How to Merge PDFs and Rearrange Pages in Mac Preview

This article explains how to merge PDFs or organize pages using Mac's Preview. Changes made to the Preview document are automatically saved, so to keep the original PDF intact, first create a copy by selecting ‘File > Duplicate’ for each PDF before starting your work. After that, open the copies and display the page thumbnails by selecting ‘View > Thumbnails’, allowing you to add only the necessary pages to another PDF. To merge entire PDFs, simply drag the PDF icon from Finder into the sidebar of the open document.

How to Preserve the Original PDF Before Starting

When you add, delete, or rearrange PDF pages in Preview, those changes are saved automatically. Therefore, if you want to keep the original intact, creating copies should come before merging. Open each PDF in Preview, select ‘File > Duplicate’ to create copies, and proceed with your work on the duplicates. If you want to preserve both the original PDF and the newly merged PDF, you must create copies of each PDF before merging.

Selectively Merging Only the Needed Pages into a PDF

First, open the PDFs you want to merge in Preview. By selecting ‘View > Thumbnails’ in each open PDF, you will see the page thumbnails displayed in the sidebar. This list allows you to add only selected pages to another PDF instead of the entire file. After distinguishing between the PDF you want to import pages from and the one you want to receive them, check both documents' sidebars together to minimize the risk of selecting the wrong target location.

1. Open both the PDF you want to add pages to and the PDF you want to import pages from.
2. In both PDFs, select ‘View > Thumbnails’ to display the sidebar.
3. Select the thumbnail of the pages you want to import and drag it to the sidebar of the other PDF.
4. If the pages you want to add are not adjacent, hold down the Command key and click each thumbnail to select multiple pages, then drag them.
5. Check the position where the pages will be inserted and drop the thumbnails.

Pages can be added at the end of the target document or inserted between existing pages. Therefore, before dragging, check the desired insertion point in the sidebar of the target PDF. When selecting multiple pages, distinguish between selecting adjacent pages together and separately selecting scattered pages using Command-click. If you only need certain pages, ensure to drag the thumbnails of those pages, not the PDF icon itself.

Adding an Entire PDF at Once

To merge the entire content of one PDF into another, locate the icon of the PDF you want to add in Finder. Drag that icon into the sidebar of the already opened target PDF in Preview to add the entire PDF. This method differs from selectively adding specific pages, so first decide whether you need some pages or the whole file before proceeding. If you only need certain pages, dragging the PDF icon may change the selection range, so use the page thumbnails instead.

Inserting Pages at Desired Locations and Rearranging Order

You can also add pages using the menu. First, select the page that will serve as the reference point for the new page, then choose ‘Edit > Insert’ and select either ‘Page from File’ or ‘Blank Page’. The new page will be inserted after the currently selected page, so to display it before a specific page, select the page that will come before it first.

To rearrange the order of already added pages, drag the thumbnails in the sidebar to the desired new location. You can handle both sending pages to the end of the document and placing them between other pages by dragging the thumbnails. When inserting new pages via the menu, they will go after the selected reference page, while dragging to change the order will rearrange them based on where you drop the thumbnails.

Important Considerations When Deleting Pages or Creating Separate PDFs

To delete unnecessary pages, select ‘View > Thumbnails’ or ‘View > Contact Sheet’. Choose the page or pages you want to delete and press the Delete key on your keyboard or select ‘Edit > Delete’. Deleting a page from the PDF will also remove any annotations included on that page. Therefore, you should check if the page contains notes or speech bubbles that need to be preserved before deleting. It’s crucial to verify the target page in the thumbnails to avoid mistakenly selecting the wrong one for deletion.

Conversely, if you want to separate only the selected pages into a new PDF, drag the thumbnails from the PDF sidebar to your desktop. This will create a new PDF based on the selected thumbnails. Since deleting pages from the original document and creating a separate PDF serve different purposes, if you want to keep the original while storing only some pages separately, first create a copy and then proceed with the necessary actions.

• To ensure the original remains unchanged due to auto-saving, confirm you selected ‘File > Duplicate’ before merging.
• When adding only some pages, drag the necessary thumbnails, not the PDF icon.
• Use Command-click to select scattered pages together.
• Check if annotations will be removed along with the pages before deleting.
• When inserting via the menu, select the reference page first, and the new page will be inserted after it.

Merging PDFs in Mac Preview - Apple Support (KR)

Adding, Deleting, or Moving PDF Pages in Mac Preview - Apple Support (KR)