Hi there,
I'm on 10.8.5, with Preview Version 6.0.1 (765.6). I have followed all of the steps to merge pdf's. In the title bar of the document it says there are two pages. Then I save (there is no save as command) and it only saves one page. Is there something I'm missing or is this a bug?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks
Shaynee
MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)
Try showing them as thumbnails, then Edit/Select All, and then Export as PDF.
This just exports the individual pdf's I'm trying to combine. I was able to print to a pdf and save it that way. I'm still confused though. All the documentation says that it should save the new combined file, but it doesn't. Thanks for the help.
You are welcome. I just tried the steps again and it combined the 2 pages?
"Try showing them as thumbnails, then Edit/Select All, and then Export as PDF.
Tried this several times as well as every other export/save option. View as thumbnails in two separate documents and successfully see 1 document with 2 files listed in the left pane.
And though the export displays a completed progress bar just before it disapears and the file is created where I pointed, there is still only the bottom page of the the two thumbnails in the newly created file.
Running a Macbook Pro (see image below for details.)
Or, you could create a trivial Automator Service as I use below, which certainly could be augmented. I start by selecting each PDF file in the order of desired append, and then right-click to choose the Service menu and then CombinePDF, as I named my service.
A new PDF file appears on the desktop.
Thanks Viking, I had already tried that but didn't see the need to mention it since it hadn't been already.
However I did get the answer from an Apple Care which took a Sr. Advisor to figure out.
Select all files in Finder window, double click on any of them, a merged file will appear, after confirming page order go File, print, save as PDF.
Phil,
If one has Adobe Reader configured as default PDF opener, it opens each file in separate window.
I reset this to Preview, and when I tested your method, I had to:
WIth my Service, I avoid these two steps. All I have to do is rename the random-named PDF file that is written to the Desktop.
However, to each their own process.
For information purposes, the thumbnail drag does not work in 10.10. Since upgrading, I have to insert a blank page in the pdf I want to merge to, add a text field in the blank page via the "annotate - text" tool menu and then paste into the text field. I suppose one could skip the blank page if the paste was small.
The good news is, that in 10.10, "export pdf" now saves a merged pdf well and I have not seen the Preview crashes that used to happen regularly after a few merges in 10.9 and 10.8. The bad news is that Preview still retains a "hold" on opened pdf's after it has been (regular finder, but not force) closed so that trashed (after being opened) documents can not be "emptied" until after the next logon.
I regularly grade by pasting a grade synopsis into submitted pdf homework so see this all the time.
I also had this problem and may have found a solution. The error was not in preview, it was one of the scanner settings. My scanner was set to "save as jpg". I changed it to "save as pdf" and a box opened giving me the option to "combine pdfs". so simple when you find the answer
Problems merging PDF's with Preview
