Yosemite: Preview Won't Manipulate or Merge PDFs

Using Yosemite 10.10 on 10-18-14 with a Macbook Pro Retina Early 2013, I can't manipulate PDFs using Preview 8.0. The PDF is not locked, and I have full read/write permission.
I can open a PDF. I can delete a page in a PDF. I can rotate a page in the PDF. However, I CAN'T move a page from one location to another within the same PDF. I CAN'T merge the contents of one PDF into another PDF.
When I try to move a page within a PDF a "hole" opens up between the pages (that slid apart to allow the page to be moved there) but the page is not moved to that location and the "hole" does not close up until the PDF is closed and reopened. When I drag the source PDF to the desired position inside the thumbnail on the left side of the recipient PDF, the thumbnail pages slide apart and the green + appears over the icon for the source PDF confirming that I want to add the PDF in that location. However when I release the mouse, the document springs back to its former location without being added. Unlike in an attempted page move, however, the thumbnails slide back together.
I have to manipulate PDFs all the time, and if anyone can tell me what I'm (suddenly) doing wrong, I would be most appreciative. I have Adobe Acrobat, so I can work around the problem, but Acrobat is slow and difficult to work with. Thanks in advance.

Hello!
I too am having problems with Preview 8.0 in Yosemite. Like others, I can not add a page or merge two PDFs or move pages around. VikingOSX indicated that this was no longer functionality in this version and that we should employ better PDF programs. Excuse me for saying so but that can't be true. The HELP system clearly indicates that you should be able to add a pdf file via the Edit > Insert > Page from File command. This command does exist in the UI. I can execute the command and navigate to the correct file and select it but nothing happens. It makes no sense that Apple would remove the ability to combine pdfs together. This seems like a legitimate bug. I will file a bug report.
Also, Preview is no longer meant to be just a viewer. It has really good capabilities for modifying PDFs that I use every day.
If anyone finds a solution to this problem I would appreciate it if you could let me know.
Thank you for reading.
Susan

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Preview Won't Insert Pages Into .PDF from File

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Works for me.
Open a PDF File
Navigate to where want a page inserted.
Go to Edit ===> Insert ===> From Scanner or Page from File or Blank Page
Preview will insert page below the page.
It is not as good a tool as some other software for fiddling with PDFs but it works.

Any idea why Preview won't work for opening PDF files with this OS?

For some reason, after the last update to Mavericks 10.9.3, any time I attempt to open a PDF using Preview, the file will not open. No response from the system. Any recommended solutions? Thanks in advance!

Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Adobe won't let me combine pdf files in one merged file

I've got a mac. I have adobe reader. I just signed up for acrobat xi. I have five files on adobe, saved there,
that I am trying to merge into one pdf file. It won't let me.

zahmbie82 wrote:
I have five files on adobe, saved there,
Not sure what you mean by this?
zahmbie82 wrote:
I've got a mac. I have adobe reader. I just signed up for acrobat xi.
Those are two different products. Acrobat XI can merge pdf files, Reader cannot.
Since you're on a Mac, I believe Mac Preview (free) has this ability doesn't it?

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I posted this problem on Adobe's forum and received a message from admin there that this was caused by a change in font handling with Apple's 10.6.7 update.
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I received a .pdf document as an attachment to an Entourage Email. It refuse to print on my HP4050N printer which is otherwise performing as advertised. Printing fron the desktop, Adobe 9.4.4 nor Preview won't work. I have a PowerPC G5, OS 10.4.11.

I think the file has somehow been corrupted. Can you have the person that sent it to you send another copy?
 Cheers, Tom

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I can't seem to merge PDFs in Preview 5.5.1. Am I missing something. Can someone guide me to an article or let me know how to do this. I've read that you simply open multiple PDFs in the thumbnail and then place one PDF on top of another, but when I try, the two PDFs just wiggle around and change order. If not preview - what program should I use?
Thanks
Doug

In Preview's sidebar, just drag one document on top of (i.e. not above and not below) another, but it sounds as if you're doing that.
Make sure you are doing this in the sidebar:
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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.
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TIA!

This is because of the new versioning.
As I recall this is what I did.
Start with a new, blank preview page and then drag the other pdfs onto the blank form.
I am not sure how I created the new blank page. I may have created it with Adobe first.
It seems that one cannot use Preview alone to open a new blank pdf.
Now when you click Save you should be asked for a new name.
Otherwise, I think that preview will overwrite one of the other pdf files with the new files.
It's a bit confusing - I suggest experimenting with a few "scrap" pdf files first.
I wish Apple would put back the old "Save as" function. It is so much clearer and intuitive than the current scheme where often one has to search for the location of the file once it goes away.

Preview bug - merging pdfs inserts wrong file

I have consistently been able to reproduce this bug. I often merge PDFs using Preview, by dragging a file from the Finder to Preview's thumbnail sidebar open to the document to which I am merging.
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Hi there,
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"Try showing them as thumbnails, then Edit/Select All, and then Export as PDF.
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Running a Macbook Pro (see image below for details.)

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Bruce De Benedictis wrote:
If there is only one page, drag the next file on top of the page, rather than below it. The icon will become a booklet icon which you can open, and then you can drag pages into the booklet.
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Steve

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Thank you Allan and Barney.
Alas, though this did solve my question - it did not solve my problem.
I begrudgingly set-up the Adobe Reader account and downloaded the App.
Between: Apple's iCloud, Google Drive, DropBox, Amazon Cloud, and now Adobe Cloud, management of storage and documents is getting "complex" to say the least.
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Q.

Preview won't open PDFs

I have a brand new Macbook Air using OS X Mavericks and preview won't open any pdf's. It keeps saying "preview quit unexpectedly", it gives me the option of re-opening and still nothing. Not sure what to do - it's quite frustrating. Has anyone experienced this problem?

Just tried that - preview was already the default option, but I clicked it again anyway and clicked on another option and back to preview to try that too. Re-opened pdf and still same error....
Not sure if this helps but this is some of the jargon under the error message:
Process:
Preview [7622]
Path:
/Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:
com.apple.Preview
Version:
7.0 (826.4)
Build Info:
Preview-826004000000000~2
Code Type:
X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [140]
Responsible:
Preview [7622]
User ID:
501
Date/Time:
2014-04-08 21:34:50.080 -0400
OS Version:
Mac OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)
Report Version: 11
Anonymous UUID: 0BE38B47-1859-F4B3-6F99-FE8D876BA2EF
Sleep/Wake UUID: 214D1A61-64EC-4F94-B1CE-6440F6676645
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[PVPDFView setAutoScales:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7f8619f151a0'
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
abort() called

Yosemite: Preview Won't Manipulate or Merge PDFs

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