How to combine PDFs on Mac (macOS Sonoma Updated)

Last Updated on Aug 15, 2023

Merging the PDF is a stressful task. It’s damn sure working with multiple files at a time can get you tricky, but there are a few easy ways to combine pdf files on mac. So everything is easy whether you are creating study material or just looking for a way to add any missing information in the PDF with a Mac computer.

One of the most well-known free tools for combining PDF on Mac is a built-in tool named Preview. Here in this article, we have made you go through the different ways to combine multiple PDFs on Mac for free. And at last, we will also let you know how to reorder, rotate, and delete the pages on Mac.

Table of Contents

How to Combine Pdf files Mac

If you have multiple PDFs that you want to organize, you may require to combine pdf files in mac to make them easily accessible. But how to combine pdf files? This guide will teach you how to combine pdf files into one document on a mac.

Way#1: Merge The File In Preview

Let’s start with merging the File in Preview on Mac. We suggest you go through every step without missing out on any information.

Navigate to the PDFs, and then right-click on it. Next, choose Open With > Preview.
Choose View from the Preview Menu Bar.
From the View dropdown, select Thumbnails.
Then after, open another PDF in the Preview. Select View > Thumbnail.
And now, drag and drop the pages from PDFs Thumbnails to other PDFs thumbnails.
After the completion of the merging procedure, select File.
Click Export As PDFs…

Re-write the name of merged Files and select the location to be saved in. Lastly, choose Save.

Way#2: Combine Multiple Or Two PDFs Using Preview

If you are constantly bothered by how to combine multiple or two PDFs in Mac, here are the steps you need to follow.

Access the PDF in the Preview.
Click on View from the Menu Bar.
From the View Dropdown, choose Thumbnails. Doing so will highlight all the pages of PDF in the Preview Sidebar.
To feature where to merge other documents, click on the page thumbnail.
Click on Edit and next Insert.
Choose Page From File.
From the File Dialog Box, pick up the PDF you want to merge.
Then next, click Open.
To save it, select File> Export As PDFs.

Alternatively, you do the same task by following the given below steps.

Navigate to the PDFs you want to merge, press Command + Left Mouse Key to select the PDF, and do the same with every PDF file.
Next, right-click on it and select Quick Action from the dropdown menu.
From the Quick Action menu, select Create PDF…, That’s It!

Way#3: Combine The Part Of A PDF With Another PDF

Willing to merge pdf files mac, but not complete PDFs. Don’t hesitate! With the help of Preview can compile such tasks by following the given below steps.

Open the PDFs in Preview that you want to merge.
In each PDF, click View > Thumbnail to see all pages in the sidebar.
Keep pressing the Command Button and simultaneously select the Pages you want to add to the other PDFs.
Drag and drop the selected pages to the Thumbnail sidebar of other PDFs. Next, to save it, click File> Exports As PDFs.

Ways#4: How To Combine PDF Pages On Mac

More often, you might be required to combine the PDF pages rather than thoroughly combine pdf files on Mac. Here is what you need to do.

Open the corresponding PDFs in the Preview: Right Click on the PDF, and select Open With > Preview.
Click on the View in the Menu Bar and next choose Thumbnail.
Select the Page from the PDF you want to combine with an alternative PDF page.
Now Drags the selected PDF page to the Thumbnail Sidebar of seconds PDF. Gently place it in the desired location.
To save the changes you have made, press Command + S.

That’s It!

Way#5 Merge PDFs Using Finder

Apart from Preview, now you can merge PDFs Files Mac using the Finder. If you need to get more familiar with it, follow the steps given below. Navigate the Folder having the PDFs—double-click on both PDFs to select it. Next, right-click on it, and choose Quick Actions > Create PDFs. PDFs will combine into single PDFs, with a second PDF as the starting page.

Way#6 Combine Pdf Files On A Mac Using Automator

The built-in app Automator allows you to automate what tasks you do on the Mac computer. With the Automator application, there is no need for complicated scripting or programming to compile the task. Craved with various aspects, the Automator allows you to combine pdf files into one Mac.

