Merge PDF

Merge PDF is a processor that produces a single PDF file containing all of the pages provided by the PDF files in the incoming job folder. The tool does not require Adobe Acrobat or any other external application to be installed.

Keywords

Keywords can be used with the search function above the Elements pane.

The keywords for the Merge PDF element are:

PDF
split
merge
pages

Connections

Merge PDF Pages allows only a single outgoing connection

Properties

Property	Description
Name	The name of the flow element displayed in the canvas
Keep page labels	Select the "Yes" option in the drop-down menu to retain the page labels from the original file. If you select the "No" option, the resulting files will not contain any page labels

PDF metadata

File, Title, Author, Subject and Keywords will be merged if all input PDF files have the same value. So in case a flow uses a Split PDF and Merge PDF tool, this metadata can be restored. If the metadata has different values, the merged PDF will have empty metadata fields.

Switch metadata

The Merge PDF tool processes a job folder, so Switch metadata is derived from that folder and not from the individual PDF files.

PDF version

The merged PDF will have the highest PDF version number. Example: Merge two files, one PDF version 1.4 and the other PDF version 1.6, the result will be PDF version 1.6.

Merge order

The tool will merge the files in increasing alphabetical order of file name.

However, if

every file name contains at least one number and
every file has the same amount of numbers (consecutive digit groups) in their file name,

the Merge order processor will take the lowest number represented by any of the digit groups in the file name as "Rank". If no two files have the same rank, the processor will merge the files in order of increasing rank.

Note:

More advanced merge ordering can be achieved by using the Sort files in job tool in front of the Merge PDF pages tool. See Sort files in job.

Examples

The Merge PDF will correctly collate all of the examples provided for the Split PDF in Pages tool (see Split PDF)

Incoming files	Ordering
Booklet_01.pdf Booklet_02.pdf ... Booklet_15.pdf	All file names have a single digit group representing a ranking number that is unique among the complete set of files: this ranking is used to order the files
Booklet pages 01-02 of 15.pdf Booklet pages 03-04 of 15.pdf ... Booklet pages 15-15 of 15.pdf	All file names have the same number of digit groups (3). The lowest number offers a correct ranking that is unique among the complete set of files: this ranking is used to order the files
01 Booklet i.pdf 02 Booklet ii.pdf 03 Booklet iii.pdf 04 Booklet iv.pdf 05 Booklet 1-1.pdf ... 10 Booklet 1-6.pdf 11 Booklet 2-1.pdf ... 15 Booklet 2-5.pdf	The file names have different amounts of digit groups (1 vs 3), so the files will be ordered alphabetically. Even if the file names would have the same number of digit groups, the ranking would be alphabetically, as their would be doubles in ranking (each chapter number occurs more than once. However, because the page index (including the leading zeroes) appears early in the file name, the alphabetical order will put the pages in the same order as before splitting

Incoming files

Ordering

Booklet_01.pdf
Booklet_02.pdf
...
Booklet_15.pdf

All file names have a single digit group representing a ranking number that is unique among the complete set of files: this ranking is used to order the files

Booklet pages 01-02 of 15.pdf
Booklet pages 03-04 of 15.pdf
...
Booklet pages 15-15 of 15.pdf

All file names have the same number of digit groups (3). The lowest number offers a correct ranking that is unique among the complete set of files: this ranking is used to order the files

01 Booklet i.pdf
02 Booklet ii.pdf
03 Booklet iii.pdf
04 Booklet iv.pdf
05 Booklet 1-1.pdf
...
10 Booklet 1-6.pdf
11 Booklet 2-1.pdf
...
15 Booklet 2-5.pdf

The file names have different amounts of digit groups (1 vs 3), so the files will be ordered alphabetically. Even if the file names would have the same number of digit groups, the ranking would be alphabetically, as their would be doubles in ranking (each chapter number occurs more than once.

However, because the page index (including the leading zeroes) appears early in the file name, the alphabetical order will put the pages in the same order as before splitting