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Quickly and easily split a PDF with our simple guide
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Are you working with a PDF document that you want to break into multiple files? Splitting PDFs is quick and easy if you have the right software. If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can use the built-in Split Document function to split the pages. But if you need a free option, don't worry—we've found plenty of options. To learn how to separate or split pages in your PDF file, read on!
How to Split a PDF
Drag and drop your PDF into your browser, then click the Print icon and change the "Destination" drop-down to "Save as PDF". Then use the "Pages" drop-down to create a new PDF document with the split pages. You can also use Preview or free online tools like Adobe, iLovePDF, or SmallPDF.
Steps
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Open the PDF file in any web browser, like Chrome or Firefox. You can drag the PDF from your file manager (File Explorer on Windows or Finder on Mac) to the browser window.
- Alternatively, right-click on the PDF file, select "Open With", and then select your browser from the list of available programs.
- If the PDF won't open in Chrome, type chrome://plugins/ into the Chrome address bar and then click the "Enable" link under "Chrome PDF Viewer".
- You can use Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari to split PDFs into more PDFs.
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Click the Print icon. It's the icon that resembles a printer in the upper-right corner. This displays the Print menu.Advertisement
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Select "Save as PDF" as the Destination. Use the drop-down menu next to "Destination" to select "Save as PDF".
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Select "Custom" next to "Pages". Use the drop-down menu next to "Pages" to select "Custom". This allows you to create a new PDF from a range of pages. [1] X Research source
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Enter the range of pages that you want to create as a new document. Use the text field below the "Pages" drop-down menu to enter the pages you want to save as a new PDF.
- For example, let's say you have a 10-page PDF file that you want to split, with the first 7 pages in one file and the last 3 in another. In the Pages section, you would enter "1-7" to create a PDF file with the first 7 pages.
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Click Save . It's the blue button in the lower-right corner.
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Type a name for the PDF and click Save . Use the field next to "File name" to enter a name for the split PDF. It is recommended that you give the new PDF a different name from the original.
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Repeat the process to create more documents. If you need to create another document for the other pages, repeat these steps to create another document and use another range of pages to save the next document. For example, if you want the next document to contain pages 8-10, just enter "8-10" as the range of pages below "Custom" in the print menu.
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Open the PDF file in Preview. The Preview program that comes with all Mac computers can perform a lot of basic tasks without the need for extra software. To open a PDF in Preview, right-click a PDF and click Open with followed by Preview . [2] X Research source
- If you are using a magic mouse or trackpad, you can right-click by clicking with two fingers.
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Click the View menu and select Thumbnails . The view menu is in the menu bar at the top. Select "Thumbnails" from the drop-down menu. This will display a list of all the pages in a panel to the left.
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Hold ⌘ Command or ⇧ Shift and click the pages you want to split. Click the pages in the panel to the left to select them. Hold the Command key and click to select multiple pages. Hold the Shift key to select multiple pages in a row.
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Drag and drop the selected pages onto your desktop. This will create a new PDF with all the pages you have selected. [3] X Research source
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Repeat to create multiple documents. To create multiple split files, simply hold Command or Shift and select the pages you want to split into a separate PDF. Then click and drag them onto the desktop to create a new PDF with those pages.
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1Go to Adobe's free online PDF splitter in a browser. Since this works in your web browser, you don't need to download any additional software. Just your split PDF.
- You can also visit this website to split PDFs on your tablet or smartphone!
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2Click or tap Select a file . You can also drag and drop a file to this window.
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3Sign in to your Adobe account. It's absolutely free, you don't need to enter a credit card or other payment method.
- If you don't already have an account, you can create one.
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4Click or tap the dotted lines to cut off one PDF and start another. The lines are between each page, and tapping them splits the single PDF into multiple documents. You'll see "Begin file 2" or "Begin file 3", etc, to indicate where the splits are.
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5Click or tap Continue . On your phone, tablet, or computer, you'll see this in the top right corner of your screen.
- Acrobat prompts you to make sure you have the splits in the right sections and gives you an overview of the split PDFs before you save them, including the new file names and where they are being saved.
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6Click or tap Save . The files are immediately saved to your documents in Acrobat, but you can download them to your local storage.
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1Open the PDF you want to split in Adobe Acrobat. If you have the paid version of Adobe Acrobat installed, you can use it to split your PDFs.
- To open a document, you can right-click a PDF in File Manager or Finder and select Open with > Adobe Acrobat Pro.
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2Click All Tools . It's in the left corner above your document and will open a sidebar.
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4Click Split . It's next to an icon that resembles scissors under the "Page Options" header on the left side of your screen.
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5Select how you want to split the document. Use the drop-down menu next to "Split by" to select how you want to split the document. You can split it by the number of pages, file size, or top-level bookmarks. [5] X Research source
- Files split by top-level bookmarks will be split automatically based on the bookmarks for each page.
- You can split more than one PDF at a time. To add multiple files, click Split Multiple Files , then click Add Files to add more PDFs to split.
- If you want to edit the file output, click Output Options . This allows you to select a folder to save the split PDFs to, as well as edit the label for each split document.
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6Enter the number of pages or file size you want each split file to have (optional). If you are splitting the document by pages, enter the number you want each split file to have next to "Pages" at the top. If you are splitting the file by file size, enter the file size in megabytes (MB) you want each split file to have. [6] X Research source
- Skip this step if you opted to split by bookmarks.
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7Click Split . It's the blue button at the bottom of the "Split by" window. This will split the document by the specifications you set. [7] X Research source
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Expert Q&A
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QuestionWhat program splits PDF files?Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.Try using CutePDF or Adobe Acrobat. With Adobe Acrobat, you'll have to use the paid version to split your PDF.
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QuestionHow do you create a new PDF?Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.Use a virtual printer. Open the PDF and then select the pages that you want to cut out. Then, using either Adobe Acrobat, Google Chrome, or another application (like CutePDF), print the PDF and choose to save it as a new PDF. This will create a new, edited version of the original PDF with just the pages you need.
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References
- ↑ https://www.gtricks.com/chrome/heres-a-neat-trick-to-split-pdf-files-using-google-chrome/
- ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/open-pdfs-and-images-prvw81f73d4e/mac
- ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/add-delete-or-move-pdf-pages-prvw11793/mac
- ↑ https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/split-pdf-pages.html
- ↑ https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/split-pdf-pages.html
- ↑ https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/split-pdf-pages.html
- ↑ https://youtu.be/lLxAorv_k0I?si=k7a5rlLsj-28DghX&t=149
About This Article
Article Summary
X
1. Open the PDF in Chrome.
2. Press Command + P
or Ctrl + P.
3. Choose Save as PDF
as the destination.
4. Enter a page range for the new PDF.
5. Click Save
and then Save
.
6. Press Command + P
or Ctrl + P
.
7. Enter the page range for the second PDF.
8. Click Save
and then Save
.
Did this summary help you?
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Reader Success Stories
- "Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot tell you how helpful this was! I frequently need to pull one page out of a 2,500+ page PDF to send digitally without having adobe acrobat reader. The google chrome option for this specific task will get me by until I purchase the software." ..." more
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"Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot tell you how helpful this was! I frequently need to pull one page out of a 2,500+ page PDF to send digitally without having adobe acrobat reader. The google chrome option for this specific task will get me by until I purchase the software."
..."
more
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