Joining PDF files in Automator

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by flyguy451, Sep 28, 2006.

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  1. flyguy451, Sep 28, 2006

    flyguy451 macrumors regular

    Joined:
    May 3, 2005
    #1
    I'm fairly new to Automator and I'm now using it to join pdf files. Seems to work quite well for joining complete documents together (that's joining whole chapters of 6 or 10 pages).

    I'm having some difficulty with another project however. I now have my 800 page PDF document but I'd like to create a smaller reference guide consisting of small sections clipped from the whole. I have created these smaller pieces by using the "Grab" function and then by saving them as PDF. I can then use my workflow to link them into one complete file. It works but each section is seen as a "page" even though it may be only a few lines of text and, additionally, each section is delineated with a black pagebreak line. What I'd like to do is link all my small PDF pieces but have normal page breaks. Suggestions?

    Thanks
     
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  2. telecomm, Sep 28, 2006

    telecomm macrumors 65816

    telecomm

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Rome
    #2
    Hmmm... You could use Pages (or something equivalent) and paste your single pdf images into a document (which will allow you to resize them, rearrange them, etc., and put several on a single printed page), then save the resulting document as a pdf.

    It probably wasn't the best idea to use grab to get those images, since I suspect you might have trouble getting the scale to match on each of your separate pdf images.

    It might be easier to use an app like PDFLab (available at versiontracker, and it's freeware) to break up your original (huge!) document into individual pdf files, one for each page, and then paste those into Pages, using the mask feature to show only those sections you want to display. This would make it easier to match the scale of each doc. Then output as a pdf from Pages.
     
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  3. flyguy451, Sep 28, 2006

    flyguy451 thread starter macrumors regular

    Joined:
    May 3, 2005
    #3
    telecomm:

    Thanks, good suggestion to try Pages. I've only done a dozen or so so I'm not to concerned about the time lost if I end up using a different method. The scale is pretty close since I captured the full width on each clip and it doesn't need to be perfect anyway becuse it's only for my own use.
     
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