If you use an iPhone or iPad, you can rely on a couple of native methods to combine two or more PDF files quickly. Read on to find out how.
Use Files App on iPhone and iPad to Merge PDFs
The Files app on the iPhone and iPad comes with a built-in option to merge multiple PDF documents. It’s ridiculously fast and easy to use. The catch is it only combines files in alphabetical or numerical order.
So, if you want it to put together PDFs in a specific order, you must rename the documents beforehand. Here’s the complete process:
Open the Files app on your iPhone or iPad. Navigate to the location of the PDFs. Long-press the files and use the Rename option to name them in the correct sequence. Tap the More icon (three dots) to the top-right of the screen and pick Select. Select the files that you want to merge. If the PDFs appear scattered throughout the Files app, use the folder-shaped Move icon to shift them to the same location. You can’t merge the files otherwise. Tap the More icon to the bottom-right of the screen and select Create PDF. You should see the merged PDF immediately within the same folder.
By default, the document should display the name of the first file that went into creating it, but you can rename it to whatever you want.
The Files app won’t delete the original PDFs, so you must remove them yourself should you want. To do that, select the files and tap the Trash icon.
Use Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad to Merge PDFs
Suppose you’re looking for a way to combine PDFs regularly but find it too tedious to rename files, shift the output files to different destinations, or delete originals manually.
In this case, you can automate all of that by creating a shortcut. But, you must have a solid understanding of the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad to do that.
A faster alternative is to use this readymade Merge PDFs shortcut. If you have trouble adding it, head over to Settings > Shortcuts and activate Allow Untrusted Shortcuts. Once you’ve finished installing the shortcut, here’s how to use it:
Open the Files app and select the PDF files that you want to combine. Open the Share Sheet and tap Merge PDFs. Pick the order that you want the PDFs to appear within the merged file. Select a destination within the Files app to save the files. Then, name the file and tap Save. Tap Delete if you want to remove the originals.
It’s also easy to change the default behavior of the shortcut. For example, you can make it save to a specific location each time by modifying the Save File action.
Just open the Shortcuts app and tap the More icon on the Merge PDFs shortcut. Then, make your adjustments and tap Done.
Merging PDFs on iPhone and iPad Conveniently
Paid third-party PDF solutions such as PDF Expert and Smallpdf allow for additional options such as rearranging or deleting individual pages before combining the documents.
But, for most instances, using the Files app’s Create PDF option directly or enlisting the aid of a shortcut is a safer and more convenient choice. This is because you can trust these tools as they’re developed by the makers of your device.
