When you need to combine multiple documents into one clean and organized file whether for work, school, or travel merging PDFs becomes essential. Here’s everything you need to know about what PDFs are, why merging helps, and how to do it easily on Macs and PCs.

What’s a PDF?

A PDF is a type of file that shows a document exactly the same way on any device. It preserves the original layout, text, and images just as it was designed, for quick in-browser previewing without downloading every time consider using a PDF viewer. This avoids extra clicks and keeps users on the page to read or scroll through documents seamless and efficiency. So, even if you open the same document on different computers or smartphones, it’ll be the same. This consistency makes PDFs ideal for sharing forms, resumes, documents, contracts, and even books. Here’s more about it, if you want to plunge into the topic.

Why Merge a PDF

As we’ve mentioned, one of the key benefits of PDFs is that they keep the initial layout of the document. However, sometimes it can become a problem. The thing is, without special software, it’s impossible to adjust the file or add something to it once it’s saved as a PDF. And that’s exactly when merging comes in.

Merging PDFs means literally combining two or more documents into one file. It can be really useful in different situations:

• You’ve skipped one or several pages of an important document you’ve already converted into a PDF. 

• You need to apply for work, a visa, a university, or anywhere else and send all your files (CV, cover letter, references, passport scans, insurance, and more) in one file.

• You’re writing a school project and should combine research, notes, and reports into a single file for submission.

• You want to combine multiple chapters or resources into one book-like PDF.

Is There a Universal Solution?

It might sound surprising, but the answer is yes. There’s one solution that works on any platform and device. All you need is to be online.

Yes, we’re talking about online tools. There are a whole bunch of them on the Internet. For instance, If you write “merge pdf online tool" in Google, you’ll get over 43 million results. All you need is to find a proper one.

However, there’s more to this than meets the eye. Not all the tools are equal in terms of quality. Some of them put watermarks on your merged files when you download them. But the most important thing is digital security. When sharing your files—especially sensitive ones like contracts—you need to be 100% sure the tool can be trusted. For instance, iScanner is among the trustworthy ones. It has been on the market for 10 years already, complies with the California Consumer Privacy Act, and follows the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. To merge a PDF with iScanner, check the Web Tools section at their website.

A tip: If you need to split a PDF, you can find the corresponding tool in the Web Tools section on the same website.

Anyway, if you don’t trust online tools at all or, let’s say, know you won’t have an internet connection when you need to merge files, shift to the next chapter.

How Can I Merge a PDF on Mac?

There are two ways to do it on Mac: via the Preview function and the Finder app.

Finder

Open the Finder app in your dock, which is at the bottom of the screen by default. Find the desired files and highlight them by pressing the Command button and clicking on the files one by one, in the sequence you want them to be merged. You can choose any number of files.

When you’re done selecting PDFs, you’ll see the Create PDF button to the right of the file list. Click it, and the merged document will be automatically saved.

If you missed a document while selecting files, just select it along with the already merged document, click Create PDF again, and it’ll be added to a new merged file.

A tip: You can’t create a merged PDF while selecting files from the Recent folder. You need to locate them in the folders where they’re actually stored.

Preview

Find the file you want to merge with another PDF on your computer and open it. It’s not important which document you open first, as you can choose the location of the merged file later.

Then, switch on the Thumbnail panel (View—Thumbnails) if it’s not already visible on the left side of the screen (it lists all the pages of your file separately). Find the file to be merged, then drag and drop it into the Thumbnail panel. Here, you can choose where the files should be merged—you can add the second file to the beginning, the end, or somewhere in the middle. Click Save when you’re ready.

A tip: If you drop the second file in the wrong place, you don’t need to redo the whole thing. Just use the Thumbnail panel to adjust the page order.

A pro tip: If you only need to merge a single page with a full document, open both files and drag the desired page from its Thumbnail panel into the panel of the other document.

How to Merge a PDF on Windows

Unfortunately, there’s no built-in functionality to merge PDFs on Windows. So, you’ll need to either stick to the universal option described above (online tools) or download special software. Among the most popular are Adobe, PDF Merger & Splitter, Foxit, and more. However, not all of them are free.