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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Thank you so much~
After quite a bit of searching on how to do this (for free), this was definitely a relief!
Thank you SO much! I was looking for a tool to do this on the Mac and you saved me from purchasing an unnecessary tool. Again, thank you for the step-by-step instructions!
Thanks, proved to be very useful tip!
how about splitting into separate pdf files?
Karen,
Just open the multi-page document, Select a page in the sidebar and hit the delete key on your keyboard.
The page will be deleted from the document.
Save the document with A NEW NAME.
Now go back and open the original document again and delete the alternate pages and save it with a new name again, if you want to do that.
What about splitting multiple pdf’s? I have 254 – 2 page pdf’s that need the second page removed…
Thanks very much, searched for a while and your post did the trick! great!
You saved me a $9.99 monthly fee. Your instructions were easy to follow. THANK YOU!
@Karen, just in the preview go to file> print selected pages> and you can split it in how many pages as you want.
@Karen, just in the preview go to file> print selected pages> and you can split it in how many pages as you want.
By the way. Dont print in you printer. Save it as pdf file. Understood?
So glad to have found this. Just want to share this extra bit of info for other boneheads like me. Everytime I doubled clicked on Part 1 of my divided PDF, Adobe Reader would open. To my great frustration I found you can’t do the merge in Reader. The Shift-⌘-D did nothing but take me to my desktop.
Finally I thought to right-click on my PDF icon and then clicked on “Open With” and found Preview! From then on it worked like a charm.
Thanks.
What do I do if there are no thumbnails in the sidebar?
In that case, you give up and get a third party product.
I found that the only thing that you see in the sidebar is the individual pages of the document you have open. You can collapse it into a single thumbnail, or you can see thumbnails of the individual pages. You CANNOT look at thumbnails of other files, so you CAN’T drag and drop to merge.
Buy Adobe – there’s no such thing as a free lunch. :(
When this happens, I look for another pdf (any will do) where the thumbnail DOES show and open that one in preview. Then I add the pages that didn’t show thumbnails AFTER that one, then delete the first one and save.
This worked great for me. I was really struggling with how to get this accomplished so thank you for sharing. I then used a suggestion by Henry on the “how to reduce the size” thread to dramatically shrink the size of the pdf file. As a Mac newbie this forum is a great source for help.
Hey George,
Just go to View -> Sidebar -> View Sidebar (3 Steps) and you can see the sidebar even if there is only one page to the PDF.
Also, you do not need to drag a PDF from one place on the sidebar to an image on the sidebar – you can grab an icon from a finder window and drop it onto a page in the sidebar – so basically you can merge anything.
All of the things you need to do are easily done!
Great article, very helpful!
-Mark
THANK YOU!!!! This made it so much easier. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Cool! The only issue I had was that I had to open the last pdf in the list 1st, and then stack them in the reverse order I desired to make the final combined pdf be in the proper order. Thanks for the tip!
These options are shown in Adobe 9. Please help me to merge pdf files in Adobe 9 versions.
Raj these are in preview – the free built in OSX app – you don’t’ need Adobe Acrobat to do this.
I followed all these instructions, but when I reopened the saved document, only the last page I dropped in appeared. I repeated the process and the same thing occurred. Why is this and how can it be overcome?
I had this problem and EVENTUALLY made it work…so…..
1 Open one of pdfs with preview
2 Click sidebar button
3 Drag all other PDFs that you want on one document onto sidebar
4 Order them
5 Select THEM ALL – so each has blue box round it
6 Go to FILE – bottom option is “Print Selected Pages”
7 choose that option
8 Under “PDF” button there is the option ” Save as PDF”
9 Choose this and it should work – it did for me but must remember to save the new PDF via the “print selected pages” option
this works, thank you so much.
Just wondering, How come it wouldn’t merge as stated by other posters….
This didn’t work for me! I can easily drag the file into the other one and they appear to be there, but I don’t get an option to just ‘Save’, (ie the same file with an additional page) only ‘Save as’ – but having done that, once I have returned it to Finder, the next time I open it the additional page isn’t there. I have done this now about 6 times each time with the same result. Help someone please! What am I doing wrong!?
The same thing is happening to me…
It is happening because they are not pdf files. Lets say you were able to save one of the page as pdf file, then open that file as preview file (by right clicking then “open with” then choosing “preview”. Once that pdf file is open in preview then now you can drag other files into it and save it just as explained above.
Hope it helped.
YES thanks, this particular answer helped a lot. I thought I had two PDF files from my Canon MP620. The files were both xyp.PDF, BUT apparently they were not true PDF files. When I opened each of them and resaved (same name with same PDF extension), and afterward followed the instructions given, I had no problem merging.
A couple of years back before Snow Leopard with the same MP620 I never had such an issue.
This was so helpful, thank you for posting it.
I’m having the same problem as Sally. I have merged them all, and have hyperlinked it into my blog, but when I open the file only the last page opens and I cant get the other pages. When I open the original file I can’t easily scroll from page to page.
I tried to drop the new page on top of the original but I’m not sure if it worked properly, but when I dropped it underneath it worked.
I am a bit confused now on how to drop it on top of it and make it work?
Thanks for the help tho, this will be really useful for me once I figure out how to use this!!!
