The Free Way to Create and Append PDF Files

One of the much lesser known features of the free PDF creator PrimoPDF is its ability to combine multiple documents together into a single PDF (read about the benefits of combining files to PDF). By simply changing one setting, you can configure PrimoPDF to automatically add all of the pages from your current document to an existing file.  Here’s how it’s done:

  1. Open a document to convert to PDF and select Print, then choose the PrimoPDF printer and click OK.
  2. From the PrimoPDF window, click Options.
  3. Click Save As, highlight the file you wish to add pages to, and click OK.
  4. Under If PDF exists, choose Append to Existing and click OK.
  5. Lastly, click Create PDF – PrimoPDF will take care of the rest!

Now, when PrimoPDF finds a PDF with the same name in the output location, it will add the pages from the new PDF to the end of the existing PDF. You can append as many different files as you’d like, easily combining multiple documents from a variety of sources into a single, easy-to-navigate PDF.

If you’re on a platform other than Windows, you might like to try the free online PDF editor PDF Hammer. It lets you combine PDF files and also rearrange and remove pages all from the web page. For more advanced functionality see the combine PDF files page on the Nitro site.

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This entry was written by nitroteam and posted on May 6, 2008 at 4:48 pm and filed under knowledge, tips. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • dhindes
    I love the append feature. However, I have a bug report. When you set the option to append, the program remembers this for the next print job, and this is great. However, when the file gets too large, printing really slows down. And here is where the bug shows up. If you go into file explorer and rename the original file, and then print another page to PDF, the program initially remembers that it is set to append (that is what the options say if you check). Since there is not a file with that name anymore (it was renamed) the program writes a new file with the same file name as the one it had previously been appending to. So far, all as expected. But then here is where the bug shows up. If you print a second page without changing any settings (last time it was set to append, and this has not been changed) the program flips to Overwrite and overwrites the first page of the file it just wrote on the previous print job. This behavior is 100% reproducible. The first time this happened to me I lost 20 minutes of work as I overwrote 30 pages that I wanted to append. It took me a little while to figure out what was happening, but when I did I then knew to work around it by resetting the options to append after the first page every time I start a new file. But I still forget every once in a while and overwrite several pages by accident. It would be great if the program didn't flip the settings to overwrite under any circumstances once set to append! I suspect this is unintentional (a bug rather than a feature).
  • Halle
    Brilliant!! Exactly what I was looking for. I already had PrimoPDF and didn't realize that this was a feature. Thanks heaps!!!
  • madhu
    Fantastic program. Absolutely love it. When I looked at the box and the company had made comparision with other products, I was a bit skeptical about the truth. Once I loaded the program - it did not take a long time to understand it - and to my surprise - all they claim on the box is true. If some one has to deal with pdf files - this is the best program. Much easier and better than the creator of Acrobat Reader. Strongly reccommend this product to who ever wants to use it.
  • John, it could be the conversion settings you used. Perhaps try the 'eBooks' conversion option.
  • John Rutherford
    Hi,
    Why is it when I sent an email,the PDF file is bigger than word document that started with
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