Combining PDF's in Preview?

Hi-
I think I recall an article in Mac World or Mac Addict that described a way of combining 2 or more pdf's into one file, but I can't find any way of doing that in Preview. Does anyone know if that is possible, and if so, how to go about it?
Thanks!
Chris
intel iMac 20"; 2.0 GHz MBP; Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Just wanted to say Thank You to Jeffery for his post which solved my Problem!! One thing to note however: The show file result window in this action for some reason is not visible, so allthough the action does work you cant find your File!
After some more looking in the Automator forum I found the answer from
Alan Pearson.
The combined file is hiding in : /private/tmp
Thanks again all

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Combining pdf files in Preview not saved

I'm trying to combine screenshots into one pdf file. I clicked on the side bar button and dragged the files I wanted into the side bar and then saved this as a pdf file. It showed it as saving all the pages but when I closed it and reopened it, it had only one file. (It was now opened in Adobe Reader). Why is it not saving it as a combined file?
Thanks,
Kathy

In case anyone else has this problem in Snow Leopard, I found the answer: http://tech.michaelerb.net/mac-software/how-to-combine-pdf-files-in-preview-unde r-snow-leopard/

Problems viewing Combined PDF's in Preview

I work primarily in Photoshop CS5. All of my work is created there. My problem arises when creating and viewing compressed PDF's using "Preview" on Macintosh. The text is very funky. But as expected, Acrobat itself displays all files flawlessly. My PDF creation flow is as follows.
1. Save Photoshop Document(s) to individual Photoshop PDF's, without layers so I keep only one image and my vector data. (I always resize and save my documents appropiately for their intended use. I keep all file sizes to a minimum when creating a document for email use.)
2. Using Acrobat, I combine/merge my files, selecting the appropriate compression method for its intended use (Small, Medium, Large)
When I use the Medium compression in Acrobat, I encounter no problems through "Preview". All of my text appears as it should. Works great, but I'm left with a 26MB file.
When I use the Small compression in Acrobat (suggested for email) I have all kinds of problems with my text in "Preview". I would love to use this option as my files sizes are half of what they are at Medium compression.
I know that "Preview" is not a replacement for Acrobat, but Mac's default application for opening PDF's is "Preview", and many of the users that I deal with are not equiped with any Adobe software. Is there a fix? What is Acrobat discarding when it compresses the file for emailing?
I might add that the small version that is not displaying the text, still contains the text (I'm able to select it), it's just not visible.

The problem isn't with what Acrobat is discarding, but what Mac Preview is doing with the data available. The problem is with Preview. You cannot make a silk purse with a sow's ear. If Preview is doing a terrible job rendering a perfectly fine pdf, that Reader displays appropriately, there is nothing Adobe can do.

Problem combining pdf documents in Preview

Hello,
I used to be able to create multiple page pdf's in Snow Leopard by simply dragging the pages on top of each other in the sidebar in Preview. When I try to do this in Lion, the pages just sort of dance around each other. There seems to be no way to drag one page on top of the other. Info I've found online says that the method is the same in Lion as it was in Snow Leopard. Is this a bug? Or is there something I'm doing wrong? Help!

The pages move around to allow you to position the new page where you want it. If you want to add a page between pages 1 and 2, let page 2 drop down to make room. It works as well or better than Snow Leopard.

Can't combine two PDF doc in Preview and save under different title.

I regularly used Preview to combine two scanned pages into a single document and them save them under a different name using "Save As..." With Lion I get a unhappy run-around within Versions and can't save the combined document. I wound up placing the two files in folder and zipping it for transmission via Mail. What is the procedure under Lion with Versions, or how do I disable Versions? I can track my documents quite adequately without Versions.
21 inch iMac with OS10.7

See post in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3437156?start=0&tstart=0
You can combine PDFs directly in Preview, but the interface is a little tricksy.
First open the sidebar in Preview. If your existing PDF has only one page, there will be just that one thumbnail.
The key is to drag new files onto this thumbnail/icon, not below it. If you drag below it you'll just show two separate docs in the same preview window-- but if you drag on top onto it it will highlight and the two files will combine. Then you can hit save.

I combined my two pdf documents on preview, but there is no save as button like everyone says there is. How do I save this thing?

How do I save my combined pdf documents on preview when there is no save as button? I try to hit duplicate, but it only duplicates the first page of my 2 paged pdf

There's actually just a "Save a Version" selection, which does not apparently do anything. It's not like "Save As" used to be where it gave you a dialogue box to rename the document. It just saves the original document with only one pdf, and not the other...

Merging pdf documents in Preview while maintaining OCR capability

...isn't working. I can copy text from the individual pdf's, but when I merge them, the OCR text is replaced with "_". This happening to anyone else? This is happening on more than one Mac here at the office.
I'm opening one file, expanding the sidebar, then dragging each subsequent file ONTO the page of the original. Then I save-as and that's the result I'm getting.

