Organize PDF Pages

About putting PDF pages in order

A PDF arrives with its pages in the wrong order more often than it should. A scanner fed the stack backwards. Someone merged two files the wrong way round. The signature page ended up in the middle. The appendix should be at the end and is at the front.

Nothing on a normal computer will fix that. Acrobat will, for a subscription. Preview on a Mac will, awkwardly. Windows will not at all.

This will. Drop the PDF in, move the pages until the order is right, and save. Every page is shown as a thumbnail, so you are moving pictures, not guessing at numbers.

How to use it

• Click Click to upload or drop your PDF on the page
• Every page appears as a numbered thumbnail
• Use the arrows under a page to move it left or right
• Click a page to drop it from the result — click again to keep it
• Press Create PDF, then download it

The order you see is the order you get

The thumbnails are the document. Move a page and the number under it updates; the saved PDF follows exactly what is on screen when you press the button. There is nothing to translate in your head from "page 7" to "the third one from the left".

Dropping a page and moving a page are the same pass, so you never have to do it twice. Take the cover out and move the appendix to the back in one go, then save once.

What stays exactly as it was

Only the page order changes. The pages themselves are copied across untouched:

• The text stays text — it is not turned into a picture, so it is still searchable and still selectable
• Quality is unchanged — nothing is re-compressed, so a scan looks exactly as it did
• Links, bookmarks and form fields inside a page come along with it
• Page size and orientation are kept per page, so a mixed portrait-and-landscape document survives

What people use it for

• Fixing a scan that came out backwards
• Moving a signature or cover page to where it belongs
• Putting merged files into the right order after joining them
• Moving an appendix or invoice to the end of a report
• Dropping blank pages a scanner inserted between sheets
• Reordering slides or handouts before sending them out

Good to know

• The file never leaves your device. Reading, reordering and saving all happen in the page
• The original PDF on your disk is not changed — you save a new file
• Works in every browser, including on a phone or tablet
• A password-protected PDF must be unlocked first — use Unlock PDF
• Very long PDFs take a moment to draw every thumbnail; the reordering itself is instant
• This is the same engine as Delete PDF Pages — that page is the one to use when removing pages is the whole job

Related tools

• Delete PDF Pages — when you only need to take pages out
• Merge PDF — join several PDFs, then order them here
• Split PDF — pull a page range out into its own file
• Rotate PDF — fix pages that are sideways or upside down
• Add Page Numbers to PDF — number the pages once the order is right