The most common complaint about PDF merging tools is that the output comes out in the wrong order - chapter 3 before chapter 1, or appendices in the middle. This happens because the tool merged files in the order they were uploaded, which is not always the order you intended.
The three ordering problems
- Wrong file order - you uploaded File B before File A. The merge tool concatenated them in upload order.
- Wrong page order within a file - one of the source PDFs has its pages out of order already.
- Pages need interleaving - you scanned front sides of all pages first, then back sides, and now need to interleave them (1 front, 1 back, 2 front, 2 back...).
Using Pagivo's page workspace to set the order
Pagivo's Merge PDF tool includes a page workspace that displays thumbnails of every page from every uploaded file. You can drag them into any order before downloading.
- Go to Merge PDF.
- Upload all the PDF files you want to combine. They appear as a grid of page thumbnails in the workspace below the upload area.
- Drag each thumbnail to the correct position. Pages can be moved from any source file to any position in the final document.
- To remove a page, hover over its thumbnail and click the delete icon.
- To rotate a page 90°, click the rotate button on the thumbnail.
- When the order looks correct, click Process and download.
Tips for common scenarios
Duplex scans (front and back sides scanned separately)
If you scanned 10 pages as two batches - fronts (pages 1–5) and backs (pages 5–1 in reverse, because the scanner reversed them) - upload both PDFs and manually interleave the thumbnails in the workspace. It takes two or three minutes but produces the correct reading order without re-scanning.
Adding a cover page or table of contents
Upload the cover page as a separate single-page PDF, then drag its thumbnail to position 1 in the workspace before downloading.
Including only specific pages from a multi-page PDF
Upload the full PDF, then use the delete button on the thumbnails you do not want. Only the remaining pages will be included in the download. The source file is not affected.
If the page workspace is not showing
The page workspace appears automatically after you upload at least one file. If you see only the upload area with no thumbnails, your browser may have WebGL disabled. WebGL is used to render the page previews. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari all have it enabled by default; it can be disabled in some corporate or hardened browser profiles.