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My PDF documents won't merge

I have followed the direction exactly for merging pdfs in Preview. See below. When I save the document, or duplicate and save with a new name, it only shows me on of the pdfs. Please help.


(1) Open the first pdf file, (2) Open the thumbnails draw (3) Drag in the second pdf file and (4) Save the new pdf.


iCal-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Aug 22, 2013 4:26 PM

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33 replies

Jan 4, 2017 12:02 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks Eric - I agree, no-one at Apple really cares about the users feedback nowadays (If they did, Final Cut X would never have been released in the way it was), but at least it allows us to vent our frustrations !


In the "unlikely" scenario that I do receive a reply from Apple, I'll post back here.


Footnote:

Well that just about sums it up nicely, following Eric's link (http://www.apple.com/feedback/), Preview isn't even shown in the options - they clearly have decided it's not worthy of getting feedback from their (frustrated) customers. Unless anyone knows where \they've hidden it, I'll send feedback in the OSX option!

Jan 3, 2017 9:48 PM in response to ck614

Why oh why do Apple mess around with these apps?


We've all been using most of them since their conception, and i would seem that since the passing of SJ, the developers are making life soooooo darned difficult! Time was that Apple was "THE" software to use because it was easy to use and easy to teach, I've been using Preview to create Multi-Page pdf's for as long as I can remember, simply by dragging other pdfs into the thumbnail section - always worked in the past - so why doesn't it work now?


Please Apple . . . "If it ain't broke - don't fix it!


Please review your policies Apple, people (especially professionals) are wasting a lot of time re-learning what they've come to love about your software. We like the apps they way they were, easy to use, easy to teach and effective - don't muck it all up for the sake of making it look "new"!

Feb 20, 2017 12:23 AM in response to jessicajsh

I have FINALLY figured out how to solve this issue simply. When I scan, for example, 5 documents in and try combining them with the thumbnails process described herein, Preview will save as 5 separate documents instead of one single document consisting of all pages. I have been burned several times sending as email attachments and missing deadlines because only the first page was included. Out of frustration I was using an online .pdf merger, but that ***** for many reasons.


When you drag all the thumbnails together so you are viewing it as if it were a single document, bring up the "print" menu and instead of sending to printer, select "open as .pdf file in viewer." When it does it will convert to a single file, which you can then save. I hope I've explained this well, because this has had me incredibly frustrated over the last several months. Good luck.

May 17, 2017 9:27 PM in response to jessicajsh

Of the various solutions for merging two one-page PDFs, the one using the Edit menu worked immediately for me (using El Capitan) – previously posted, restated here:

1. Open the PDF which you want to be p. 1.

2. From the Edit menu in Preview, select Insert>Page from File...

3. Select the other one-page PDF and click "Open." It will become p. 2 of the PDF you opened first.

4. Save.

Oct 8, 2017 5:51 PM in response to jessicajsh

Hi Jessicajsh and others.


Here is a simple solution.

You need to select the pages you wish to combine, then click export as PDF if you want to combine multiple PDFs. If you click save as PDF without doing this, Preview will output a single page PDF containing only the page you were viewing.

So click on the thumbnail of the first page, then hold shift or command and select all the other pages you wish to combine, then, Save as PDF.

Good luck 🙂

Jul 25, 2014 4:59 PM in response to Community User

I had the same problem. There are apparently two different kinds of PDF docs that Preview recognizes, the single-page and the multi-page.


To merge an additional page into a Multi-page is easy (see below), but I have never found out how to make Preview change a "single-page" into a "multi-page" PDF. Instead, if I want to combine a bunch of one-page PDFʻs into a single multi-page file, I go the somewhat un-classy route of making a copy of some random little multi-page PDF I have lying around, and re-naming the copy. Then I add all the PDFʻs I want to be in the new file to the renamed copy, and finally delete all of the unwanted original pages to get the merged file I want. Very gorpy, but until Apple gets some competent Human Engineers on its staff, it will have to do. And it has the great recommendation that IT WORKS!


Hereʻs how I add single pages to a multi-page file:-

With both docs open, show the sidebars of both docs. The multi-page should be expanded and show thumbnails for all its included pages, and the top (first) page will have a rotary arrow in a circle pointing to the right. If there is only one page showing, move the cursor over that page and a rotary arrow should appear, pointing to the left. Click on that arrow and it should flip to the right and all the pages should appear in order below.


Now go to the file that you want to add to the multi-page, and select the thumbnail in the sidebar. Then drag it over to the multi-page sidebar and drop it where you want it in the series of page-thumbnails (a red line will snap to where it is going). When you first drag it over the multi-page sidebar there should appear a gray box covering all the pages now in the multi-page; be sure to drop your new page within the gray box, even if you want to add it at the end - if you drop it outside that box it wonʻt be added to the multi-page but will merely show in the window.


Of course, this works for me, in the Hawaii Standard Time Zone, with OS 10.6.8 and Preview version 5.0.3 They are mine and Iʻm going to keep them forever! (hopefully, but who knows the future?)


Good luck!

Sep 23, 2014 10:53 PM in response to jessicajsh

You may be running into the same problem I had until I figured out that I was trying to merge 2 non-PDF documents which was causing the problem.


First, make sure the documents that you wish to combine are saved in PDF format. When I had first scanned the hard copies of the documents onto my system, it was initially saved in JPEG mode. Whenever I tried to combine one JPEG document with another JPEG document, Previews would not allow the documents to merge.


So I then converted and saved each document into PDF format. Next, I opened each PDF version of the documents in Preview, and opened the thumbnail preview. I then dragged one of the document thumbnails over onto the top of the other document thumbnail, and voila!, they merged.

My PDF documents won't merge

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