Thanks Linc. This document seems a misleading. I'm not sure what the combining of PDFs in this manner is supposed to do, but it does not seem to merge the files.
After the three documents are brought together in one, you end up with three separate documents combined in one Preview window, which is handy for looking at them, but not for much else.
When you close the window you still have three separate documents. The title "Combining PDF documents using Preview" seems quite misleading.

Combine PDF Pages automator step strips annotations

Oh, I was so excited when I noticed the Combine PDF Pages command in Automator.
Then I was less excited when I discovered that if any of the pages has annotations created in Acrobat Pro, those annotations are removed from the newly combined PDF.
Since Preview, for some strange reason, is not AppleScript-able, Automator is the only way I see to do this.
Acrobat is somewhat scriptable to a degree but does not have a combine PDFs command in the dictionary.
So, has anyone figured out a way to automate the merging of PDFs via a script, workflow, app, etc -- while RETAINING the annotations? I am triggering this from FileMaker as part of a work process we're developing, so manually merging the PDFs kind of defeats the purpose.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jeff

Found It!
Ok, so it seems "insert pages" is in the Acrobat dictionary; I was looking for an equivelant of "Combine Files into Single PDF". Anyway, here's draft one of the script. I'll probably make it less clunky next week, but this is basically how it works:
set nFile to ""
set pCount to 0
set pdfList to {}
set pdfNameList to {}
set sourcePath to "SL:Users:joeuser:Desktop:fix ccd:Source:"
set targetPath to "SL:Users:joeuser:Desktop:fix ccd:Target:"
set coverFileName to "cover.pdf"
tell application "Finder"
move file (sourcePath & coverFileName) to folder targetPath
          set my pdfList to every file in folder sourcePath
          repeat with f in pdfList
                    set pdfNameList to pdfNameList & (name of f)
          end repeat
end tell
tell application "Adobe Acrobat Pro"
--activate
open (my targetPath & my coverFileName) with invisible
          set targetDoc to last document
          set my pCount to (number of pages) of targetDoc
          get my pdfNameList
          repeat with f in my pdfNameList
                    set c to number of documents
                    open (sourcePath & f) with invisible
                    repeat until c < (number of documents)
                    end repeat
                    set newDoc to last document
                    set nPages to (number of pages) of newDoc
insert pages targetDoc after my pCount from newDoc starting with 1 number of pages nPages
                    set my pCount to (my pCount) + nPages
close newDoc
          end repeat
save targetDoc
close targetDoc
end tell
tell application "Finder"
          set f to file (my targetPath & my coverFileName)
          set name of f to "New Merges PDF.pdf"
end tell

How do I combine pdf files to forward?

How do I combine pdf files to forward?

How to combine PDF documents using Preview:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4075

Combine PDFs using Preview in Mountain Lion (other threads read)

I have reviewed several threads about combining PDFs in Mountain Lion. I will ultimately learn Automator but for now, I have a relatively simple question:
1) I open multiple PDFs in Preview, one window per PDF
2) I drag thumbnail pages from documents 2 through n onto document 1 so that it makes one long document. ie. one unbroken string of pages and not sections within a PDF
Question: How do I save this combined document without deleting or affecting the first document?
Duplicate causes one of the uncombined documents to pop up with the filename highlighted. I don't see how to give the combined document a new filename for saning
Rename gives me a file of the three combined documents but the first document disappears
Save overwrites the first document with the combined document
I must be missing something simple. I recognize that the lack of "Save As" is a sensitive issue but ultimately, that's what I want to do: Save the combined document with its own filename and have the individual documents intact.

ncasey88 and Old Toad:
Thank you for your quick responses. Unfortunately, with both methods, the first PDF gets updated.
e.g. Files are 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, each is one page long, and I open each in its own Preview window. I drop thumbnails of 2.pdf and 3.pdf onto the thumbnail area of 1.pdf. I export or print into a file called 123.pdf
Result: 1.pdf and 123.pdf have the same information (all three files). 2.pdf and 3.pdf are unchanged but 1.pdf is three pages long.

Combining PDFs in Preview

You used to be able to drag and drop pages from one Preview document to another. That feature is not longer available. Is there anyway to combine PDF documents into one file now?

I found that if I:
1. Show edit toobar - which is in View or is a button next to the search bar in Preview
This causes a small addition symbol "+" to appear in the bottom left corner of the icon menu on the left side of preview.
2. Click on the addition symbol and you'll be given three options
     Insert page from scanner
     Insert page from file
     Insert blank page
3. Once I inserted from file (I already had the pdf) I could then save it as a single document.
The above methods always kept the documents separate and did not allow me to merge.

