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How to combine or split PDF files on a Mac

. 5 minute read. By JOV

You may need to join scanned pages into one file for an upload form, or take a few pages out of a long report. Both come down to the same few jobs: joining PDFs, taking pages out, and putting pages in the right order. A Mac can do all of them without a website that asks you to upload your documents.

Combine PDFs with Preview

Preview comes with every Mac.

  1. Open the first PDF in Preview.
  2. Choose View > Thumbnails. A strip of page thumbnails appears at the side.
  3. Drag the second PDF from Finder into the strip. Drop it on top of an existing thumbnail or right between two thumbnails, at the place where the new pages should go.
  4. Drag thumbnails up and down to change the order.
  5. Choose File > Export as PDF and save the result under a new name.

Step 3 is where it goes wrong for most people. If you drop the file below the last page, in the empty part of the strip, Preview opens it as a second document in the same window and does not join them. The exported file then holds only the first PDF. After dropping, check that the strip shows one continuous run of pages under one file name.

Step 5 matters too. Preview saves changes into the file you opened, so if you close the window without exporting, your first PDF now contains everything. Exporting to a new name keeps the originals as they were.

You can also add pages with Edit > Insert > Page from File, which puts the chosen PDF after the selected page.

Split or extract pages with Preview

To take pages out as a new file, select their thumbnails (hold Command to pick several) and drag them from the strip to the Desktop. Preview creates a new PDF with those pages.

To remove pages, select their thumbnails and press Delete.

To rotate a page, select its thumbnail and choose Tools > Rotate Left or Rotate Right.

Preview has no command for splitting a long document into several files at once. You drag each group of pages out by hand.

Combine PDFs with JOV Office

JOV Office has a PDF menu with a command for each of these jobs, which helps when the dragging in Preview gets fiddly or when you have many files.

To join files into a new document, choose PDF > Combine PDFs into a New Document. It works even when no PDF is open. Add the files, put them in order and click Combine. You get a new, untitled PDF, and the files you chose are not changed.

To add to a PDF that is already open, switch to Edit Mode (View > Edit Mode), then:

  • PDF > Append PDF adds another PDF’s pages at the end.
  • PDF > Insert Pages from File adds them at a place you choose. Dropping a PDF between two thumbnails in the page strip does the same.
  • PDF > Insert Blank Page adds an empty page.

Every step can be undone with Command-Z.

Extract and split with JOV Office

PDF > Extract Pages saves the pages you choose as a new PDF and leaves the open document as it is.

PDF > Split into Files divides one PDF into several. You can split it in two ways:

  • by ranges, for example pages 1 to 4, 5 to 9 and 10 to 30, which gives three files
  • every so many pages, for example every 2 pages, which turns a 40-page scan of two-page forms into 20 files

That second option is the one Preview doesn’t have, and it saves a lot of dragging when a scanner has put a whole stack of documents into one file.

Rotate, reorder and delete pages

In Edit Mode, drag thumbnails in the page strip to reorder them, or use PDF > Move Page Up and Move Page Down. PDF > Rotate Page Left and Rotate Page Right turn the selected pages, and the rotation is saved in the file, so the page is the right way up for the next person too. PDF > Delete Pages removes the selected pages and PDF > Duplicate Page copies one.

Turning the view while you read is a different thing. It only changes what you see and is never saved.

Protected PDFs

Some PDFs carry restrictions set by whoever made them.

  • A PDF with a password to open it asks for the password first. JOV Office opens it for reading and doesn’t store the password.
  • A PDF that forbids copying or changing can’t be taken apart. JOV Office refuses to extract pages from it, because the result would be an unprotected copy of something the author protected.
  • A PDF with a certificate signature can’t be edited, because any change would break the signature.

If you have the right to change such a file, ask the sender for an unprotected version.

Keep the file size sensible

Combining PDFs adds their sizes together. Ten phone scans can easily make a 60 MB file, and many upload forms stop at 10 MB. Neither joining nor splitting makes pages smaller. If size is the problem, scan again at a lower resolution or in greyscale. Preview’s File > Export has a Quartz filter named Reduce File Size, which shrinks pictures a lot, sometimes too much to read small print, so check the result.

Which one to use

  • To join two or three PDFs now and then, Preview is enough. Remember to drop the file onto the thumbnails and to export under a new name.
  • For many files, for splitting a long scan into equal parts, or when you want each step to be undoable, JOV Office is quicker.
  • Avoid websites that merge PDFs for you unless the documents are ones you would be happy to publish. The files are uploaded to someone else’s server.

Once the pages are in order, you may need to complete the document: see how to fill in and sign a PDF on a Mac.

JOV Office needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later and is free for 7 days, then $2 a month or $15 a year. Your PDFs stay on your Mac.

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