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.

Similar Messages

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.

Can't combine PDFs in Preview 7.0

I just upgraded to Mavericks last night, and now I'm having an issue with Preview -- I can't use it to combine two PDF documents.
The help section says to open the documents you want to combine and set both to thumbnail view, then drag the thumbnail of one doc on top of the thumbnail for the other doc and release it when a green "+" symbol appears. This method worked fine in Mountain Lion, and I used it regularly. Now, the green "+" symbol doesn't appear, and I can't combine the documents.
Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know how to fix it? Or is it an error that Apple needs to patch?

Cosman wrote:
The problem is it doesn't work. When I try to combine individual files and drag one over the other, there is no [+] sign. There is no line under the first file.
When I start with a multipage file, it works. I can drag a single page onto the multiple file and get the [+] sign, etc.
I spent 1/2 hour fighting with Preview with 5 individual files and nothing worked.
Would love to read a step by step description of making individual files combine.
Technical writing is harder than it sounds, eh? What exactly do you mean by the terms "individual files", "first file", and "multiple file"?
Preview can open multiple PDF files at once. Each PDF file may have multiple pages. How do you represent that? Preview uses a disclosure triangle. If you want to manipulate individual pages, you must expand a multipage PDF file. If you are working with a single-page PDF file, there is no disclosure triangle because there is no additional data to disclose. In this case, you can add a page just by dragging another page on top of the single page PDF.
If you try that with a multipage PDF, it will just expand the PDF and open the dropped page or file as a separate file. This is probably where you are getting tripped up.
Finally, the preview sidebar is not the end-all and be-all of PDFs. Try using the Contact Sheet view instead.

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/

File Size of PDFs in Preview

I scan a lot of documents for record keeping purposes. I set the scanner to 300 dpi, black and white. This keeps the file size down and the document is readable and printable (close to the original), and the scanning is quick. I scanned three sets of documents (about 15 pages each) this way and saved them as PDFs. The file sizes were 3.1 MB, 3.2 MB, and 1.8 MB. I used Preview to combine the three documents into one PDF. The resulting file was 19.3 MB. Why so large? 3.1 + 3.2 + 1.8 = 8.1 What is going on here? How do I keep the file size down when using Preview? I don't want to buy PDF Studio (or some tool like it) if I can avoid it (they all seem so mediocre).

Try Combine PDFs
<http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.info/Freeware/CombinePDFs.shtml>
I scan at 600 bpi into TIFF, then use Graphics Converter to save with the CCITT 4 compression. I get about 12:1 compression, with no loss of quality. The result is still TIFF, so you don't have to uncompress to use them.

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.

Safari cannot open PDFs in Preview

When I view a PDF in Safari and I choose the "Open PDF in Preview" icon it opens instead in Adobe Reader, not Preview. Control clicking gives the only option as "Open with Adobe Reader xx.x.x". I don't have the AdobePDFViewer.plugin, either at the root level or my user level of Library/Internet Plug-ins. So, how do I get a PDF to open in Preview when viewing it online in Safari?
To be clear, I'm not talking about opening a PDF from the Finder.
I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1.10. Reader is at 10.1.3.

Back up all data.
If Adobe Reader or Acrobat is installed, there should be a setting in its preferences such as Display PDF in Browser. I don't use those applications myself, so I can't be more precise. Deselect that setting, if it's selected. Otherwise do as follows.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, the copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
/Library/Internet Plug-ins
In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-G. Paste into the text box that opens (command-V), then press return.
From the folder that opens, remove any items that have "Adobe" or “PDF” in the name. You may be prompted for your login password. Then quit and relaunch Safari, and test.
The "Silverlight" web plugin distributed by Microsoft can also interfere with PDF display in Safari, so you may need to remove it as well, if it's present. The same goes for a plugin called "iGetter," and perhaps others.
If you still have the issue, repeat with this line:
~/Library/Internet Plug-ins
If you don’t like the results of this procedure, restore the items from the backup you made before you started. Relaunch Safari again.

