Extracting Non-Sequential Pages- Another Method

In my last entry, I discussed one method to Extract a Non-Sequential Range of Pages from a PDF.

One of my bosses always told us that our customers are smarter than we are.

I was reminded of this recently when I received this note from James Strupp of the Federal Office of the Public Defender:

A far easier and more direct way to do this, in my view, is to create a new PDF from “multiple files”, even if you are just extracting pages from one file.

Doh! That’s a great idea! Jame even sent along his detailed instructions. I’ve added some screen captures and additional detail of my own.

Read on to learn about this alternate method to extract pages.

Restating the Problem

For those of you who didn’t see my previous article, Acrobat does not offer a way to extract a non-sequential range of pages from the Pages Panel. I presented a workaround which required dragging and dropping to a new PDF.

James Strupp’s elegant solution works perfectly if you review your document(s) first and write down the pages you wish to extract. Since this method makes use of the Create function, you could extract pages from several PDFs and then create a new PDF.

Extracting a Non-Sequential Range of Pages from a PDF using the Combine Feature

  1. Review the PDF(s) from which you want to extract pages and note down the pages you wish to extract.
  2. Choose File —>Create PDF—> From Multiple files.
    Or click on the Create PDF button and choose From Multiple Files File-->Create PDF menu pick
Note: You could also use the Combine Files option. For this application, they are functionally equivalent.
  1. __
  2. The** Create PDF** window opens:_ Add Files option
    _
  3. Locate the file (or files) that you want to extract pages from. Click the Add Files button.
  4. Click ADD FILES
  5. Select the file from which you want to extract the pages in the list. Click the Choose Pages button (or right-click on the file and pick Choose Pages).
  7. The Preview and Select Page Range window opens:
  8. Enter the Page Range
    Here you can enter individual page numbers, page ranges, or both,each separated by commas, in any sequential order you choose.
  9. Click the “pages” radio button, and enter your pages or ranges in the following field.
  10. Example: 3, 5, 1, 8, 10, 12-21.
  11. Repeat for all documents in the list.
  12. Click OK.
  13. Click Next.
  14. The Combine Files window opens:
  15. Merge into a Single file
    Choose Merge into single PDF. Click Create.
  16. The files are combined:
  17. Click the SAVE button Click the Save button.

That’s it!

Combining Non-Sequential Files from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. to PDF

Acrobat allows you to select and preview pages from non-PDF files and convert them to PDF in the same process. This can come in really handy for creating closing binders.

For example, let’s say you have a 30-page contract. You want to combine the first 29 pages from the original Word file with the signatory page from the PDF that was returned.

Follow Steps 1-3 above. When you get to Step 4, select All Files in the Add files window:

Change to ALL FILES

Making this change allows you to select non-PDF documents.

If you are using Office 2003 or greater on Windows (sorry Mac users), you can even preview and select pages from non-PDF documents including Word, Excel and PowerPoint:

Native Word Preview

For example, in the Word file above, I chose pages 1-29 of the contract. Acrobat will then convert just the first 29 pages of the document.