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how can I merge a scanned document?

I have scanned several documents, but they save as separate items. Is there a way to merge them into one document?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jul 11, 2015 9:36 AM

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5 replies

Jul 11, 2015 7:39 PM in response to Klaus1

Klaus1 - Appreciate your reply and that is how I've done it to date. However, as a neophyte Mac user, I'm unable to determine how to edit, merge and prep for single file transfer any image or document, regardless of the number of pages. Previously, with my PC and my HP printer/scanner (which is now connected to my Mac), I was able to use the HP platform to perform these tasks. Are there some ' equivalent steps' I'm not aware of to duplicate these tasks thru the options provided on the Image Capture application? Thanx


I guess what I saying is: I want to be able to save/designate a multi-page document as a single document, rather than saving each page separately in order to have a complete document in file.

Feb 13, 2016 3:51 PM in response to kjlittell

Hello! Sometimes people might not be able to fix it in the scanner – maybe someone else did the scanning. Here is what you can do to merge PDF files in general. I presume that you have the scanned pages in PDF files. If you have them in some other format, change accordingly in the descriptions below.


Beginner style:

1. Open the first document with the app Preview (should be your default app for opening PDF files).

2. Then open the second one in preview as well. Make sure that the sidebar is open (otherwise, click the ”View Menu” in the upper left, and toggle it on).

3. Click on the first page in the sidebar, then press command-A if you have several pages.

4. Drag the marked pages onto the first document, making sure to put it below the last page of the first document. It will then copy those pages into the first document.

5. Repeat for each new page (or set of pages) that you wish to insert.

6. When you are done, under the file menu, press ”Export as PDF …” and save it to wherever you want to have it.


Advanced option:

Well, if you are having many documents, this might be a tedious process. For those who dare, it is possible to make a small automator script that does this for you. It is quite easy.


1. First, open automator. (Open spotlight, e.g. by pressing command-spacebar, and type ”automator” without the quotation marks, then press Enter.)

2. From the promt, choose ”Workflow”, which should be highlighted.

3. In the search bar in the upper left, type ”Get Selected Finder Items”, and from the results below, drag the line with the same name to the grey area to the right.

4. In the search area again, type ”Combine”, and drag the entry named ”Combine PDF Pages” to the right, making sure it ends up below the earlier item.

5. Now, you are done. From under the File Menu (or by pressing command-S) save your workflow wherever you want to, and name it something nice (why not ”thx VickeVireG PDF merge”?) and then quit automator.


Now, whenever you want to merge PDF files, do the following:


6. Double click your automator workflow (”thx VickeVire G PDF merge”), which will open automator.

7. Now go to a folder containing the scanned pages (in PDF format) that you want to merge, sorted in the correct order (name them by numbers, for example), and highlight them all.

8. In automator, make sure that ”Appending pages” is chosen, and click ”Run” in the upper right corner.

9. In the lower left of the box named ”Combine PDF Pages” there is a button named ”Results”. Press it, and it will show your new file. Double click it, and it will open your PDF. Save it to wherever you want to have it.


I hope this solves the issue! Cheers!

how can I merge a scanned document?

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