How to merge PDF Mac

A colleague of yours has asked you to merge two or more PDF documents saved on your Mac but you don’t know how to do this? If your answer is “yes” know that it is actually a very simple procedure to carry out and that by reading the following lines you will certainly be able to clear your mind.

In order to merge PDF Mac you don’t need to install anything on your computer at all. To merge PDF Macs just use Preview , the standard OS X software used to open photos and documents, or Automator, the Apple application that you find already installed on your Mac and which has the purpose of automating repetitive actions that usually it is necessary to do it “manually”.

So dedicate yourself to reading this guide to find out immediately what needs to be done to be able to merge PDF Mac. At the end of this post you will surely agree with me that it is a real breeze.

Merge Mac PDF with Preview

To merge PDF Mac with Preview the first thing you need to do is to locate the first document you want to act on and double click on it. Once this is done, Preview will open.

Now click on the View item in the menu bar and select the Thumbnails item in order to display a bar on the left side of the window with the preview of the PDF file you have opened.

Now drag with the mouse pointer all the documents you want to merge into the sidebar you just opened. Move the thumbnail of each document added to the left sidebar up or down to reorder the various PDF files as you see fit.

Then click on the File item in the Preview menu bar and select the Print… item . Alternatively, you can recall the command for printing by pressing the combination of keys cmd + P on the keyboard of your Mac.

In the window that will open at this point, select the Save as PDF item from the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left. Now indicate the location where you want to save the document, type the name you want to assign to your “unique” PDF by inserting it in the field next to the Save as item and then press the Save button .

Done. in this way you are finally able to merge PDF Mac. To confirm the success of the operation open the new PDF document you just created by searching for it in the location previously chosen for saving the file.

Merge PDF Mac with Automator

If instead of Preview you think that using Automator to merge PDF Mac is more convenient, the first thing you need to do is launch the application on your computer. Then click on the magnifying glass located at the top right of the system bar of your Mac in order to launch Spotlight Search and in the search bar displayed type “Automator” (without quotes). Double-click the result listed as Best . Alternatively, you can search for Automator in the Applications folder.

Once the Automator window is displayed select the item New document and then in the window that will subsequently open choose the item Application . Then press the Choose button.

Drag all the PDF files you want to merge into the section of the Automator window that says Drag the actions or files here to create the workflow . If you want to change the order in which the various PDF files will be merged, just click on each document added to the Automator window and drag it to the desired position.

Now select the PDF item from the first bar located laterally on the left and then double-click on the Merge PDF pages item from the second bar always located on the left.

Move the mouse cursor back to the first left column of the Automator window, click on Files and Folders and from the second bar select the New Folder item .

Now move the mouse cursor to the central part of the Automator window. Find the Merge PDF pages entry and select the option with pages in sequential order or with pages in random order depending on how you want your PDF files to be merged. Then move to the section below New folder and in the appropriate field next to Name: type the name you want to assign to the folder in which your unique PDF file will be saved once the procedure is completed. Keep in mind that by default the folder is created on the desktop but you can change the position by clicking on the Desktop item next toPosition: and choosing the one you prefer.

Now press the Run button located in the upper right part of the Automator window to start the execution of the procedure. Then click on OK and wait for the operation to be completed.

The completion of the procedure will be reported to you in the Log section of the Automator window.

To check that everything went well, locate the folder in which the new PDF document was saved on your Mac, click on it twice in a row and then double-click on the file inside it. Within a few moments, the PDF document consisting of multiple files will open.