Saving PDFs from Preview

When creating a PDF in Preview, that your non-Mac business associates will open in Adobe Reader, the resulting document is noted as an 8 1/2 x 11 page size (in Adobe's Document Properties), even when the original document is something else, creating print problems for those trying to print what was originally a large drawing.
Saving the PDF was done in the Print dialog box, not the "Save As" dialog box (where other problems are created...namely, no image shows when opened in Adobe Reader).
Any way to save a PDF in Preview and retain the original drawing size? There are several settings in Preview's Preferences affecting DPI and scale, and I have tried them all, in different combinations. None seem to affect the resulting page size, which somehow is a property known to Adobe Reader, but seems invisible to Preview.

Are you talking about saving a C or D size dwg?
In this case I had to create a custom size. However, I solved the problem by simply setting the correct paper size in the Preview Print dialog box, before saving as a PDF.
Saving out of the "Save As" dialog box is still a problem. I note on the Adobe web site that a fully Leopard compliant Reader is not available until "late January". Maybe that will solve it.
Anyway, thanks for chiming in.

No more duplicating pages in a PDF in Preview?

Maybe I'm the only person in the world with this need, but I am really going to be in a world of hurt without it.
I need to have a particular one-page PDF used multiple times throughout a multi-page PDF (it's the order of worship repeated multiple times through a collection of the digital copies of all the music to be used in the worship service). In Leopard and before, it was simply a matter of option+drag to create multiple copies of the service plan. Now, however, I can't seem to find a way to do this AT ALL. This is a HUGE impedement to my work flow! Any ideas? (Saving my PDF multiple times as actual separate files on my hard drive is just WAY too inelegant as solution--it's what a Windows user might do--so if that's the only idea anyone can come up with, keep that recommendation to yourself. I'm just not going to stoop that low--there HAS to be a better way!)
So, if the question isn't obvious, here it is: In the new(ish) version of Preview, how do I duplicate a page? Or, is there some way to use the same PDF file multiple times in a PDF?
NOTE: option+dragging thumbnail does not do this. At all. The little + badge shows up with the ghosted page image, but the duplicate never materializes.

macmikey wrote:
it was simply a matter of option+drag to create multiple copies
It still is on my machine. I replicated Llessur999's actions with the same results.
(1) Single-page PDF: Cannot duplicate pages by option-drag in Sidebar. (However, I can convert a single-page PDF to multi-page PDF with Edit > Insert Blank Page.)
(2) Multi-page PDF:
(2.1) Can duplicate any page by option-drag in Sidebar.
(2.2) Can drag-and-drop repeatedly the same PDF (single- or multi-page) from Finder to Sidebar, and it is added to the open PDF document each time.
It seems to me that this pretty much takes care of the workflow you described.
Your issue is not changing your workflow, but troubleshooting Preview and PDF. To begin with, I'd want to make sure there's no problem with the PDFs themselves, so I'd create a few test files from, say, TextEdit, using Print > Save as PDF, and then use them in Preview to see if the problem persists. If it does, then it's the usual routine -- delete Preview's prefs (there are three), if that doesn't work, the guest account, and so on.
As to Combine PDFs, the current version is 5.2 (updated for Lion) and it is shareware. Version 3 was open source (the source code is still available), but it was not free -- it was donationware. It became shareware with version 4.

Saving combined PDFs into one new document?

I know how to combine PDFs into one document using Preview, but I am not finding any way to save the resulting new document. There is no "save as" any longer in Preview, and when I choose "save", it only saves the first document, not the whole collection of documents.
There must be a way to do this! There used to be, and it was easy as pie.
Can someone help, please?
Mark Carlson

Thank you. I was able to conjure up "save as"--though why should you have to hold down the option key? Why isn't "save as" just there? Well, it doesn't really matter, since "save as" still only saves one of the documents in the combined bunch.
But your second method of accessing it through Print worked just fine.
Thanks so much!
Mark

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

Applescript Acrobat combine pdfs

Hi,
I've tried and failed to create a script that takes two PDF files I've selected in the finder, open Acrobat Pro and use the Combine feature (File > Combine > Merge Files into a Single PDF...), saving them out with the filename taken from the clipboard.
The Automator combine pdfs application and other off-the-shelf products are no good to me as they rely upon choosing files from a dialog box, and the fonts in the resulting pdf can also become corrupted.
So if I go to the Finder and select a file, copy its name, then select a second file, I want a script to combine these two selected PDFs into one, using Acrobat. The filename becomes the name of the first file I copied.
Can anyone help? Many, many thanks if you can: I have a few hundred of these to do.

