Combining pdf documents in OSX is now easy. Leopard and Snow Leopard have the ability to move pdf pages around and even merge two pdf documents together. It’s built right in to OS X – 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 a pdf in preview and then drag a second pdf file ON TOP OF an existing thumbnail, and the two documents will merge. Read on for step by step instructions.
SUMMARY: 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.
.
.
.
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). This will make a sidebar appear on the right side of the window with thumbnails of the pages in it..
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 of the merged fles, or you can use use ‘save’ to save over the existing document adding the new pages to it.
Like this article ? Click here to for how to make a pdf booklet.
Share
The above tip to drag the documents to the preview in the sidebar is the right answer. It creates a PDF binder icon then and the files stay together when you save. Just dragging it in uses preview to ‘view’ all the documents together.
Thanks a million! I thought this would be a real pain but Mac has it built into the system. The brilliance of Apple again. Thank you so much for sharing!
Happy once again that it switched to mac!
I was enjoying this feature and then I had to download adobe reader for business reasons and a nonexistent plugin for my OS, now Sidebar is gone and only Pages exist and I no longer know how to combine documents. Just as I was comfortable now something new does not seem to exist for Adobe reader as in PDF Viewer. Help Please!
Had the same problem but I found a solution.
Google for RCDefault and you can download an app that will install in your preferences pane. With the app you can set the preferred application again and eliminate the Adobe overwrite.
Wow….that’s fantastic – converting my thesis to pdf kept separating out pages formatted in landscape from portrait but your instructions made it possible for me to merge it all as one pdf document. THANK YOU!
thanks everyone… i have spent so long on trying to work this out… well until I reached this board.
i am so frustrated! this doesnt seem to work with my computer….and i have snow leopard
see my reply at bottom of post, April 27
Awesome tip, I’m everyday more into Mac… (Just converted)
THANKS!
Thanks for the tip and the clear explanation. I read about this on another site, but the reference was vague.
Here’s a challenge for some brave soul. I am trying to combine PDF text files and am encountering difficulties with the search function once I have saved the new, larger file. Upon putting two pdf’s together, I can search them and there’s no issue. After saving the file however, the search function is lost (or, to be more specific, goes awry: for example, I’ll type in an “m” and it highlights “t”s instead). Why the search function should be lost after saving is a total mystery to me. Any thoughts/suggestions?
In my last point, immediately above, I meant the “Search” function.
Simon, thanks for your comment; didn’t work for me until I did the “insert blank page” as you suggested.
I am using Snow Leopard, and can combine pdf’s to view, but whenever I save and re-open – only the original page will show. I have tried the tips above, once I close it after saving I am lost what I have added.
Thanks!
I am experiencing the same problem as John. I am combining multiple pdf’s all of which are searchable in the Acrobat Reader. After I combine all of the files with Preview, the merged document is no longer searchable. The Acrobat Reader always returns the “no match found” message. Any thoughts?
This does work. If you want to combine multiple images into one document;
1. Open 1st image.
2. Save as PDF
3 Drag 2nd image onto 1st image in drawer.
4 repeat with all images and the save.
Awesome! Almost there…only one problem after combining PDF’s the the first PDF shrank..then if I zoom in on the first one the following PDF’s become oversized! Not sure how to solve the problem. Any help would be much appreciated!! Thanks
Wayne, you’re a genius. Thanks for sharing this tip. I was trying to work this out this afternoon, searched on Google and you were first! Nice work on the search rankings!
Thanks Steve!
I find I can only search and annotate the first part of the document – but not the added sections. Any ideas?
Thank you! This saved me so much time! I learned that I have to be in “thumbnails” view and not “table of contents”.
I have the same problem as Anon. The pdf page I insert is a different “size.” I have to zoom onto the other pdf pages. Any thoughts?
Thanks so much! Appreciate the article
Thanks so much for your help. Mac is definitely a better world !
I added my pdf files to the side bar, but at the end i can;t save it. when i try to save it … there is only “Save As” option and tht saves only single page not the whole document… please help me!
