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Eric J. Technical Writer
Known Participant
March 31, 2026
Answered

2026.03.13 Extra page and end of PDF outputs

  • March 31, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 171 views

Upgraded to 2026.03.13 yesterday to see if it fixed previous issues.

Failing to hide conditioned text: Fixed

Exact search retuning double results: Not fixed

This morning in the process of publishing a help file I found a new issue that I have confirmed in 3 different documents on two different projects that was not an issue before 2026.03.13.

The issue is this: I am getting an extra page at the end of my PDF documents. It is a blank page formatted using the common layout.

It appears after my back matter.

I have deleted my backmatter and it was still there. I deleted all the articles and it was still there. Even with the only thing in my document being my TOC in my front matter, I have a blank page added to the end of the document that is formatted using common layout.

Here is what the extra page looks like:
 

Here is the TOC for that and you can see there are no common pages included. It is front matter with TOC and empty backmatter.
 

I have tried this with multiple PDF outputs on one project and then switched to another project and tried it there and got the same result. 

Template settings:
 

Second two tabs are not configured.

Output configuration:

 



 

    Correct answer Peter Grainge

    @Karin Albrecht 2 ​@Eric J. Technical Writer 

    No need for further demo projects unless you are finding something different to the following:-

    REFERENCED TOPICS.Amended Answer.

    Check box set to Include Referenced Topics

    1. If the Book TOC has all topics, the topic will appear in the PDF TOC and will be in the order set by the Book TOC. There will be a blank page.
    2. If a topic is not included in the Book TOC but is referenced by an included topic, the referenced topic will be at the end of the PDF, it will not be in the PDF TOC and there will not be a blank page.

    Check box NOT set to Include Referenced Topics

    1. The PDF will only include the topics in the Book TOC and there will be a blank page.

    BACK MATTER

    1. If a Back Matter section has been added, there will be a blank page whether or not anything has been added to the section. Dependent on which PDF viewer you use, there will likely be right click Delete This Page option.

    I have raised this with an Adobe contact. If there is a valid reason I will post back with that. Otherwise I will create a bug report and post a link here.

    At least there is an easy fix in the meantime.

    UPDATE 9TH April 2026

    This has been logged as https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/RH-13667

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

    2 replies

    E
    Eric J. Technical WriterAuthor
    Known Participant
    April 1, 2026

    <Deleted>

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 31, 2026

    As ​@Karin Albrecht 2 has reported the same issue in another thread, it looks like a bug. Let me liaise with Adobe.

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
      Peter Grainge
      Community Expert
      Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 31, 2026

      I have just tested the PDF output in the About RoboHelp sample project and the only blank page was after the Word Templates topic. That is because a lot of blank space had erroneously been left at the end of that topic. With that space removed, no blank page.

      ​@Karin Albrecht 2 Where did you find the blank page in About RoboHelp?

      ​@Eric J. Technical Writer Please try the sample project after first remove the blank space in Word Templates. What do you see then?

      Please both check your projects for blank space.

      Also in About RoboHelp do you see the 2020 Changes at the end?

      My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

      Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
      E
      Eric J. Technical WriterAuthor
      Known Participant
      March 31, 2026

      I deleted all content and only left the TOC in the front matter. The body and the back matter had zero content and the page still showed up.

      I do not have the original sample project setup on this machine. The sample project got highly modified and does not have the word on it anymore. It is used as a blank to make future projects and so we set everything in it to our standards.

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