Any idea how this can be done with Lion?
It worked great with Snow Leopard.
Wow. Works great with Lion, but the shortcut to open the thumbnails is option-cmd-2. Just drag & drop. It was INSANELY easy. I could get used to this new mac thingamajig.
I also have trouble when dragging the image to the sidebar (the second file seems not to merge but to insert beneath the first). After saving the file I only end up with a single page. This sound similar to the problem some people are having.
My solution is this:
1. Drag the two files until they are merged in preview
2. Instead of clicking “save as…” go to File->Print
3. When the print screen comes up, there should be a total of 2 pages ready to print
4. Click the pull-down button that says PDF (at the bottom left of the print screen) and then select “Save as PDF”
This should give you a merged PDF file with both pages
Thank you so much! I was using third party sites for this since I didn’t know any better. Thanks for making me smarter!! :)
Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much! :)
Thank you!!! The third party sites wouldn’t work for me, so this saved me from a breakdown. Can’t believe how easy this is.
I love that Mac Incorporated this function in the operating system. Free merging of just saved me $40.00 in a software programme. I had to read instructions t3 times because I am a man and figured I could do it if pointed in right direction. If all else fails… read instructions. Thanks for great tip!
Thank you so much! Great! I almost downloaded some software to accomplish this task – turns out, I don’t need it!
I can easily merge 2 files… But can you merge 4? I tried merging 2 files, and 2 files, then merge those doubles together… but that didn’t work. Any suggestions?
When I am selecting and dropping pdf pages into preview most of them are different sizes. Any ideas on how to make them the same? Or do I have to use a different program for that?
All very helpful. But once I merge several files into one PDF and save it, and open it later in Preview, I can no longer remove one page. Why not? Any work around? What does saving and closing do to destroy the editing possibility?
same problem as Sally, Michelle, and Omar: followed the instructions, dropped the thumbnails from the new files on top of the one from the old file, but then when i went to save the file, i could only “save as”, and only the last document was saved under the new name. tried it multiple times with the same results.
i was about to try Omar’s solution, but before i got a chance to, i realized there was an extra copy of one of the files already open in Preview; i closed all the Preview windows, started from scratch, and it then it worked like a charm!
Having difficulty. I drag the one pdf on the thumbnail. I see the green + but nothing happens. They never actually merge. It is the same as it was. Any troubleshooting for me?? Thank you.
Same for me… can anyone help?
They wont merge, all I can do is reorder them in the sidebar.
This note was extremely helpful. I append documents and wonder why they didn’t merge; dragging it on top of the other document is the solution. Thanks!
Excellent tip ! Thanks
Thank you :)
This is great information. Thanks a lot!
Thank you for this. I don’t know why updates to programs must “improve” things that aren’t broken, but you have saved the day.
WHY WASN’T THIS MERGING PDF INFO INCLUDED ON THE PREVIEW HELP INSTRUCTIONS?!?
Badd, BADD on Apple OSX document writer nerds. Need to step up yer game to include useful task instructions in the Help menu !!!
Thank you for stressing the docs must be dropped ON TOP of existing files. The previous version of Preview did not have such a requirement and without knowing this, one is only displaying a bunch of individual files (though it looks like the doc has been assembled). As such when you try saving, you only save one of the files instead of the assembled doc.
Hi,
This did not work for me. First, the doc saved as 3 separate pdfs at section breaks like everyone is finding (can’t get rid of section breaks because I have different page orientations. Then opened first pdf in Preview, no problem. Dragged other pdf file on top, all okay, but the on preview, the added file was a black page. Same for all the files I tried to add, regardless of orientation.
I also noticed that I do not have the option to open the second two files in Preview (Preview appears as a selection, but is pale and cannot be selected.) Ooh boy!
This process also works in Lion. Amazing that i didn’t know about this feature in any version of Preview until now. Thank you so much for posting this!
Merging more than one file – I held down ‘command’ and clicked the 4 files I wanted merged with the original one and it highlighted all and I was able to drag 4 files in together. Now my problem is that it’s put page one last………lol, nothing is ever simple. I’m now off to search for how to change the order of them.
Good info though for the first step, thanks :o)
Thank you so much!!
Easy to follow instructions and the best part… for free!
Appreciate it!
When I attempt to merge the two, it makes them into a book-like thing. What am I doing wrong?
I’m experiencing the same problem as Melanie and Creg, it’s impossible to place a pdf-thumbnail on top of another. There’s no middle ground between placing pdf 2 above or below pdf 1. So I’m just rearranging them till kingdom come here. If I press alt while dragging, a green plus appears but it doesn’t change anything. I have snow leopard 10.6.8.
Plenty of thanks here. No surprise. This is a really good note. Plse add my thanks for this valuable contribution.
you answerd my question when nobody at Apple could, and it is so simple.
Thank you so much. I will share the information with my friends. Hope to get more Tips from your webside. Erika
Thanks a lot! it was quick and easy :)
Oh my goodness! THANKS! I was going nuts; Preview must have changed a bit since I last merged pdfs
I got them to merge, but they are magazine pages coming out in different sizes. I tried to hit “make all same size,” but it didn’t work. Can you help? Thanks.