Combining pdf documents on an Apple computer is easy. Leopard and Snow Leopard (the latest versions of Macintosh OSX that come on your computer) have the ability to move pdf pages within a pdf file around and even merge two different pdf documents together. It’s built right in to OS X for free – you don’t need a third party program to do it!
To join two or more pdf files together using Preview (the standard pdf viewer in OS X) simply open the pdf file in preview, open the thumbnail view (Shift-⌘-D), and then drag a second pdf file ON TOP OF an existing page thumbnail. (It must be on top of the thumbnail, see the pictures below). The two documents will merge into one. Then save the new combined file. Read on for step-by-step instructions.
SUMMARY: To combine two separate PDF files into one document you need to drag the new pdf ON TOP OF an existing thumbnail and it will merge the two together. If you drag it into the sidebar but not on top of an existing page the new file will be added as an external link – not merged into the original pdf document. See these two pictures below to visualise the difference.
Drag the new pdf file under the existing one and it will insert a thumbnail that links to the second pdf but they are not merged.
Drag the new pdf file on top of the existing one and it will merge into it - creating one pdf.
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The blue line that appears underneath the original pdf lets you know the files are NOT being combined. Move the pdf on top of the other pdf so that the blue line disappears.
Here’s how to do it step by step.
1. Firstly, open one of the pdf files in Preview. Preview is the default application that a pdf will open into so if you just double click on the pdf file it will open in Preview.
2. Now go to the menu at the top of the screen called ‘View’ and click on ‘Sidebar’ (or ‘Show Sidebar’ if you have Snow Leopard). Alternatively, press Shift-Command-D to show the thumbnails. This will make a sidebar appear on the right side of the window with thumbnails of all the pdf pages in it. (See these pictures below).
In Leopard select 'Sidebar'
In Snow Leopard and newer versions of Preview select 'Sidebar' then 'Show Sidebar'
3. You can now drag the second pdf file (from a folder or from your desktop) into this sidebar window, and it will be added to your pdf document as an additional page.
Drag the new pdf from the desktop onto an existing thumbnail.
To merge the two files you need to drag the new pdf ON TOP OF an existing thumbnail. If you drag it into the sidebar but not on top of an existing page the new file will be added as an external link – not merged into the original pdf document. See these two pictures below.
Drag the new pdf file under the existing one and it will open but not merge.
Drag the new pdf file on top of the existing one and it will merge.
In some older versions of Preview, if you drag the second file on top of an existing page in the sidebar, it will appear as a red box to show you it will be merged, or as a red line to show you it will not be merged. In the latest version of preview, the red box does not appear, but the same principle applies – drag it on top of the existing thumbnail to merge the two documents.
You can now save it – use ‘save as’ to save a new document with the merged fles, or you can use use ‘save’ to save over the existing document, adding the new pages to it.
No – you can’t reduce the file size of the new PDF document – you can’t get everything for free! To do this you Adobe Acrobat Professional.
Like this article ? Click here to for how to make a pdf booklet. Also here for how to reduce the file size of a pdf.
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When I put the pdf file over the other file nothing happens. Any suggestions about how to troubleshoot this process?
May have missed something in this long list of comments. However, I’m not needing to drag the pdf on top of existing pages – I’m simply dragging the added pdf from Finder to the sidebar (Preview 4.2) – it shows a red line, drops the pdf in including multiple pages. I do a Save As and it’s fine. Opens in Adobe Reader just fine. Can also delete pages and move them around. I don’t have page number issues so that makes it easier.
I had the same problem with dragging sidebar thumbnails to another sidebar and nothing happening. What I discovered to overcome this was to:
1. Have all your PDF’s you want to combine in one folder
2. Highlighting all those PDFs and open them at the same time with Preview.
2. Now you have all the documents in a single sidebar but each one as a separate PDF file.
4. To combine them, drag them all onto a single document and into the desired order.
5. ‘Save As’ to save the document you dragged them all into a single PDF file.
Thank you very much, you saved my day :-)
Just a note to everyone, I tried this trick and was running into problems merging…While I was able to merge the PDF’s, I noticed that a few field vaules in one page were overwriting their values to the next page. I fixed this by printing the original pdf file (with editable fields) to just a static document (no editing possible without special software). After that, I was able to merge with no problem. If someone has already explained this, sorry for stepping on toes…
Just my 2 cents…
thanks
if it’s not working, it’s because what you are trying to merge is not saved as a pdf, but instead as something like jpg. resave each of the files first as a pdf & it should work with the above steps.
On top of? Really? All the time I wasted dragging the second file UNDER the first file. Ahhhhh!
Thanks for tanking the time to write this page.
Evan
What a life saver! I am trying to get rid of paper and my Kodak All in one only scans one page at a time. This
awesome help!! Thank you
Thank you very much for this effort!
Hi, I did merge my pdf files correctly and I’m not a leopard or lion user, just mac osx… Just select all the files you want to merge, right click and open with preview. While in preview, able sidebar and go and click on the little arrow that appears on every pdf file (do the same for all files, just click on em, you will see all the pages).
Finally select all (cmmd+a), click file, click “save all” And voila! it worked for me, hope it’ll work for you too.