Knowing how to combine multiple PDFs into a single file is easy and can make you more productive. You don't want to inflict a half-dozen PDF files on the accounting department, for example, when you can deliver one unified document. Or maybe you have four or five sections of a report that you've printed to separate PDFs from Word, Excel, and a photo editor. How do you get them all into a single file? These questions are all the more pressing for people working from home and those trying to go paperless because PDFs easily replace physical documents. People need to know how to organize and manage them.
When you need to combine PDF files in Windows, you might wish you had a Mac because the macOS-only Preview app gets the job done quickly and easily. Windows 10 lets you view PDF files in the Edge browser, but it doesn't let you do anything with them.
How to merge multiple PDF files in single PDF file
If your PDF-managing needs are minimal, install the free, open-source PDFsam(Opens in a new window). If you want the free Basic version, uncheck the option in the installer to download the Enhanced version, which is free to preview but costs $59 per year to keep. A spacious interface lets you choose among functions like merging and splitting PDFs files. Another nifty feature combines two PDF documents, alternating between pages from each file, so you can create a single PDF from separate PDFs that contain the front and back pages of an original two-sided document.
Don't expect an easy-to-use interface like the thumbnail views in Adobe Reader and other commercial software. With PDFsam, you merge two PDF files by dragging them into a window, which adds them to a list. You rearrange the list by dragging individual lines. You can specify a page range from each PDF, but you'll have to figure out which pages you want by viewing the document in a separate app like Microsoft Edge or Adobe Reader. Fortunately, you can open PDFs directly from the file list in PDFsam.
Optional features include the ability to add a blank page at the end of a PDF with an odd number of pages, so the next document in the merged PDF will begin on a right-hand page. You can also add a footer to every page of the merged document. Another feature allows you to merge bookmarks and form fields from the original files. When you're ready to merge the PDFs, just click the Run button. PDFSam is available for macOS and Debian-based versions of Linux.
Drag the files that you want to combine into a single PDF into the file-list box. You can add a variety of file types, including PDFs, text files, images, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. The app converts all the files into PDF format before combining them.
When combining files, you can specify the page range that you want to import, and you can fine-tune the combination by opening multiple files in separate tabs in PDF-XChange Editor and dragging thumbnail images of the page you want from the source tab to the target tab. If thumbnails aren't visible, press Ctrl-T or use the View > Panes menu.
The Preview app offers the same PDF-combining powers as the Finder and can be easier to use for complex tasks. To combine two or more PDF files in Preview, start by making a copy of one of the files and working with the duplicate. This step is an essential precaution because Preview saves the file as you work, and if the results aren't what you want, you'll need to do some fancy footwork to get back the original file.
Open the duplicate file. Drag additional PDF files into the sidebar and drop them at the position in the file where you want them to be. You can move them to the start or end, or between any two existing pages. If you get the location wrong, you can drag one or more thumbnails to the correct location, and you can delete any pages that you don't want.
What if you only want to merge a few pages from a second PDF file? Open that file in another PDF window and drag the thumbnails that you want into your first PDF file. As always in macOS, you can Shift-click to select a continuous range of pages, or Cmd-click on multiple pages to select pages from anywhere in the file. If some pages get imported in the wrong orientation, use Preview's toolbar to rotate them.
Sometimes Preview acts in seemingly unpredictable ways when saving a file, so, when you have the combined pages arranged as you want them, choose File > Export to PDF and save the merged PDF under its own name. You can also choose File > Close and follow the prompts to save the merged file under the name of the file you started with, but it's safest to use the Export to PDF option.
Like the Finder, Preview lets you merge any file that Preview can display into an existing PDF. That means you can include PNG, TIFF, JPEG, and other standard image formats. But what if you want to create a PDF that contains a Word document or an Excel worksheet? You can't drag those documents into Preview, but you can print those files to PDFs using Word and Excel's Print menus. The resulting PDFs can be used for a merge.
