How To Merge PDF Files On Your Mac

[@CeesVerhoog]

Just 4 hours ago I was figuring out how to do this.... I thought it could be done in the native Mac Apps, but I didn't found out... But now I now better, another reason to use a Mac; thanks a lot!

[@unclefart5527]

Just another "why didn't someone tell me?" episode. And Gary tells you. Things I didn't know since 10.1.

[@JeffreyForner]

I was not aware of the Quick Action option to merge multiple PDFs together into a single one, so that alone made this video worth watching. Thank you! Something I’ve often done is select multiple pages in a PDF via the thumbnails, then drag the selected pages into a Finder window. That will automatically create a new PDF with only the pages I selected. From there it’s a pretty straightforward process to rename the file in Finder.

[@Drunkmonkey8294]

Thank you Gary. Another useful Macmost video. I'm surprised you didn't mention dragging and dropping a pdf file into an open preview pdf file. I've been doing that for years, now you enlightened me on some other ways.

[@collinwood60]

Another example of how versatile MacOS is as well as Preview.

[@DirkKuepper]

Another example: Try to convert a .ps or .eps file to .pdf file in macOS Sonoma.

[@williamalgat7125]

thumbs up for Gary guys, he is the best in MacOS world

[@The_Cali_Dude_88]

Agreed I watched several others and chose Gary for learning.

[@stephenbridges2791]

I've always liked Preview. Cool tips.

[@carpenterhillstudios8327]

This is a game-changer, but you knew that. I just spent two weeks rebuilding a multi-page document to be printed. Let me just say, had I seen this a few weeks ago, I would have been done with the printing and the dicuments would have been in the hands of people I needed to get them to, moving my time frame fro,m behind to on time. I tell you this , not for sympathy but to underscore just how valuable what you do with your channel really is for the restof us. Thank you once again and constantly.

[@carlosb7695]

Love your style, you get right to the meat and potatoes! I can not stand videos that just talk and stall only to give you some info. You are very thorough

[@Mudge07]

Compositing documents from individual song lyrics sheets into set lists is available to me in a separate app that uses pdfs, so it refreshing and useful to see that an in-house method is at hand. They’re always being rejigged for ongoing set lengths and venue types so flexibility to retain original elements is key to the process. Great work Gary.

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much. Gary, for this informative video! This is essential learning.

[@jerzynowicki5350]

Thanks a lot! In addition to the very useful knowledge you give us, I would like to appreciate your style in which you do it. Learning from your videos you have the impression that you are using the advice of a good friend who knows and respects you.I think many will agree with me that the sound of your voice has a very great impact on this reception of your advice. Thank you so much Gary. 1:10

[@Greg-fg1rd]

Perfect Demo For me! Thanks

[@barrydraper]

Wow! You are brilliant! Thx!!!

[@ThierryLalinne]

Thank you Gary! macOS will never cease to amaze me. I always learn something new when watching your videos 👍💔

[@georgee3401]

As usual, a very useful tutorial. Many thanks!

[@loisskiathitis8926]

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@GreginND]

You can also drag a pdf file from the finder and directly drop it into the preview thumbnail pane.

[@carolinemyddelton580]

Super-useful as always, Gary-thanks! 👍 I love the variety of ways you show us, so there's a quick and easy way to get the PDFs just the way i want them every time.

[@nunuvyurbiz123]

Also, there is a PDF option in Automator to shuffle (interleave) PDFs, which can come in handy if, for example, you use software that doesn't handle odd/even pages well. You can then print to PDF the odd, then the even, and then shuffle them.

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

This is an excellent video. For some years now, I have been writing my autobiography. It is over 1000 pages long with 900+ linked photos. I use affinity publisher and I have the source in 5 separate publisher files, each producing its own pdf. I then use the quick action to combine the PDF’s preserving the page numbers in publisher. Publisher also now supports cross field references for pages and captions. Had it not been for the quick feature, I would have had to manually manage the PDF’s via preview.

[@garyisaacs6526]

G. / I just saw you yesterday and stumbled upon your channel today .... You da man ! 😶

[@gracechen2412]

Very informative and helpful! Thank you!

[@lorensims4846]

This is why I use PDF for everything. They're so easy to work with in macOS. Last month I scanned in a chapter from a library book, but because of the way I had to position the book on the scanner, all the pages were upside down. The scanning software allowed me to combine all the scans in a single PDF file, but it didn't allow me to change the images. So I used Preview to rotate each page so they're all now oriented correctly. It's all so easy on a Mac!

[@vjdav6872]

Any advise on apple products including SW from you have been amazing - thanks my friend.

[@alagolowe8668]

Gary, these techniques are so helpful. Thanks for sharing.

[@chaby93]

Excellent, simple and to the point explanation

[@robmlisanti]

Thank You Gary! always informative!

