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Document Assembly

Document Assembly icon

Select Home > Document Assembly to access Document Assembly view. This view displays multiple pages at reduced size, making page operations easier to perform, either between pages of a single document or between documents. The functionality is similar to using the Pages panel. The difference is that pages there are represented by static thumbnails, while in Document Assembly view the pages are just reduced in size, so many page editing functions remain available.

  • The Renumber Pages tool appears while Document Assembly view is set. See More document assembly tools for details on these tools.

  • Use the Zoom tools to set the preferred page size.

Copy or move pages or page ranges within a document

Use Document Assembly view to perform cross-document operations efficiently.

  • Optionally, move pages.
    1. Select one or several pages.
    2. Click on the small number below any of the selected thumbnails to drag it.

    While dragging, as you move the mouse pointer over a document in another open window, a vertical red insertion bar indicates where pages will move.

  • Optionally, copy pages.
    1. Select one or several pages.
    2. While holding down the Ctrl key, click the small number below any of the selected thumbnails to drag it.

    While dragging, as you move the mouse pointer over a document in another open window, a vertical red insertion bar indicates where pages will move.

You can also use the shortcut menu of one or more pages to move them to the start or end of the document or to a defined page number.

Assemble multiple documents

When Document Assembly view is set, all open documents switch to this mode, as do all documents subsequently opened. This allows you to perform cross-document operations efficiently.

In Document Assembly view, a shortcut menu becomes available. Use it to insert pages from other files, replace, extract or delete pages, split the document, add headers and footers or renumber the pages.

Many options are not available for security-protected files.

Right-click a page to access a shortcut menu. Use the following commands to rearrange pages between documents to suit your preferences.

  • Insert > Insert Blank Page: In the New Pages dialog box, type in the number of blank pages to add, specify their size and orientation and where to insert them, and then click OK.
  • Extract: In the Extract Pages dialog box, specify the page range to be extracted. Select Selected to extract the selected pages only. You can either delete or keep this page range in the original document after extraction. Click OK. A new PDF document containing the extracted pages and named ExtractPage1 is opened in a separate window, also in Document Assembly view. Process it as desired and save it.
  • Insert > Insert from file: Displays the Open dialog box. Browse for one or several files of supported types, select them, and then click Open. PDF files are added directly, and non-PDF files are converted to PDF. You can add more source files from other locations by clicking Add in the Insert Pages dialog box. Click Up or Down to re-order source files if necessary. Select one file and click Preview to view it page by page. To select a page range to insert, you must insert a single file at a time. Click OK to perform the insertion.
  • Insert > Insert from Clipboard: In the "Insert Pages From Clipboard" dialog box, select the position where to insert the Clipboard content, then click OK.
  • Rotate: In the Rotate Pages dialog box, specify the angle of rotation and the range of pages to be rotated, Select Selected to rotate the selected pages only.
  • Delete: In the Delete Pages dialog box, specify the page range to be deleted. Select Selected to delete the selected pages only. Click OK to perform the deletion.
  • Replace: Select one or more pages as described above, click Open and select a file. In the Replace Pages dialog box, specify the range of pages for the original document to be replaced. Add further replacement files from other locations by clicking Add. The same buttons are available as for inserting pages. Click OK to perform the page replacement.
  • Crop: In the Crop Pages dialog box, specify margin sizes to be removed and the range of pages to which such cropping should be applied.
  • Swap Pages: Specify the page numbers in the Swap Two Pages dialog box.
  • Duplicate Pages: Specify the page range, destination, and number of copies in the Duplicate Pages dialog box.
  • Print: Select from a shortcut menu or from the File menu. Specify settings in the Print dialog box, see Printing Documents.
  • Save All Image As: To save all images from your PDF document, enter a file name, specify a folder and select the picture file format in the Save dialog box. Power PDF saves the images into separate files with the file name suffixed with a running number.
  • Add Bookmark: Build up a bookmark structure for a page or the document as a whole as described in Manage bookmarks and named destinations.
  • Search: Specify basic and advanced search options as described in Search dialog box.
  • Add Note: Place a sticky note onto any page or even outside the pages area as described in Note.

  • Page ranges in Insert, Replace, Extract, Delete, Crop, Rotate, Print operations must be continuous.

  • Jeaders and Footers icon Select Edit > Headers and Footers to add, update, or remove headers and/or footers for all or selected pages. See Headers and Footers.

Assemble several documents

You can perform assembly operations on several documents opened in separate windows.

  1. Select View > Document Assembly to switch to Document Assembly view.
  2. Select File > Open and browse for other documents to be assembled. You can simply copy or move pages or page ranges among several documents.
  3. Optionally, move pages.
    1. Select one or several pages.
    2. Click on the small number below any of the selected thumbnails to drag it.

    While dragging, as you move the mouse pointer over a document in another open window, a vertical red insertion bar indicates where pages will move.

  4. Optionally, copy pages.
    1. Select one or several pages.
    2. While holding down the Ctrl key, click the small number below any of the selected thumbnails to drag it.

    While dragging, as you move the mouse pointer over a document in another open window, a vertical red insertion bar indicates where pages will move.

These documents can further be processed by any of the assembly operations described above for single documents.

Edit pages in Document Assembly view

Some page editing operations can be done in Document Assembly view that cannot be done with the Pages panel. These include:

  • Use the Select tool to copy a selection to Clipboard for pasting to editable documents outside the program, or to be pasted into notes, text boxes or callouts in other pages or documents.
  • Use the Select tool to copy a text selection for pasting onto a Typewriter tool cursor. This allows you to copy and paste real PDF text from one PDF page to another, even in other documents. When you save the target PDF, the pasted text becomes part of the PDF.
  • Use the Edit tool to modify page content.
  • Use the Comments tools to add notes, text boxes, drawing elements or marking up texts.
  • Use the Edit > Place Image command to add images. To add text, use the "Insert from file", "Insert Blank Page", and "Insert from Clipboard" commands from the Insert group of the context menu.

Exit Document Assembly view

  1. Document Assembly icon Click the Document Assembly tool again.

    This restores the view last set under Scroll Options for each open document.