Being unfamiliar with how to combine pdf files on Mac using Automator seems a common question among every Mac user; here is what you need to do.

Note: This method is only applicable to PDFs Files having no images. If that’s not so, you will encounter the no image when combining to pdf using Automator.

Press Command + Space to access Spotlight. Then search for Automator and click on it.
From the initial Automator Screen, select Workflow.
In the Workflow window, drag the first PDF in the Drag Action Or Files Here To Build Your Workflow Window.
Similarly, drag another PDF into the same window.
Now select PDF from the Actions left sidebar.
From the PDF menu, select Combine PDF Pages and drag it to the Drag Action Or Files Here To Build Your Workflow Window.
Select Files And Folder from the Action Left Sidebar. From the Files and Folder Menu, drag the Open With Finder Items to Drag Action Or Files Here To Build Your Workflow Window.
Lastly, select RUN, located in the upper right corner. That’s It!

Now the combined pdf on Mac will be opened in the default PDF viewer. To save it, press Command + S Key, and enter the desired name and location where the File needs to save. Choose Save.

How To Export An Existing Document As New PDF in macOS

Suppose you have created a document that needs to merge with a PDF. Firstly you need to convert or export the existing document in PDF format by following the below-mentioned steps.

To convert the existing document into a PDF on Mac, open the desired document, and choose File from the Menu Bar.
Next, choose Export To > PDF.
Click Save.

Password Protected PDFs Won’t Merge

What PDFs you have can now hassle-freely combine pdf files Mac by following the above steps. But the combining procedure isn’t possible if the PDF file is password protected. So whether it’s a single PDF file from an array of PDFs, you won’t be allowed to combine pdf files on Mac or copy them.

How To Reorder, Rotate, And Delete The Pages

Once you have combined pdf files in Preview on mac, you can now Rotate, Reorder And Delete Pages.

Rotate Pages In PDF

To Rotate the Pages in PDF, open the File in Preview.
Select View > Thumbnail. Choose the Page you want to rotate from the Thumbnail Sidebar or press Command + A to select all pages.
Next, click on the Rotate Icon ; carry on clicking on it until the image rotates to the position you want.

Reorder Pages In PDF

Access the PDF in Preview,
Select Sidebar Display Icon > Contact Sheet.
Now all the Pages in the PDF will appear in the Grid format. Drag and drop the Page that you want it to be.
Press Command + S to save, and once you re-access it, it will be automatically reordered.

Delete Pages In PDF

Open the PDF in the Preview.
Select View > Thumbnail.
Choose the Page you want to delete from the Thumbnail Sidebar.
Press Delete.

Best Third-Party Software To Combine The PDFs On Mac

PDFCandy

The easy-to-use, online PDFs editor and, most prominently, free PDFs merger tool allows you to merge the PDFs effortlessly. Apart from this, you can also merge images no matter the format: PNG, JPG, Gifs, etc. Moreover, you can also merge the lock PDFs.

Apart from this, the Merger also includes various capabilities such as Resizing, Rearranging, Signing, Removing Text, Adding Page Numbers, etc.

PDFCandy

Small PDFs

Another free online PDF merger is one from Smallpdf. This online tool quickly merges multiple PDFs with a Single Click without any Login-procedure. The Browser-based software is compatible with a vivid OS; Mac, Windows, and Linux.

You must select the Multiple Files from the device by clicking on the Merge PDF Drop Down. And then, choose Merge PDFs and subsequent download. Moreover, the developer company claims no spoofing, data, or theft. Unlike the PDFcandy, this web-based pdf merger allows rearranging PDF pages, Add More Files, Rotating, etc.

Small PDFs

PDF Merger Mac

The last but the best PDFs Merger Mac is one from the PDF Merger Mac. The tool is compatible with macOS OS X and later versions that must be downloaded on your peripheral. Moreover, it will never hinder the original page size, formatting, and Page orientation.

Apart from this, it allows you to rearrange the pages in PDF with the help of Up-Down Keys; plus, the company claims it’s 100% Spyware and Adware clean.

PDF Meger Mac

Conclusion

Now, you have mastered the different ways to combine pdf files into one Mac. Now it’s to learn How To Edit PDF On Mac.

