Merging is the job PDF Arranger was built for. Instead of uploading your documents to a website, you open them in a free desktop app, see every page as a thumbnail, put the pages in the order you want, and export a single combined PDF. This guide walks through the full workflow in PDF Arranger 1.14.0.
There are two different things people mean by “merge”, and PDF Arranger does both. The common one is joining several PDF files into one document. The second is Merge pages, which lays several pages out on a single sheet, like a handout. The steps below cover file merging first; Merge pages is explained at the end.
Before you start
You need PDF Arranger 1.14.0 (or a recent version) installed. If it is not on your computer yet, download PDF Arranger first — it is free, open source (GPL-3.0), and works entirely offline, so your files never leave your computer.
Nothing you do in PDF Arranger changes the original file on disk. Every edit only takes effect when you export the result to a new PDF, which makes experimenting safe: if the output is not what you wanted, adjust the arrangement and export again.
Step by step: merge several PDFs into one
- Open the first PDF. Launch PDF Arranger and open the first file. All of its pages appear as thumbnails in the main window.
- Add the other PDFs. Open or drag in each additional file. Its pages are appended to the arrangement, keeping each file’s pages together in order.
- Check the page order. Drag thumbnails to move pages, including across what used to be file boundaries. Zoom in on any page if you need to confirm what it contains before deciding where it belongs.
- Remove anything you do not need. Select pages that do not belong in the merged file and delete them from the arrangement. The source files stay untouched.
- Export the merged PDF. Use the Export command and save the result as a new PDF. Every page currently in the window, in the order shown, becomes the merged document.
Merge pages: several pages on one sheet
If you want multiple pages printed or displayed on a single sheet — for example four slides per page — select the pages, open Merge pages, and set the number of rows and columns plus the margins in the dialog. PDF Arranger then combines the selected pages into composite sheets. This layout feature is closely related to booklet printing: if your real goal is a foldable booklet, follow the dedicated booklet guide in the related guides below instead of laying pages out by hand.
Tips
- Merge order follows the thumbnails, not the filenames. Always do a final visual pass from first page to last before exporting.
- Since version 1.14.0, PDF Arranger can rebuild and preserve document outlines (bookmarks) when exporting, using the “Preserve document information from the first file opened” option in Preferences. However, outlines and links can be lost after some operations — including Merge pages — so check the bookmarks in the exported file if they matter to you.
- PDF Arranger arranges pages; it does not edit the text inside them or shrink file sizes. If the merged file is too large or the pages need OCR, that is a different tool’s job.
A worked example
Say you have three files: a two-page cover letter, a ten-page report, and a one-page price list, and they need to go out as a single document. Open the cover letter first, add the report, then add the price list. The arrangement now holds thirteen pages in send order. If the price list belongs inside the report instead of at the end, drag its page to the right position rather than re-exporting anything. Export once, open the result, and page through it: cover, report with the price list in place, done. The whole job takes a couple of minutes, works the same for thirty files as for three, and never uploads a page anywhere.
Related guides
Keep going with these step-by-step guides from the same series: