Need to merge PDFs into a single file? No problem, on Windows 11 and earlier versions of Windows there are several ways to do this: using a free app, via a website, or using the command prompt.
Windows 11 doesn’t offer any built-in solution to merge PDFs, so you’ll have to use a third-party tool. Here’s how to do it!
Use a free PC application
The easiest method is to use a third-party application. Among the many available, PDF Merger & Splitter is a great choice. In addition to being free and available on the Microsoft Store, it allows you to combine and split PDF files in just a few clicks.
To use this method, go to the Microsoft Store, search for “PDF Merger & Splitter”, then install it by clicking “Download”.
- Open the application you just installed and click on Merge PDF.
Tip: Conversely, if you want to extract specific pages from a PDF? Use the option Split PDF.
- On the next screen, click Add PDFs, then select your PDF files in their respective folders. You can also click “Add PDFs” multiple times to add files from different locations.
- After adding the files, you can change their order. This allows you to choose the order in which the PDFs will appear in the final merged file. To do this, select a file from the list and click "Move Up" (to climb) or "Move Down" (go down) at the top of the screen. If you want to delete a file, select it in the list and click “Remove” (delete) at the top.
- Once everything is ok, to start merging your added files, click the button "Merge PDF" at the bottom of the app.
- A window Save as will appear. Navigate to the folder where you want to save the merged file. Click on the field Filename and enter a name for the file. Then click Save.
The application will then take a few seconds to merge the files. Once the operation is complete, three options will appear on the screen:
- To copy the full path of the folder where the merged file is saved, click Copy Folder Path. You can then use this path in File Explorer, Run command, or Command Prompt to navigate to the folder.
- To open the final file directly, select Open File.
- To close the window, choose Close.
Using a website to merge PDFs
If you only have a few PDF files and don't want to install an application, online tools are a convenient solution for merging PDFs. But be careful: do not use this method for confidential files. Sites like Adobe Acrobat (online), iLovePDF, PDFCandy or, Smallpdf are reliable and very practical. For my part I use ILovePDF a lot but this time I will show you how to do it with the free online tool from Adobe Acrobat.
- Events on the Adobe Acrobat website. You do not need to log in to an account to use the site.
- Once the site has loaded, click on Select files and choose the PDF files you want to merge. You can also drag and drop your files directly onto the page to upload them.
- After adding files, you can rearrange their order so that they appear in the exact order you want in the final file. Drag and drop files into the list to change their position. If you want to remove a file from the list, click the trash can icon next to it. To add a new file, click the file icon with a "+" at the top of the page.
- Then click on the button Merge up.
- Wait while the site merges your files. When it is complete, a preview of the merged file will appear in the right pane. To download the file, click the large button Download bottom left
Note: If you are not logged in to an account, Adobe Acrobat will automatically delete your merged file after a certain period of time to maintain your privacy. So I recommend you to download the file immediately to avoid any loss.
Using the Command Prompt with Ghostscript
If you are an advanced user, you can use a free tool like Ghostscript with the command prompt to merge PDFs. This tool allows you to manipulate your PDF files in many ways, including merging them.
- To do this, go to the site Ghostscript, download the tool and install it on your PC.
- Open Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Command Prompt, and select “Run as administrator”. Choose “Yes” in the User Account Control window.
- In the Command Prompt, type the following command. Replace "PATH" with the full path to the folder where your PDF files are saved. If your path contains spaces, enclose it in double quotes.
cd CHEMIN
- Next, type the command below. Replace “Merge.pdf” with whatever name you want to give the resulting file. Replace “PDF1.pdf” and “PDF2.pdf” with the names of the PDF files you want to merge. You can add more files if you want. Then press Enter.
gswin64c -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=Fusion.pdf PDF1.pdf PDF2.pdf PDF3.pdf
In this command, the "dBATCH" parameter ensures that the script is closed after the task is completed. The "dNOPAUSE" parameter ensures that there is no pause between processing pages. The "q" parameter enables quiet mode so that you do not see unnecessary messages on the screen. The "sDEVICE=pdfwrite" parameter tells the command to use the "pdfwrite" service to produce the resulting PDF file.
You will find the merged PDF file in the same folder as the original PDF files.
There you are, you know everything about how to merge pdf on windows 11 or any other version of Windows! Whether you prefer applications, online tools, or commands, you now have all the cards in hand to never struggle with your PDFs again!
