PDFs are often used as official documents online, so knowing how to convert to and from the file format is an important professional skill. So is arranging multiple PDF files into a single document a stress for you? We will teach you how to merge or combine PDFs on both Windows and Mac.
If you use a Mac, you have the only tool you will need, already built into the Mac OS operating system, though you can find more flexible and full features solutions if you buy commercial third-party apps. If you use Windows, you’ll need a third party app, however, you can find free open source apps that do the job.
You will find many online PDF mergers, however, we do not recommend you to use them. Your PDF files contain invisible metadata, potentially identifying you and your system. You may not want to give that metadata to send third-party website that offers free editing. Your privacy might be at risk.
How to Combine PDFs in windows
- If you want to combine PDF in Windows then you require a free third-party productivity app or how the commercial and Powerful app. Download Acrobat DC from its official Website.
- Acrobat DC a supplement software meaning you need to pay for the privilege of using it. However, there is a free trial version which you can use for a minimal purpose.
- Download the Adobe Acrobat DC free trial.
- Once installed, open the software and click the tools tab in the top left-hand corner.
- Simply click on “combine files” button
- click the blue “Add file” button and select the PDF document you want to combine. It should be noted that this method works for all sorts of files and not just PDF.
- After doing that simply click on the “combine” button in the top right-hand corner.
- PDF has now been merged into one. All you need to do is “save it” to a new location, which you can do by clicking on the file followed by saving as and then naming it.
However, there are alternatives to the Adobe app. We found Adobe to be the most powerful tool to merge the PDFs on Windows. If you are a freelancer, then we recommend you to use the free trial version or go for online combining websites. However, if you are a working professional and require combining PDF for office purpose, then go for commercial software like Adobe paid version. This ensures the security of your files.
How to Combine PDFs in Mac
The MacOS allows it’s preview option to be used as a PDF combiner.
- Open “Finder” and select all the PDF files that you wish to combine.
- Open the files, all of them. That will bring them up in a simple preview mode. If you have a large screen, it is very handy to space out these preview window so that you can see all of them at once.
- For each window, head to the “view” menu and select “thumbnails”. This will open a sidebar that showcases a thumbnail for each of the pages in that particular PDF.
- Using drag and drop, to build the exact PDF you want, by the Dragging the page thumbnails into a specific order, or dragging the whole PDF into another to combine it.
- There are visual cues on a webpage which will appear as you click, drag and drop them. These include a divider line that shows if a page is being dragged above or below the current page. Use these signs to avoid making mistakes while forming your master document.
- Once finished, make sure to rename the newly was file so that you know what it is.