JustinR wrote:
So if I go to the Finder and select a file, copy its name, then select a second file, I want a script to combine these two selected PDFs into one, using Acrobat. The filename becomes the name of the first file I copied.
Can anyone help?
I don't use Acrobat. Nevertheless, the following script should do exactly what you are asking for using Preview.app. instead.
set theTitle to (the clipboard) & "*" -- remove the asterisk if you wish
set theApp to POSIX file "/Applications/Preview.app" as alias
tell application "Finder"
    set S to selection
    if S is {} then return
    repeat with thisItem in items of S
        if not (name extension of thisItem is "pdf") then return
    end repeat
    open S using theApp
end tell
tell application "Preview" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Preview"
    set windowName to name of window 1
    tell menu 1 of menu item "Sidebar" of menu 1 of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1
        if menu item "Hide Sidebar" exists then click menu item "Hide Sidebar"
        click menu item "Show Sidebar"
    end tell
    keystroke "a" using {command down} -- Select All
    keystroke "p" using {option down, command down} -- Print Selected Pages…
    repeat until sheet 1 of window 1 exists
        delay 0.1
    end repeat
    click menu button "PDF" of sheet 1 of window 1
    click menu item "Save as PDF…" of menu 1 of menu button "PDF" of sheet 1 of window 1
    keystroke theTitle
    keystroke "d" using command down
    keystroke return
    if button "Replace" of sheet 1 of window "Save" exists then
        click button "Replace" of sheet 1 of window "Save"
    end if
    repeat while sheet 1 of window windowName exists
        delay 0.1
    end repeat
    keystroke "w" using {command down}
    set destinationFolder to choose folder with prompt "Where to put the merge PDF ?" default location (path to home folder)
end tell
tell application "Finder" to move file theTitle of desktop to destinationFolder with replacing
Hope it can help.
Message was edited by: Pierre L.

Unwanted bookmarks when combining PDFs

I've been trying to PDF a 344 page FrameMaker book (several documents) but I keep getting a memory error (I doubt it's my machine cause it happens on others). So I PDFd the individual documents in the book then combined them in Acrobat. That works fine except that a top level bookmark is added for each PDF filename. Looks something like this:
Report_Guide_1.pdf
Printing
Previewing
Report_Guide_2.pdf
Quick Report
SuperReport
Financial Report Writer
Report_Guide_2.pdf
Order Entry
Invoice - Laser Graphics
Invoice - Grey Bars
Order Entry Reports
And so on...
I cannot figure out how to get rid of these bookmarks (e.g., Report_Guide_2.pdf) and just have the bookmarks that were established in the individual PDF files. I've gone through the Acrobat Help but I don't find any obvious reference to a setting that controls this. Does anyone know how to prevent the generation of these unnecessary bookmarks during combining (Insert pages)?
I have also used the Create PDF/From Multiple Files method and it also generates the unnecessary bookmarks.
I'm using Acrobat 7.1.0 Professional on Windows XP Pro.
Thanks
April

