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Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages

Learn how to rotate, move, delete, extract, or renumber pages in a PDF.

Before you begin

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In the new experience, the tools appear on the left side of the screen.

To manipulate pages in a PDF, ensure that you have permission to edit the PDF. Select Document properties from the hamburger menu  (Windows) or File menu in macOS, then select the Security tab in the dialog. Review your permissions for the document under Document Restrictions Summary.

Rotate pages in a PDF

You can rotate all or select pages in a document. Rotation is based on 90-degree increments. You can rotate pages using the rotate tools in the Page Thumbnails pane or the Rotate option.
 

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Rearrange the pages in your PDF in a few simple steps.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat, choose All toolsOrganize pages.

  2. From the left pane, specify the page range on which you want to apply the rotation. Select the drop-down menu under PAGES SELECTED, then select the appropriate option. Alternatively, you can enter the page number you want to operate on.

  3. After specifying the page range, for Direction, select either Rotate page left for counterclockwise 90° rotation or Rotate page right° for clockwise 90° rotation.

  4. You can also apply the page rotation on a specific page by selecting the buttons in the right pane.

    Page Thumbnail View
    Page rotation in the page thumbnail view.

    Note:

    To temporarily change your view of the page, from the hamburger menu   (Windows) or the View menu (macOS), choose View > Rotate viewRotate view right or Rotate view left. The original page orientation is restored the next time you open the PDF.

Extract pages from a PDF

Extraction is reusing selected pages of one PDF in a different PDF. Extracted pages include the content and the form fields, comments, and links of the original document.

You can leave the extracted pages in the original document or remove them during extraction.

Note:

Any bookmarks or article threadings associated with pages aren't extracted.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. From the upper left, select All ToolsOrganize pages.

  2. Specify the page range or the pages you want to extract. Select the drop-down menu under PAGES SELECTED, then select the appropriate option. Alternatively, you can enter the page number you want to operate on.

  3. Select Extract pages   under PAGE OPTIONS.

  4. In the dialog, select one or more of the following before you select Extract:

    • To remove the extracted pages from the original document, select Delete pages after extracting.
    • To create a single-page PDF for each extracted page, select Extract pages as separate files.
    • To keep the original pages intact and create a single PDF for the extracted pages, deselect both options.

The extracted pages are placed in a new document.

Note:

The creator of a PDF document can set the security to prevent the extraction of pages. To view the security settings for a document, choose Document properties from the hamburger menu  (Windows) or File menu in macOS and then select the Security tab in the dialog.

Extract random pages from a PDF

You can also select and extract discontinuous pages from the page thumbnails in the right navigation pane of Acrobat.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. From the upper left, select All ToolsOrganize pages.

  2. Specify the pages which you want to extract separated with a comma. For example, if you want to extract pages 3 and 5, enter 3, 5 in the pages field under PAGES SELECTED.

    Select the Extract pages   under PAGE OPTIONS.

    Extract pages from a PDF option is shown in Acrobat interface.

  3. In the dialog, select one or more of the following before you select Extract:

    • To remove the extracted pages from the original document, select Delete pages after extracting.
    • To create a single-page PDF for each extracted page, select Extract pages as separate files.
    • To keep the original pages intact and create a single PDF for the extracted pages, deselect both options.

The extracted pages are placed in a new document.

Split PDFs into multiple documents

You can split one or more PDFs into multiple smaller PDFs. When splitting a PDF, you can specify the split by the maximum number of pages, maximum file size, or top-level bookmarks.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. From the upper left, select All ToolsOrganize pages.

  2. In the left pane, under PAGE OPTIONS, select Split. A command dialog appears for the Split operation.

  3. In the Split By list, select the criteria for dividing the document:

    Number of pages

    Specify the maximum number of pages for each document in the split.

    File Size

    Specify the maximum file size for each document in the split.

    Top-level Bookmarks

    If the document includes bookmarks, it creates one document for every top-level bookmark.

  4. To specify a target folder for the split files and filename preferences, select Output Options. Specify the options as needed, and then select OK.

  5. Select Split.

Split multiple PDFs

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. From the upper left, select All ToolsOrganize pages.

  2. In the left pane, under PAGE OPTIONS, select Split. A command dialog appears for the Split operation.

  3. In the Split by list, select the criteria for dividing the document:

    Number of pages

    Specify the maximum number of pages for each document in the split.

    File Size

    Specify the maximum file size for each document in the split.

    Top-level Bookmarks

    If the document includes bookmarks, it creates one document for every top-level bookmark.

  4. To specify a target folder for the split files and filename preferences, select Output Options. Specify the options as needed, and then select OK.

  5. Select Split multiple files. Select Add Files, and choose Add Files, Add Folders, or Add Open Files. Select the files or folder, and then select OK. Select Split.

Move or copy pages in a PDF

To copy or move pages within a document, use the page thumbnails in the right navigation pane or the document area. You can also transfer pages between documents using these thumbnails. In the Organize Pages view, drag and drop thumbnails to rearrange pages, or select a thumbnail and copy it as needed.

Move or copy a page

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat, and select All toolsOrganize pages The page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  2. Select one or more page thumbnails.

