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Snow Leopard Can't merge PDF anymore?

djrod

djrod

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
1,012
33
Madrid - Spain
Hi

In leopard you can pick one PDF with 12pages for example, open another with only one page, drag and drop this page to the first PDF, click CMD+S and voila! the first PDF is now 13 pages.

Now, if I try this on Snow Leopard it doesn't allow me to click Save or Save as.

Anyone else with this issue?
 
Just checked and it is working fine for me too... I drag and drop the pages into the contents side panel. No problems saving the merged file.
 
djrod said:
I've just did the PDF myself with Photoshop CS4.. i'm going to check with other PDFs
Click to expand...

Did you make sure to drag it into the PDF? Because if you just drag it into the sidebar under the pdf Preview will just add it to the sidebar, not the PDF itself. I had to drag it into the middle of the document, as shown the the video I added to my previous post.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
Did you make sure to drag it into the PDF? Because if you just drag it into the sidebar under the pdf Preview will just add it to the sidebar, not the PDF itself. I had to drag it into the middle of the document, as shown the the video I added to my previous post.
Click to expand...

Not true Jimmy. I do PDF's every single day using Preview and you just drag n drop any PDF to the sidebar and it adds it to the existing PDF's creating linked multiple documents, you just have to hit the Command+S to save.
 
HLdan said:
Not true Jimmy. I do PDF's every single day using Preview and you just drag n drop any PDF to the sidebar and it adds it to the existing PDF's creating linked multiple documents, you just have to hit the Command+S to save.
Click to expand...

Right, but you have to make sure that Preview knows you're dragging it into the PDF. If you just drag it into the sidebar, too far below the other pages of the PDF, Preview will just add it to the sidebar, not the PDF.

I might not use it as often as you, but I just tested this several times, and right before my eyes Preview just added the images and PDF pages to the sidebar, not the existing PDF.

If I drag the picture into the sidebar, just barely under the last page of the PDF I'm appending the picture to then it adds it to the PDF itself.
 
Problem solved!

See this image:

attachment.php


If you drags and drop into the red zone...wrong! Preview shows both files in the same window, but it doesn't merge them, check the title bar, it says something like showing X documents, X pages total(I'm from Spain, so my SL language is spanish, I don't know what the English Preview should tell, but anyways, you get my point, don't you?), you need to drag the PDF into the green zone.

I'm pretty sure Leopard didn't work this way
 

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djrod said:
Problem solved!

See this image:

attachment.php


If you drags and drop into the red zone...wrong! Preview shows both files in the same window, but it doesn't merge them, you need to drag the PDF into the green zone.
Click to expand...
That's what I was trying to tell HLdan.

I'm pretty sure Leopard didn't worked this way
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it worked the same way in Leopard, as I had run into this problem before.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
I'm pretty sure it worked the same way in Leopard, as I had run into this problem before.
Click to expand...

No, it definitely didn't work this way before. I've been doing 10 of these merges a week for the last year. This is my first time since installing Snow Leopard ... and exactly why I had to go hunting for the solution.

Thanks DJRod. Thumbs down to Apple for not including a note on this in the "What's New" section of Preview's Help.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
That's what I was trying to tell HLdan.



I'm pretty sure it worked the same way in Leopard, as I had run into this problem before.
Click to expand...

Okay, since I just installed Leopard I hadn't had much time to use the new Preview. Okay, I see the issue, it does work differently in SL vs. Leopard. There's a zone that you must stay in, in order for the PDF's to combine and it's outlined when you drag n drop to the sidebar. I can see some pro's to that if you want to keep separation.
 
much thanks

TuffLuffJimmy said:
... If I drag the picture into the sidebar, just barely under the last page of the PDF I'm appending the picture to then it adds it to the PDF itself.
Click to expand...

Thanks much. You were right on with this. It was so helpful I registered in the forum to express my thanks.:)
 
Thanks TLJ.... I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work until I read your post.

<------ Another happy satisfied MR Forums Search customer

Teh search.... it really works!
 
Ok, apparently I'm the only one who simply cannot get this to work anymore under Snow Leopard (10.6.2). I've tried all methods mentioned in any google search I perform, and across several forum communities, and cannot get any images to merge at all, whether using the "Save As" command OR the "Print>PDF>Save As PDF" options.

Am I missing something essential here? I open two images (same exact size) in Preview in separate windows, and no matter whether I try to drag one of the thumbnails over to the other sidebar or whether I drag it directly onto the thumbnail of the other image, I never have seen this "combed book" icon everybody is talking about, and saving or "printing the image as PDF" doesn't produce a multi-page PDF.

This is frustrating the crap out of me, and I'm usually the one GIVING advice like this to others...
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
TOC into sidebar

I can merge the documents into 1 previiew file, but I only get the table of contents of the first preview file. Can anyone explain how to take across the table of contents from the merging files into the sidebar of the first file
 
Ok, I figured out at least one workaround for this situation. I now know that I cannot merge any IMAGES and make them into a PDF. I have to take one image, CONVERT it to a PDF file, THEN add the rest to the existing PDF image. It's stupid, and I know I never had to do that before, but it is one way to get it to work.

Simply convert the first image to PDF, then add the rest via the methods already described.
 
Save as PDF

I couldn't figure out why this wasn't working for me. Turns out the documents I was opening in Preview were all .jpg. The behavior is different. If you save the jpg (or likely other image format) as .pdf first, the behavior will match the discussion here. :)
 
thanks guys for this thread, a saviour, apple made a bit of a mess with this implementation, all the more so because they broke compatibility with the way it had been in leopard.
 
Thank you very much.

This was driving me mad.
:)



harbinger75 said:
Ok, I figured out at least one workaround for this situation. I now know that I cannot merge any IMAGES and make them into a PDF. I have to take one image, CONVERT it to a PDF file, THEN add the rest to the existing PDF image. It's stupid, and I know I never had to do that before, but it is one way to get it to work.

Simply convert the first image to PDF, then add the rest via the methods already described.
Click to expand...
 
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