Trying to create a "Combine PDF" that also has a "save as" dialog box

I am able to get the Combine PDF to work but it just saves them as randomly named files on the desktop that I then need to rename manually. Is there some way to make a "save as" dialog box pop up after combining the files? So if I had a bunch of PDFs it would go:
Right Click on selected files > Automator > Combine PDF > Save As
Is this possible?

Set up you worflow as:
Get Selected Finder Items
Combine PDF Pages
Open Images in Preview
Run Applescript
+copy this into the Applescript box+
tell app "System Events"
keystroke "s" using {command down, shift down}
keystroke "d" using {command down}
end tell
I also like to add a Sort Finder Items after the Get Selected Finder Items.

Automatically bring up pdf files in Preview (or at least Safari)

Ideally, I would like the ability to click on a pdf file in Safari and have it automatically bring it up in Preview. I believe you need a plug-in for that and it looks like that doesn't exist (or does it). Assuming that's the case, I would settle for bringing up the pdf in Safari and then doing a ctrl-click to open with Preview. Right now opening a pdf in Safari opens a separate little window which takes more than a few seconds. It used to open up in Safari, but in all my messing around trying to figure this out, that stopped working and I can't figure out how to make it do that again.
Here's my situation and what I've tried so far. First, I have an Intel Mac and don't want to run under Rosetta for performance reasons (things take twice as long!), so Adobe, Shubert's plug-ins, etc. won't work. Adobe is too slow anyways, but I kinda like Shubert's. I've set my default pdf reader for all pdf files to Preview. I've tried turning Adobe's option to use it as the default browser plug-in on and off. I've reinstalled Adobe, removed it and reinstalled it again. I've removed the Adobe plug-in from the Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder and put it back again.
I've tried making this work with every conceivable combination of the above with no luck. Like I said, if I could just get back to having a pdf open in the Safari browser, I could make it work from there to open Preview. But if there's any way to open Preview directly from opening a pdf in Safari, that would be the bomb. Or if anyone knows of any other good pdf browser plug-ins that work with Intel based Macs running safari natively, that would be acceptable too. Spent many hours researching this on the boards as well as trying stuff. Hopefully someone can steer me correctly. Thanks.
MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz 2GB memory 100GB 7200 HD 60GB Photo iPod Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Well Starman, I did everything you said to do to reinstall Safari and it still brings up that separate little window as opposed to bringing up the pdf in the browser. The Software Update didn't do anything after reinstalling Safari, so I reinstalled 10.4.8. Still no luck with the pdf.
One interesting thing I tried is that I set Safari so it would run using Rosetta and then set Adobe Acrobat to use the plug-in. When I brought up a pdf, it used the Adobe plug-in, but it still brought it up in a separate window and not within the browser. When running under Rosetta without the Adobe Plug-In turned on, it brought the pdf up in the separate little window again, but not the Adobe Plug-In - similar to when not running under Rosetta.
Now a few days ago I did download the Shubert Plug-In and turned Rosetta on so I could check it out. It brought up that plug-in in that little window. Now I'm not sure of this, but I think that was the first time that little window came up and I haven't been able to get rid of it since. I trashed the Shubert Plug-In, but could it be possible that something from that is hanging out there causing this problem? Or?

Merging PDF Files in Preview 5 in OS X v10.7 Lion

I recently updated to the OSX v10.7 Lion operating system. In the previous version I had, I was able to merge two or more PDF files in Preview just by dragging the thumbnail. However, in the Lion version, it is not allowing to drag one PDF file into another. It just opens them as different files in the same preview window. I need to know if someone can help me figure out how to merge these files 'cause I can't send ten different PDF files to my client. Thank you so much for any help you can provide.

Use 'Automator (applications > automator.app).
Choose 'Workflow'.
Type 'get specified finder' in the little search box.
From the list drag 'get specified finder files' into the the panel on the right. Click 'options' and check 'Show this action when the workflow runs'.
Next type 'combine pdf' in the search box, and drag 'Combine pdf pages' into the panel on the right underneath the previous one.
Save the workflow to your apps folder.
Whenever you want to merge any pdfs, click on the workflow. Add the pdfs to the dialogue box, click 'Run' in the top left of Automator. To find the resulting merged pdf, click 'Results'.
This is no doubt a clumsy way of doing it, but it works.

HT2506 Hello I'm unable to open any pdf's with preview window opens up with message file couldn't be opened because you don't have permission to view it (none of the pdf's have any security thanks if you can assist

Hello this week I'm unable to open any pdf's with preview, when I select to open a window opens up with message "file couldn't be opened because you don't have permission to view it" none of the pdf's have any security thanks if you can assist

Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.
Triple-click the following line to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):
{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.
In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.

Combining PDF's in Preview?

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