Alternatively, if you have a commercial third-party app like Adobe Acrobat, you can merge PDFs in the same way that you merge them in Preview. You can also directly drag files in any file format that Acrobat knows how to convert into PDF, including HTML web pages, plain text files, Word documents, and Excel worksheets. Additionally, Acrobat lets you create a completely new PDF from one or more of these same external formats. Simply use the File > Create menu and follow the prompts.
Acrobat provides time-saving tools that allow you to merge or split documents to deliver information to your teammates or clients in the best way possible. Batch processing options give you the control to not only organize your documents but to share them with a professional file structure within minutes.
While combining documents is managed from the Combine Files tool, splitting documents can be managed from the Organize Pages tool. In addition to splitting your files, you will find several options to customize the assembly of your document.
Extract pages: You can pull pages from bigger documents by extracting them as one group or as separate files by checking the Extract pages as separate files box. You can choose to delete or keep the extracted pages from the source document.
Use the Combine Files tool to merge Word, Excel, PowerPoint, audio, or video files, web pages, or existing PDFs. Acrobat lets you preview and arrange the documents and pages before creating the file. You can delete unwanted pages and move individual pages from a document anywhere among the pages being combined. Acrobat converts the pages of the various files into sequential pages of a single PDF.
Drag files or emails directly into the Combine Files interface. Alternatively, choose an option from the Add Files menu. You can add a folder of files, a web page, any currently open files, items in the clipboard, pages from a scanner, an email, or a file you combined previously (Reuse Files).
In the List view, click the column name that you wantto sort by. Click again to sort in reverse order. The order of filesin the list reflects the order of the files in the combined PDF.Sorting rearranges the pages of the combined PDF.
Note: If any of the source files are already PDFs, the Smaller File Size option applies the Reduce File Size feature to those files. The Reduce File Size feature is not applied if either the Default File Size or Larger File Size option is selected.
You can incorporate PDFs into other types of files that support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), such as InDesign or Word files. These files are called OLE container documents. Later, if you edit the original PDF, the OLE features in the container application updates the embedded file in the container document, to reflect your changes.
Repeat these steps as many times as necessary to include the content you would like to combine into your final PDF. Alternatively, you can drag files you want to combine directly from your desktop or file system.
With Foxit, you can easily merge and reorder multiple PDF documents for free by using our online PDF merger. Our web-based PDF merger tool is reliable, fast, and easy to use with any operating system, making it the best option out there. No sign-up required!
Merging multiple PDFs into a single document is one activity which most of us have to do. Almost on a daily basis or on a weekly or monthly basis. There are of course many websites which offer this as a service. The ones which allow you to merge PDFs for free often have some limits. Either based on number of files or the time between every merging operation.
If you are using Adobe Photoshop CS5 you have probably discovered that you cannot merge multiple (PDF/image) files without a great deal of effort and manual dexterity. If you have the Adobe suite there is a much simpler and effective way of doing it, as outlined below. Adobe Suite (CS5) includes Adobe Bridge - follow the instructions below to seamlessly merge multiple PDFs into a single PDF file presentation. Can be used for images as well.
In many instances the local rules permit or require filers to merge several documents into a single PDF document for filing purposes. If all the documents to be merged are PDFs, follow the instructions immediately below to make a single PDF from several PDFs. If all the documents to be merged are not PDFs (e.g., print documents), see the directions at the bottom of this page. All of these instructions apply only to Adobe Acrobat Professional and Standard. A Filing User utilizing other software to create PDFs must follow the software vendor's instructions for creating a single PDF from multiple PDFs.
4. The selected files now appear in the Combine Files window in Adobe Acrobat Professional. The files may be viewed as thumbnails or in a list (as shown below) by selecting the view type at the top right of the window.
To change the order in which the files appear in the merged combined document, highlight the name of the file to appear first then click the up arrow at the bottom left of the window to move that file to the top of the list. 2ff7e9595c
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