How to rearrange PDF pages on a Mac

How to rearrange PDF pages on a Mac with Deckle

1. Open Organize PDF pages in Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
2. Drag the PDF from the Finder onto the page, or choose Select a file. Each page appears as a thumbnail in its current order.
3. Drag a page by its handle and drop it where it belongs. The other pages shift to make room.
4. For a precise move, open the page's Move page menu and choose Earlier, Later, To start, To end or To position….
5. To move a block, Shift-click or Command-click several pages, or tick them, and use the move buttons in the selection toolbar. They keep their order relative to each other.
6. Choose Save pages. The button stays disabled until you have changed something.
7. Download the new PDF and page through it once.

The result screen confirms how many pages are in the new order, which should match the original count unless you also removed or duplicated pages.

Move a page to an exact position

Dragging works well for short documents. In a long file, use To position… and type the number. Example: a 60-page report has a summary on page 58 that belongs on page 2. Select page 58, open Move page, choose To position… and enter 2. Every page from the old page 2 onwards moves down one place.

Switch between small thumbnails, large thumbnails and a list view to see more of the document at once. Undo and Redo step through every move, and Reset pages returns to the original order.

See how to reorder pages in a PDF for more examples.

Rearrange pages in Preview

Apple's page Add, delete, or move PDF pages in Preview on Mac covers moving pages:

1. Open the PDF in Preview.
2. Choose View > Thumbnails or View > Contact Sheet.
3. Drag the pages to their new positions.

The same page explains how to add pages: choose Edit > Insert > Page from File or Blank Page. Preview saves changes to the open document automatically, so choose File > Duplicate first if you need the original order.

What reordering changes

Moving pages changes their position in the file. It does not:

• renumber printed page numbers in headers or footers
• update a table of contents or bookmarks
• change the content or quality of any page

If the document has a contents page, check it against the new order before sending. For whole files in the wrong order, merge them in the right order instead; see how to merge PDF files on a Mac.

Tips

• Plan long moves on paper. Write the new order as a list of current page numbers, such as 1, 58, 2–57, 59–60, then work through it.
• Duplicate a page that belongs in two places. Duplicate inserts a copy right after the page, which you can move like any other.
• Turn and remove in the same pass. Organize PDF pages also turns and removes pages, so you only save once.
• Merge first to move pages between files. Organize PDF pages works on one PDF at a time. Combine the files with Merge PDFs, then rearrange the result.

Frequently asked questions

How do I move pages in a PDF on a Mac?

Drag the thumbnails in Organize PDF pages and choose Save pages, or drag thumbnails in Preview's sidebar.

Can I move several pages at once?

Yes. Select them with Shift-click or Command-click, then use the selection toolbar. They keep their order relative to each other.

Does rearranging pages reduce quality?

No. Pages are copied as they are.

Will bookmarks still point to the right pages?

Don't rely on it. Check bookmarks and the table of contents in the saved file.

Related tools

• Organize PDF pages to reorder, duplicate, turn and remove pages
• Merge PDFs to combine files in order
• Rotate PDF to turn pages without reordering them