[@muratbatmaz]

Excellent. One can even decide the order of the files. Thank you, Gary.

[@alenahorbach7152]

Thank you so much for such an easy explanation. Excellent!!!

[@albibushi157]

very helpful for someone like me, a windows user who is interested in switching to Macbook. Most of the reviews i read about Macbooks is how incompatible they are for a lot of productivity work. Since i have never had a macbook, being totally ignorant, can you please tell me if you had any non-default program installed before performing these tasks? Thanks a lot

[@macmost]

No, this uses Preview, which comes with macOS.

[@c-5541]

Thanks for teaching us to drag and drop in preview !

[@sattice]

Thank you-that was so quick and easy!!

[@furst56]

You show us the coolest features…I had no idea about this. Thanks

[@donlibes]

Lots of great techniques, thanks! But I also tried your suggestion to re-order my Quick Actions via Customize and was unable to drag any actions. I tried deselecting some of the extensions and got "Settings Error / Extension process / Extensions(2548) exited." Rebooting does not change the behavior. The actions all work. It's just management of them that fails. I'm running Sonoma 14.3.1.

[@sampurkin6838]

Great explanation as always! Is there a way to set a key command to merge these in the finder? I use the two finger click all the time and a key command would be awesome. Just can’t figure out how to assign it anywhere.

[@macmost]

You have to point and click to select them anyway, so it is easier to just do one more click for the Quick Action than to switch to the keyboard and do something there anyway.

[@sampurkin6838]

True but it's a two finger click, then scroll to the quick actions - then choose the right one. I still prefer keyboard shortcuts. Is there any way to assign one? I've tried with Keyboard Maestro and within the MacOS - can't seem to get one to work@@macmost

[@macmost]

@@sampurkin6838 Since it is a Quick Action and that isn't in the menu bar, there's no easy way to assign a keyboard shortcut.

[@catnapper3923]

So helpful; I knew of only one way (dragging a file into the thumbnails) to do this. THANKS!!!!

[@Mar-qy4dn]

Gary, your video is incredible and helped so much but I am still so stuck trying to figure out how to do it on multiple folders at once, spent hours to no avail! Is there a way to use Automator to do the action on each subfolder and collate pdfs *only* from that subfolder into a new one without having to go one by one? At the moment I am just getting one pdf sandwich that takes all the docs from all the subfolders when what I need is a combined pdf for each subfolder (I have hundreds of them so not fun to go one by one). Do you have a video that expands on this? THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[@macmost]

That seems like a pretty unique situation. Usually people are just merging two or a few PDFs. You'll have to keep experimenting and trying things to see if you can make something that works for you.

[@joerama]

I love this tip. TY

[@SimonB6706]

I've not tried recently but historically found that using the drag and drop option in Preview had some page limits. It worked fine for a few page by page copies, but after a while stopped working.

[@davidgagnon5360]

Thanks a lot, Gary, that was very instructive! A few years ago, I tried to create this exact fonction using Automator, and the results were not always consistent. Now, I know why it always works! ;-)

[@maxhorsewood7743]

Super helpful! Thanks a bunch

[@AnilAtluriWord]

Wonderful tips Gary. Thanks.

[@ralphhenson3192]

Thank you so much. A new one way. The long way now I know lots of words thank you.

[@cherylf2133]

Another great video! Thanks, Gary.

[@eightwheels]

I almost didn't watch this one because I already knew all this…or so I thought. Turns out I didn't. Thank you for the new tips!

[@sk-op5ze]

thanks that was super helpful!

[@Cliff4242]

Gary is amazing as always!

[@fotojaap]

Very useful, thanks!

[@MrPhilipgood]

I have been using 3rd party software for the last 2 year to do this. I had no idea it could be done natively within Finder.

[@cbhrcbhr]

Thanks. Is it possible to insert on a PDF page a smaller PDF cartridge i.e. I want to insert a label on one page

[@macmost]

You can do it with an image. kzbin.info/www/bejne/opTcZ2Sdna6Eq68

[@cbhrcbhr]

@@macmost Many thanks, it is working great if you do not forget to click on the page before to do the paste

[@vpf5295]

Great tool!! Once again, thanks!

[@garywagner2466]

Thanks, Gary. Since Adobe decided to prostitute itself, I’ve been relying on Preview. Very helpful to learn more about its functions.

[@macmost]

Adobe did what?

[@Ransomed77]

Amazing! Thanks!

[@javtimestwo]

Gary-Does merging using the finder also work with Monterey or Ventura?

[@macmost]

I can't remember exactly when they added that Quick Action. Look and see.

[@bize1msu631]

I have it on my 2013 running Big Sur 😂

[@garynagle3093]

Wow. Another great video!

