ask in the comments section. We, at TechWelkin and our reader community will try to assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin!
have Word on my Airbook … I did what you suggested and in Finder I typed in the document what I have made on Word … but the document didn’t come up … can’t understand why I can’t delete directly on Word … but obviously I can’t .. but they don’t even show up on Finder on my Mac … would love some help …
Hi Sir,
how can i delete a extra sheet in word please help me
But Word makes an “autosave” copy so the file still exists. Indeed it still in on the disk, it is just not listed in the Operating System’s list of files. The disk marks the place where the data is as empty, but the document is still on the disk, and there are programs that can find it.
i cannot believe that you cannot delete a file in word or excel. Plus windows 10 sucks. no wonder people do not want to upgrade from windows xperia. i will never buy another product from microsoft again. i hope it goes out of business
In Windows based operating systems, shift+delete provides an option of deleting an object/file permanently
– find shift and delete tab on your computer keypad
– select the file and press shift and delete tab together.
This way file won’t appear in Recycle bin.
Indeed, this is the easy way to delete file permanently from the devices. Nevertheless, there is still chances of permanently lost data recovery with the help of professional data recovery software. To get your file permanently deleted from the drive it is always recommended to use data eraser software like Eraser, Bitraser for file, etc.