How to merge or split PDF files

There are a number of ways to merge multiple PDF files into one single file or to split such a file.

How to merge PDF files

Acrobat Professional 8 and 9 have a dedicated ‘Combine files’ menu option in the ‘File’ menu. It is easy to use and powerful, allowing you to easily change the order of pages and use on part of the pages of a file.

Acrobat 9 Pro's merge function

If you are using an older version of Acrobat there are two other ways to merge files
- Using the ‘Insert pages’ menu option is only practical if you want to merge just a couple of files
- If you need to merge a large number of files which use consecutive file names simply open the first file, make sure the ‘Pages’ navigation pane is visible and use drag&drop to copy all other files to this area.
Never forget to perform a ‘SAVE AS’ in Acrobat after combining files. This makes sure that the new file gets cleaned properly.
I always use my prepress workflow itself to merge files. I simply create a job that contains the total number of pages, add all PDF files and then do an ‘Export’ out of ApogeeX.
If a full-blown workflow is slightly above budget but you need to merge loads of PDF files on a regular bases, google around as there are a number of tools on the market to split and merge files.

Acrobat 9 Pro has a ‘Split file’ option which works fine but doesn’t offer much control over the naming convention of the split files.
I often use my prepress workflow to split files.
There are loads of tools on the market to split PDF files. In a prepress environment, tools like callas pdfToolbox that go beyond simple splitting and merging are worth taking a look at.

There is an interesting discussion on the B4print forums on merging preseparated PDF files. I also started a generic thread on merging and splitting files.

20 July 2009