How to Merge PDF Files on the Web or Your Desktop: 5 Methods

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posted on 17 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Combining the contents of two or more PDF files is easy, even if you don't have Adobe Acrobat. Many free apps are capable of merging PDF files together. You can do it online using a wide variety of tools, including Adobe’s free PDF Combiner. You can also do it on your desktop PC with a free third-party app like PDF Merger & Splitter, or with built-in tools like Finder and Preview on Mac. This tutorial will teach you quick and easy ways to merge several PDF files into a single document.

Things You Should Know

Visit Adobe’s free merger tool at https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/merge-pdf.html to easily combine PDFs online.
Use a third-party app like PDF Merger & Splitter to combine PDFs on your Windows computer.
Combine PDFs in Finder or Preview on a Mac.

Online

Go to Adobe’s PDF Combiner in a web browser. Adobe offers a free tool that allows you to easily merge PDF files in any browser. To get started, visit https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/merge-pdf.html. If you’d rather not use Adobe’s official PDF Combiner, there are lots of third-party online tools you can use. Some popular options include: I Love PDF: https://www.ilovepdf.com/merge_pdf Smallpdf: https://smallpdf.com/merge-pdf PDF2Go: https://www.pdf2go.com/merge-pdf

Drag and drop the files you want to merge. Locate the PDF files you want to combine on your computer, then drag and drop them into the PDF Combiner window. Place the files in the area where you see the message “Drag and drop PDFs to merge them into one file with our PDF combiner.” You can also click the blue Select files button. A File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window will open where you can browse for and select the PDFs you want to merge.

Reorder the files if you want. If you want to change the order of the different PDFs within the merged document, simply click and drag them to your preferred order in the window. You can also add or remove PDF files from the list. To remove a file, hover over it and then click the trash can icon. To add more files, click the icon at the top of the merger window that looks like a document with a + in the bottom right corner.

Click Merge. You’ll see this blue button at the top right corner of the PDF Combiner window.

Click Download. Once the files are finished processing, this button will appear on the left side of the page. By default, the merged file will save to your Downloads folder.

Using Windows

Download PDF Merger & Splitter. PDF Merger & Splitter is a free app that allows you to merge PDFs and extract pages from a PDF. You can download PDF Merger & Splitter for free from the Microsoft Store. Use the following steps to download PDF Merger & Splitter: Click the Windows Start menu. Click the Microsoft Store icon, which resembles a white shopping bag. Click Search in the upper-right corner. Type "PDF Merger & Splitter" in the search bar. Click PDF Merger & Splitter. Click GET. There are lots of similar apps available, and they all work similarly. Other free options include PDFsam Basic, Merge PDF Free, and Merge PDF PLUS.

Open PDF Merger & Splitter. PDF Merger & Splitter has an icon that resembles a page. You can find it in the Windows Start menu, or you can click Launch in the Microsoft Store once it finishes downloading.

Click Merge PDF. It's the first purple button in the center of the page.

Click Add PDFs. It's the first option in the upper-left corner. This option opens File Explorer and allows you to browse for PDFs.

Navigate to the location of the PDFs you want to merge. Use File Explorer to navigate to the location of the PDFs you want to merge. Double-click the folder the PDFs are located in to navigate to that folder.

Select the PDFs and click Open. You can select more than one file at a time by holding the Ctrl button and clicking the files you want to open. Then click Open in the lower-right corner. Click Add PDFs again to upload additional PDF files. To change the order of the PDFs, click the PDF file you want to move in the list, and click Move Up or Move Down above the list. To remove a PDF, click the PDF you want to remove and click Remove above the list.

Click Merge PDFs. It's in the lower-right corner. This displays a Save prompt that you can use to save the merged PDFs.

Type a name for the merged PDF. Use the field next to "Filename" to type a name for the merged PDF. You can also select a location to save the file to.

Click Save. This saves your PDFs as a single, merged PDF.

Using Mac (Finder Method)

Open a Finder window. Click the Mac Finder Finder icon in the Dock to open a new Finder window. Navigate to the location of the PDF files you want to merge.

Click the Gallery tab. At the top of the Finder window, click the tab that looks like a rectangle with a row of squares underneath. This will switch you to Gallery view. You can also click View in the menu bar at the top of your screen, then select as Gallery.

Command-click the PDFs you want to merge. Hold down the command key while clicking on any PDF files you want to combine. Select the files in the order in which you want them to appear in the merged PDF.

Click Create PDF. Once you’ve selected two or more PDF files, a button will appear in the right panel that says Create PDF. Click this button to merge your files. The new PDF will be saved to your Desktop. You can also select the files you want to merge in List view, then control-click them and select Quick Actions > Create PDF.

Using Mac (Preview Method)

Launch the Preview app. The icon looks like a snapshot of a landscape with a magnifier in front of it.

Open the PDF files you want to merge. In Preview, click the File menu, then select Open. Navigate to the location of your PDF files and open them. You can select multiple files at once by command-clicking them, then clicking Open. You can also navigate to the PDF files you want to open in Finder, then right-click or control-click them and select Open With > Preview.

Duplicate the PDFs. To avoid making any unwanted permanent changes to the original files when you use this method, you may want to make copies instead of working with the originals. To do this, select each file, then click the File menu at the top of the screen and select Duplicate.

Open one of the duplicate files. It doesn’t matter which one you start with, since you can rearrange order of the pages within the combined file.

Enable the thumbnail pane in the View menu. If you don’t already see the sidebar that shows thumbnails of all the pages in your PDF, click View > Thumbnails in the menu at the top of the screen. It will appear on the left side of the PDF window.

Drag additional PDFs into the sidebar. Click any of the other PDF files you want to merge with the first one and simply drag and drop them into the thumbnail bar on the left side of the window. Click and drag thumbnails to change the order of the pages. Want to merge individual pages from another PDF into your document? Simply open the other PDF in preview, make sure Thumbnails is enabled, and drag the thumbnails of the desired pages over to the sidebar on the first document.

Using Adobe Acrobat

Open Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat has a red and white icon with a red looping swoosh in the middle. Adobe Acrobat is Adobe's proprietary (paid) PDF creation and editing tool. You’ll need to use one of the paid versions of Adobe Acrobat (rather than the free Adobe Acrobat Reader app) to merge PDFs. Adobe Acrobat is subscription-based, but Acrobat Pro offers a free trial option.

Click Tools. It's the second tab at the top. This displays the PDF creation tools.

Click Combine Files. It's the second option on the Tools page. It has a purple icon that resembles two pages.

Click Add Files. It's the blue button in the center of the pages. This opens File Explorer on Windows, or the Finder on Mac.

Navigate to the location the PDFs are stored. Use the File Explorer or Finder window to navigate to the folder the PDFs you want to merge are saved to.

Select the PDFs you want to merge. To select multiple files, press and hold Ctrl on Windows or Command on Mac. Then click the files you want to add.

Click Open. It's in the lower-right corner. This displays all the PDFs as thumbnail images in Adobe Acrobat. To add additional PDFs, click Add Files at the top of the screen. Click and drag the thumbnail images in Adobe Acrobat to change the order of the files. To remove a PDF, click a thumbnail to select it and click Remove at the top of the page.

Click Combine. It's the blue button at the top of the page. This combines all the PDFs in the thumbnail list into one PDF.

Click File. It's in the menu bar at the top of Adobe Acrobat.

Click Save as. It's in the drop-down menu below "File" in Adobe Acrobat.

Click a recent save location or click Choose a different folder. You can select one of the recent save locations listed, or click the blue button that says Choose a different folder to select a different save location.