[@rk1999hansschop]

Hay Gary, thanks for all your videos! At the moment I have a strange problem. I have 13 pages documents which I turned into pdf files by exporting them one by one. Than I tried to merge them according to your instructions and that gave me a pdf file of 50 pages (335 Mb). The first 30 pages are okay but the last 20 are a lot of ??? Like this: PK

[@rk1999hansschop]

Mmmm my message did not show al the symbols I copied in.

[@rk1999hansschop]

Sorry sorry sorry I already know what happened. The last document was not a pdf but still a pages document.

[@Aljobritt]

thank you so much for the video!!

[@rflquim]

Tô Read pdfs do you recomend to use preview or other app ?

[@macmost]

Why use anything other than Preview?

[@talcual2138]

What about PDF files that have a structure detailed on the left bar, with chapters and so on, allowing you to skip to a section - can one copy a whole section? Play around with the sections?

[@macmost]

You'll need to experiment and see.

[@talcual2138]

@@macmost Of course, I will. I just thought this could have been covered in your excellent video. One gets PDFs with different properties as to internal structure, not just the basic, clean ones you make yourself. This also has to do with limitations set by the creator of a PDF. I am currently looking at a 1000-page dictionary, and trying to see if I can mess it up, as an experiment.... But the issue of pre-defined internal structure of chapters etc is relevant, as are links to other parts of the PDF document - maybe for a future, advanced, video?

[@GregJohnson-g1i]

Hi Gary, When you say "You can click and drag or when you said you can change the order of the actions in "quick action" by clicking and holding and dragging the command to the top"What do you mean by saying CLICK. I am using a mouse instead of the trackpad and I tried moving create pdf to the top and it does not move. Do you know why? Thanks and as always, GREAT video). I am using Sonoma 14.3.1.

[@macmost]

Not following you, but if you want to set the order in the resulting PDF to file B, C, A then click file B to select it. Command+click C to add that. Command+click A to add that. Then use the Quick Action.

[@9elly]

thank you so much!

[@aarongrant9708]

You sure know yer way around a Mac!!

[@MalithClicks]

Thank you !

[@MrSuren095]

Thank you

[@cesscab]

As allways...greats tips.... 😇☀

[@MarsianAzarraga]

thanks man!

[@ashwingedam8425]

Thanks man.

[@Novabunny_]

I love you man. Making college easier for me haha

[@rombanilondwa4488]

You are a real legend

[@ankushagarwal6895]

it was a helpful video

[@NavidonYoutube]

very useful

[@Maxx-Jay]

Is there a way to do the opposite, in bulk? I have a mail merged, personalized letter that I need to break apart into 80+ individual PDF files. I know how to do it one at a time. Last time I did this I used your mail merge script. Now mail merge is included in Pages so I used it instead.

[@macmost]

I don't know of a way to easily do it. Hopefully this is a one-time thing and you can just spend a few minutes dragging each page from the Preview sidebar to a Finder window.

[@douglasmhann3493]

How do you? How do you do this on the iPad Pro?

[@macmost]

In the Files app, tap the three-dots button at the top. Then tap Select. Then select the PDFs. Then Tap the three-dots button at the bottom. Then tap Create PDF.

[@salnomany]

How can I show an option create PDF from Quick Action because it does not appear for me?

[@macmost]

Hard to say where you could be going wrong without knowing what you are doing, exactly. Are you creating a Shortcut in the Shortcuts app? Make sure the input makes sense for the content you want to select when you use this Quick Action. Check everything over carefully.

[@salnomany]

@ can you give me steps on video please 🙏 appreciate your support

[@salnomany]

@@macmost H

[@PierluigiLuceri]

thanks

[@jimgale2079]

Create info. thx

[@garfishsmith9037]

In older versions of Mac OS any items you highlighted and then opened would all be automatically merged into a PDF, one step forwards ,2 steps back, adobe is much the same

[@macmost]

I think you mean that Preview would open them all in the same window. It didn't merge them, it just allowed you to look at several documents in one window.

[@garfishsmith9037]

@OK my mistake, But you could then save them all as one PDF, by selecting all then save as and having them open was really handy when using the OS to print files .Also you can change the page order before saving.

[@Unpeturbed]

Fabulous

[@ashtangayogacristina]

How to merge a pdf image into a pdf file? Thank you

[@macmost]

"Merge" is not really what you are doing. You want to import an image. Usually you would do that in the app used to create the PDF. For instance, if you are using Pages, Word or InDesign to build the document, then you would add the image at that stage, or go back to the document file and add it and export a new version of the PDF.

[@macmost]

Though I did forget about this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/opTcZ2Sdna6Eq68

[@BiffaTW]

create PDF does not work for me

[@hariunnithan9]

Very useful! Thanks 🙏🏻

[@cesarsobrino7398]

Thanks a lot!

[@atiks]

Great Tips. Thanks !