As the script is written, you can cut and paste it into the JavaScript console/ Debugger, "Ctrl + J", and then highlight the text and press the keypad "Enter" key. You can place the following variation in Acrobat's JavaScript folder and have a menu item: function RemovePDFTypeFromBookmarks() { /* Author: Sean Stewart, ARTS PDF Date: 2 June 2004 Description: When you merge documents using Acrobat's merge process it creates a high-level bookmark with the filename of the merged document and subordinates all bookmarks from the merged document below this. This script can be used to: 1) moves all subordinated bookmarks up the bookmark tree; and 2) delete the filename bookmark */ var bm = this.bookmarkRoot; // Find the bookmarks which have .PDF and move all their children to the end // of the bookmark tree. Add each found bookmark to an array so that // it can be deleted at the conclusion of the process // Create an array to hold the bookmarks to delete @ a later stage try { var bmToDeleteArray = new Array(); // console.show(); // console.clear(); // console.println("Removing bookmarks with string \".PDF\" in name"); // Iterate through each bookmark var ibmLength = bm.children.length; for (var i = 0; i < ibmLength; i++) { // Check to see if this is a filename which // contains sub-ordinate bookmarks var bmToCheck = bm.children[i]; // test as case insative if((bmToCheck.name.toLowerCase().indexOf(".pdf")!=-1) && (bmToCheck.children!=null)) { // console.println("found bookmark with children " + i); // Move all children to the end of the root bookmark tree // being sure to move the first item in each case // note: this is because the queue is shrinking as // we move each item var ibmChildrenToMoveLength = bmToCheck.children.length; for(var j=0; j<ibmChildrenToMoveLength; j++) { // console.println("moving bookmark " + j); bm.insertChild(bmToCheck.children[0], bm.children.length); } // Add this to the array of bookmarks to be deleted later bmToDeleteArray[bmToDeleteArray.length] = bmToCheck; } } // Iterate through the array of 'filename' bookmarks to delete // and delete them for (var i = 0; i < bmToDeleteArray.length; i++){ // Delete bookmark bmToDeleteArray[i].remove(); } // Finally remove the array as a nicety delete bmToDeleteArray; // console.println(bmToDeleteArray.length + " booksmarks found and removed."); } catch (error) { app.alert("Action failed.\nThere must be an open document to process\n"+ error, 0, 3); } finally { // console.hide(); return; } //end try } end funciton // insert after the "Close" item (the default behavior) app.addMenuItem( { cName: , cUser: "Remove \".PDF\" Bookmarks", cParent: "Tools", cExec: "RemovePDFTypeFromBookmarks()", cEnable: "event.rc = event.target != null", nPos: "Object Data"});

Combine pdfs mountain lion

how do you combine pdfs into one in mountain lion.. the old method of dragging one on top another in preview doesnt seem to work anymore

I just tried again. Works for me. Just to recap: Mountain Lion (10.8), Preview 6.0(765), and here is the sequence of screenshots that show the process:
1. two files open on two Preview windows, thumbnails visible
2. Drag one of the thumbnails ON TOP of other thumbnail:
(it's a bit hard to see on screen shot, but if look carefully you can distinguish the "ghost" of the thumbnail on the right on top of the other thumbnail on the left.)
3. Voilá: 1 document, 2 pages.
I saved it, checked it, and it is indeed 1 document, 2 pages. Can't imagine why it wouldn't work in your case (again, if they are unprotected, and pdfs not pngs or other.)

Incomprehensible Editing of PDF with Preview

I used to LOVE using Preview to do simple PDF document editing .. mostly just combining PDF files together. All you had to do was drag the PDF file into the sidebar of an existing one to append them together and you were done. Perfect!
Now here is Snow Leopard and suddenly things have gone all ape-****. I can no longer figure out WHAT the side-bar is doing. I drag a PDF file into it and it seems to simply display that PDF file but doesnt combine the pages ... instead I get an incomprehensible hybrid view of two distinct PDF files kinds sorta wrapped into one view. Which I cannot seem to save and cannot seem to flatten. Save is utterly confusing ... I seem to save the file, but I only really save bits of it. I'm stumped .. Apple have taken a simple elegant model and made it virtually unusable.
What's going on here? Is there something obvious I'm missing? Does anyone have ANY idea what Apple were intending with this utterly confusing "feature" ?

See http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071114191806624 and http://macintoshhowto.com/leopard/how-to-merge-pdf-files-with-preview-in-leopard .html

Combining PDFs in Preview

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