I have the same problem, can anyone help?
Awesome tip – thanks! I used to use PDFLab to do this but now it crashes every time I try. Don’t need it any more!
Thanks for this tip. You explained it in a very clear way and it worked on the first attempt.
What this really points out, though, is that Preview is a very capable little program that doesn’t get enough credit or use from a huge number of mac users. I’d love to hear more tips for using it.
It sure is!
It also comes in handy to convert between formats. You can open a PDF and then save it as a JPEG or vice versa!
The ability to merge PDF Files built in. It’s good to own a MAC!!
For JOE and others struggling with DIFFERENTLY SIZED pdfs/images needing to be merged……
Use the instructions above to merge/rearrange the files….. then go to PRINT and in the page set up select the correct orientation for your files and select “scale each page to fit paper”…. this will make everything letter size (or whatever paper you have…..
This worked for me to mix a word doc title page, with other random sized photoshop files…..
only works for reducing big files though… haven’t worked out how to increase sizes if necessary….
YES!!! So darn easy!
And ot think I was thinking of downloading a program,etc. etc.
We sometimes forget how simple Apple makes things for us!
Thank goodness there are clear, concise instructions for techno numpties like me. Knew apple would have a way!!!
this is great … only: I am unable to merge pdfs that I have produced from word myself. I can only merge the pdfs I had scanned on a pc system. any ideas, any one?
I can drag all my files into the sidebar as explained, but when I save it, only the original document is there. I see others had this problem too. Has anyone figured out how to deal with this situation?
thank u very much
@Elizabeth. You have to drag it onto the first page, not just into the sidebar. Thanks a lot for the article, I had this problem as well, as it changed from leopard.
This is a lifesaving tip — I was going crazy trying to get Word (Mac or PC) to produce a PDF for my wife’s thesis. The Word on Windows was producing PDFs with fonts incorrectly rendered (in some places) in Preview but not Acrobat Reader. The Mac Word was producing a PDF file for each section (due to page orientation changes). The last straw was when the trial version of Acrobat crashed my Windows machine, or at least is taking more than 18 hours to format the PDF. I was going crazy… thank you. With this tip I was able to do it all on a Mac.
One note is that the resulting PDF is 12x the sum of the individual file sizes. Not a problem in itself (it becomes 12MB instead of 1) but makes me a bit nervous. Some black magic in there somewhere.
Yes! Thank you. This help was great. My file was too big for E-mail and I had 16 pages that showed as individual PDF documents for iDisk. Now I have one document with 16 pages that I can send as one link.
Super. Very helpful thanks,
Man, did I waste time to find a free app that does this job. Excellent! For search engines: join pdf, merge pdf
How do you change from table of contents view to thumbnails view in the sidebar?
Nevermind. I always have way too many applications open.
Thanks! in my mac the red line and box appears blue, but it works just the same! great tip!
I can’t make this work. i am using 10.5.8. i am following directions, but when i drag the second pdf over to the side bar it just bounces back it does not go into sidebar. any idea what could be wrong?
found what i was doing wrong. if you double click on a pdf if opens in preview, and you can create the sidbar. but for this to work, you have to open preview as an application first, then use it to open the first pdf, then drag the second one. did it this way and it worked.
I made the switch to Mac from PC just this past Saturday and I’m just AMAZED at how easy it is to do things, once you know how. This post was exactly the information I needed at exactly the right time – “thanks” just doesn’t say enough, but just the same, THANKS!
Thank you so much. I was tearing my hair out.
Wow thanks a lot for this! Thought I was going to have to purchase Adobe Acrobat or something, you saved me!
Awesome. I had trouble too, but like Marzook says, you have to open the file in Preview first. Then the sidebar option will show up.
I also thought this was going to be a huge hassle. Not with Preview on the Mac! At least once a week I find something I think is going to be difficult made simple and straight-forward with Apple software. What a treat.
Wow that was so easy, I love my Mac!