Join two or three PDFs for a single upload

One invoice, two attachments, one upload box

Marek is a freelance translator. It is the last working day of October and his client's supplier portal closes for the month at midnight. The portal wants one PDF per invoice, and the client's contract says the timesheet and any expense receipts must travel with it. On his desktop sit invoice-0142.pdf (1 page), timesheet-october.pdf (2 pages) and train-receipts.pdf (2 pages, exported from the rail company's app).

He does not need a guide to page labels or bookmarks. He needs one 5-page file with the invoice on page 1, uploaded before the deadline. That is what this page covers. For bigger stacks of six, ten or twenty parts, the full walkthrough for longer stacks goes into the details.

The quick route in PDFGym

1. Open Merge PDF. Select all three files in one go with Choose PDFs, or drag them from the desktop onto the page.
2. Check the list: three rows, with 1, 2 and 2 pages next to the names, and 5 pages in the total line underneath.
3. If the invoice is not on the top row, press its up arrow until it is. Timesheet second, receipts last.
4. Press Merge PDFs and wait a moment while the tool copies the pages and checks them against the originals.
5. Press Download. The file arrives as invoice-0142-merged.pdf, named after whichever file sat on top. Rename it if the portal expects a pattern such as INV-0142.pdf.

Nothing is uploaded while you do this; the pages are read and written inside the browser tab. The only upload is the one Marek makes himself, to the portal.

Which file goes on top

The first page is what the person on the other end sees in the preview pane, so it should be the document they will act on. Some common bundles:

Thirty seconds of checking

The tool has already compared the page count, page sizes and text of every page against the originals; a broken result never reaches the Download button. What it cannot know is whether your order makes sense. Open the downloaded file and run through this:

• Page 1 is the document the reader needs first.
• The page where the second file begins looks like a first page, not the middle of something.
• With three files, the second join is right too.
• The last page is the end of the last file.
• The total matches what the list said before merging.

Slips that cost a resubmission

Leaving the picker's order alone. File pickers usually sort by name, and "invoice" comes after "expenses" alphabetically. Always look at the top row before you press the button.

Sending more pages than asked. The tool takes every page of each file. If the bank statement you are attaching runs to 8 pages and the landlord only wants page 1, cut it down in Organize pages first.

Merging a photo. A receipt shot on a phone is an image, and the merge tool accepts only PDFs. Turn it into a page with Images to PDF, then add it.

A locked statement. Some banks protect statements with a password. The merge tool refuses a locked file, so save an open copy with Unlock PDF using the password you were given.

Spotting the mistake after download. No need to start over: move the pages in Organize pages instead of hunting for the source files again.

When to skip the merge

Merging is only worth it when the receiver wants one file. If the portal has room for several attachments, or the accounts team files receipts separately from invoices, upload them as they are and save everyone the step.

Keep a signed contract out of the bundle when its digital signature has to stay verifiable; a merged copy is a new file and the signature will not hold. If the problem is really an email size limit, sending two PDFs as one attachment deals with that side. And on a Mac with no internet, Preview can join a pair offline by dragging the second file into the first one's thumbnail sidebar.