Be a PDF Making and Editing expert with the basic tips and Pro tips that’s really helpful when you have a No any Third-Party PDF editing software or Don’t trust free online PDF makers and editing tools. So, Follow this tutorial on how to Create PDF from multiple PDFs on Mac and Create a Single PDF from Multiple PDF pages Using the Preview app.

The preview app is an ideal option to edit PDF on Mac, if you are a beginner then Don’t worry and try the below tips on macOS Ventura or earlier macOS version. as we know, we can create PDF from any Apple Document like Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Webpage in safari. Go to the Top Menu and File > Export to > PDF.

If you have multiple PDFs files from different documents then don’t worry we can merge it or combine it into a single PDF document in your Page order.

Way 1: Create a single PDF from multiple PDFs mac

Note: First, take a Backup for all the PDF files for safety purposes, you can revert to the original but not sure what the chances are for you to get it.

Open PDF document into Preview app, right-click on PDF file, and Open With > Preview. That’s the default option if you didn’t change it.
Now, Open the Thumbnail preview from the option ” icon for choose Sidebar display” given on Preview tools, Select Thumbnail.
Select the Page in PDF preview Thumbnail, and Drage it to a new Position to re-arrange the sequence of pages in PDF.
Now, open the Second PDF file in Preview, don’t close the first PDF file. Keep both PDFs side by side on the screen.
Then Drage the PDF Thumbnail page to the first PDF to add to it.

Edit PDF page before Combine, Ideally all the PDF pages are not in exact size or useless, So we can remove any part of the Page using the PDF markup Editing tool in Preview. Click on the Markup icon to Start Editing.

Markup option in Preview for Edit PDF file on Mac

Use Select tool and then select part of the PDF page and click on the Crop icon to Save the changes.

Select and Drop PDF Page in PDF document on Mac

Now, Move Cropped PDF page we can add to the main PDF file. by Simply Drag & Drop operation.

Repeat the Same steps to add more pages from other PDF files simultaneously. Use Command + S to Make changes.

Way 2: Combine PDF Files into One PDF Directly Without Open

You don’t have to make Prior changes before combining, just need two whole PDF files into one, in the same sequence. then you can do it.

First Open the PDF file into Preview on Mac.
Find another PDF file location in Finder, and Drage the PDF file in the Preview Thumbnail without opening it. Now, your Two PDF files are merged into one single file.
Still you have an option to Change the PDF page order, Drag & Reorder the Page sequence in PDF from the Thumbnail.
Later on we can Crop, Edit, Add Signature, and more using the PDF markup tool in the Preview app on Mac.

If your PDF document has tens and hundreds of Pages, then, Review it once before you save or print the document.

Re-Order Pages in PDF file on Mac Using Preview

Here’s the simplest way to review all the pages of PDF files at once using the Preview. Not much scrolling, and See the Content to verify the work of your PDF file. Follow the below steps,

Open PDF file in the Preview, right-click on it and Open with > PDF.
Now, Click on Choose Sidebar Display icon. and Select “Contact Sheet“.
Now all the Pages arrange into a Grid. Drage and change the Position of the PDF page.
Save the changes to Re-order pages and Numbering. While you Re-open the PDF document, all the page numbers will update automatically.
That’s it.

how do you create a single pdf from multiple pdfs

Means, Delete Page from PDF file on Mac,

There is no direct Shortcut in the Preview toolbar for removing or Deleting a single page or multiple pages from a PDF document in Preview. But we can do it easily,

Delete Pages from PDF using Preview on Mac

Open PDF file in the Preview Mac app, Select the Page from Preview Thumbnail that you are deleting, Now, Press the Delete button from the keyboard or From the top Menu, Edit > Delete.

To Delete multiple pages from the PDF file, press the Command key from Keyboard > Click on a page one by one to select all. Now, Press the Delete button or Edit > Delete.

That’s it.

Way 3: Add Multiple PDF files into One PDF at Once on Mac

People don’t like to go with this option, because there is too much confusion after adding Multiple PDF files at once. But really important in rare cases. Follow the below steps,