How to Merge PDF Files: A Step-by-Step Guide

Merging PDF files is one of the most common document tasks in business environments. Whether you're combining scanned receipts for an expense report, assembling a project portfolio, or compiling appendices into a final report, knowing how to merge PDFs quickly saves significant time.

When You Need to Merge PDFs

• Combining a cover letter and CV into a single application file
• Assembling project deliverables (spec, designs, appendices) into one submission
• Merging scanned receipts and invoices for accounting/expense claims
• Combining separate chapter PDFs into a complete document
• Creating a single-file reference document from multiple source PDFs

How to Merge PDFs Online (Step-by-Step)

1. Open the PDF Merger tool on AllConverter.tools
2. Click 'Select PDFs' or drag and drop your files — up to 20 at once
3. Files appear as thumbnails in the order they were uploaded
4. Drag and drop thumbnails to reorder files if needed
5. Click 'Merge PDFs' — processing takes seconds in your browser
6. Preview the page count of the merged document
7. Click 'Download' to save your merged PDF

Managing Page Order

The page order of your merged PDF depends on the order of the input files. Most PDF mergers merge documents in the sequence you select or arrange them, with all pages of each document appearing together. If you need to interleave pages from different documents (e.g., alternating pages from two scan batches), use a PDF page organiser instead of a simple merger.

Tips for Better Merged Documents

• Compress each PDF before merging if total output size will exceed 10 MB for email distribution
• Use consistent page sizes — merging A4 and Letter documents creates mixed-size output
• Add bookmarks to the merged document so recipients can navigate to each section quickly
• Rename your files descriptively before merging (e.g., '01-cover-letter.pdf', '02-cv.pdf') for cleaner output metadata
• Check the final page count matches your expectation before distributing