How to Combine PDF Files on a Mac

I love PDFs because what you see is what you get, even when you’ve shared your file with others.

When I was applying for articling jobs I often needed to submit electronic files that came from different sources. Attaching my cover letter, resume, transcripts and references to emails was tricky. Although I knew that I could produce PDFs in Word, I couldn’t get away from scanning my transcripts and references into separate files.  (It’s common to submit copies instead of original transcripts for some legal employers in the GTA.)

I eventually learned that the solution to this problem is dead simple. By bundling all of the files together I could be reasonably sure that my intended recipients would receive all the necessary materials inside of just one attachment. Why risk having something go missing when this technique is so easy?

Step 1:  Open your PDF files in Preview and change the view to “Thumbnails”

Step 2:  Drag the thumbnail image of the page you want to add on top of the first page

Step 3:  Repeat with as many pages as necessary, regardless of each page’s orientation

(n.b., I manually changed the filename before taking the screenshot)