  3. Do one of the following:
    • To move a page, drag the corresponding page thumbnail to the new location. A bar will appear to show the new position of the page thumbnail. The pages will be renumbered.
    • To cut or copy a page, select the page, and then select the ellipsis icon   in the context menu bar displayed next to it. Select Cut or Copy from the context menu. Select between the page thumbnails where you want to paste the page. A blue horizontal marker shows the selected location where you want to paste. Select Paste from the context menu. You can paste the pages in another PDF as well.
    Note:

    You can also move or copy pages by selecting the Page Thumbnails button from the right pane. 

Copy a page between two PDFs

  1. Open both PDFs and display them alongside each other.

    To display the PDFs side by side, select Window from the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the Window menu (macOS). Then select Tile > Vertically.

  2. Select All toolsOrganize pagesThe page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  3. Select the page thumbnail of the page you want to cut or copy. To select multiple pages, press Ctrl (Windows) or command (macOS) and then select the pages. From the page thumbnail context menu, select Copy.

  4. In the page thumbnails of the target PDF, select between the page thumbnails where you want to insert the page. A blue horizontal marker indicates the location where you want to paste. Right-select and choose Paste.

    The page is copied into the document, and the pages are renumbered. You can paste the pages in another PDF as well. Alternatively, you can also drag the page thumbnail into the Page Thumbnails panel of the target PDF.

Delete or replace pages in a PDF

You can replace an entire PDF page with another PDF page. Only the text and images on the original page are replaced. Any interactive elements associated with the original page, such as links and bookmarks, aren't affected. Likewise, bookmarks and links that may have been previously associated with the replacement page don't carry over. Comments, however, are carried over and are combined with any existing comments in the document.

After you delete or replace pages, it’s a good idea to use the Reduce File Size command to rename and save the restructured document to the smallest possible file size.

A page before and after it is replaced. The page’s bookmarks and links remain in the same locations.

Delete multiple pages in a PDF

Note:

You can't undo the Delete command.

  1. Select All toolsOrganize pagesThe page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  2. Specify the page thumbnail of the pages you want to delete and separate them with a comma. For example, if you want to delete pages 3 and 5, enter 3, 5 in the pages field under PAGES SELECTED.  You can also choose from the options given in the drop-down menu.

  3. In the left pane, select Delete pages , and the select OK to confirm.

    You can't delete all pages; at least one page must remain in the document.

    Note:

    If you select Use Logical Page Numbers in the Page Display panel of the Preferences dialog box, you can enter a page number in parentheses to delete the corresponding page. For example, if the first page in the document is numbered i, you can enter (1) in the Enter Page Range list, and the page is deleted.

Delete a page in a PDF

  1. Select All toolsOrganize pagesThe page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  2. Select a page thumbnail of the page you want to delete. Then, select Delete pages from the contextual toolbar that appears next to the selected page thumbnail. 

Replace pages in a PDF

  1. Open the PDF that contains the pages you want to replace.
  2. Select All toolsOrganize pagesThe page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  3. In the left tools pane, select Replace. The file explorer window appears.

  4. Select the document containing the replacement pages.

  5. In the Replace Pages dialog box, under Original, enter the pages to be replaced in the original document.

  6. In the Replace Pages dialog box, under Replacement, enter the first page of the replacement page range. The last page is calculated based on the number of pages to be replaced in the original document.

  7. Select OK.

Replace pages between mutliple PDFs

  1. Open the PDF that contains the pages you want to replace, and then open the PDF that contains the replacement pages.

  2. Select All toolsOrganize pages for both PDFs. The page thumbnails are displayed in the Document area.

  3. In the PDF containing the replacement pages, select a page or group of pages you want as replacements. For Windows, press Ctrl and then select the pages; for MacOS, press Command and then select the pages. 

  4. Press Ctrl (Windows) or command (macOS) and then drag the selected page thumbnails in the document area of the target document where thumbnails are displayed. Release the mouse button when the pointer is directly over the page number box of the page thumbnail you want to replace. The corresponding pages are highlighted.

    The pages you selected in the first document replace an equal number of pages in the second document. It starts at the page number that you selected to drop the new pages.

Renumber pages in a PDF

The page numbers on the document pages don't always match the page numbers that appear below the page thumbnails and in the right Page Navigation toolbar. Pages are numbered with integers, starting with page 1 for the first page of the document. Because some PDFs may contain front matter, such as a copyright page and table of contents, their body pages may not follow the numbering shown in the right Page Navigation toolbar.

Printed page numbering (top) compared to logical page numbering (bottom)

You can specify various numbering styles for a group of pages, for example, 1, 2, 3, or i, ii, iii, or a, b, c. You can also customize the numbering system by adding a prefix. For example, pages in Chapter 1 can be 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and so on. Chapter 2 can have pages numbered as 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, and so on.

Note:

Using the Number Pages command affects only the page thumbnails on the Pages panel. You can physically add new page numbers to a PDF using the headers and footers feature.

  1. Select All tools from the global bar. Then select Organize pages > Page labels.

  2. Specify a page range. (Selected implies pages selected in the Page Thumbnails panel.)

  3. Select one of the following, and then select OK:

    Begin New Section

    Starts a new numbering sequence. Choose a style from the pop-up menu, and enter a starting page number for the section. Specify a Prefix, if desired.

    Extend Numbering Used In Preceding Section To Selected Pages

    Continues the numbering sequence from previous pages without interruption.

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