I would like now to take a look at combining PDF files into a single PDF. This is a process that we use a lot, and many of us who have documents that we have got several different types of documents that we are combining together, we will either build them into a single PDF that goes from page one to page end; the last page of the document, or we might want to use a new feature, which is called the Portfolio, which takes those PDFs and turns them into a folder filled with PDFs. It's a great way to interact with different types of documents that have been combined into a single PDF file.

To do this, we use the Combine command, and you will see this under Combine. I can Assemble Files into a Portfolio, or I can Merge Files into a Single PDF. The first thing I would like to do is to Merge Files into a Single PDF.

I can drag and drop files from my desktop or from a folder into this window or I could browse to them. What I would like to do is to Browse. So under Add files, I would like to add files, and you will notice Chapter 03 is already selected, and I can select any file that is supported by Acrobat Conversion.

So for instance, I would like to add this picture; hold down my Ctrl key on a Windows machine so that I can select different files at the same time, on the Macintosh, use the Command key to select multiple files. I have got an Excel file. I have got another PDF. So there is a bunch of files that are going to be assembled into a single PDF from end to end, so I can add these now.

You notice that we have a choice in terms of file Size; we have small, medium and large. You do not have a whole lot of control over that except to say, I want a small PDF, I want a medium PDF, I want a large PDF. Whatever has happened beforehand, and the PDFs have been created before using the Print method or some other method to build the PDFs, they are going to be maintained, and if possible, they may be made smaller or they may remain as they were, depending on the setting you choose. The default behavior is to pick the medium size. It will produce a nice PDF that anybody can use, its going to be easy to read and easy to move around. Simply click Combine Files and all of these things will be built.

Now, you will notice that I picked a JPEG, an Excel file, I picked a PDF, a bunch of PDFs. The idea here is that I can take several different types of content, Acrobat will automatically convert them into PDFs for me, and then it will combine them together into a single PDF. We will Save this in our Chapter 03 folder, and you will see that Acrobat has automatically called it Binder. We will call it, in this case, Combined Files Loose, and click Save.

If I use Ctrl+0 on a Windows computer or Command+0 on a Macintosh, it will Zoom out to full screen, and if I switch to Full Page mode, I can then scroll down through and see my previews as I go; that's from a PDF, this is from the JPEG. If I go down to the bottom and I can see that I have my Excel file in there somewhere. There is my Excel file. So I can see all of these items have been combined together.

Now, it turns out that the Excel file actually has multiple sheets, and so I can control the process of what gets combined into the Excel file when I am doing the combination process. So if I close this now, and we will try this one more time, merging files into a single PDF. In this case I would like to take a look at that Excel files specifically.

We will grab that and Add Files. You will notice that we have some options here. It says Active Sheets, but I can also Choose the Sheet. You will see that when we have word, we can choose a Page Range, when we have PDFs, we can also choose a Page Range; we will see that in detail when we look at Portfolios.

There are three sheets in this PDF file. I would like to select which one to combine. I would like Inventory and Sales. We will say OK. So what's going to happen is that each of those sheets is going to be built into a separate page in the PDF.

Now we say Combine, off it goes, and it will build me a two page PDF now, that will contain both of those sheets that were built into the Excel file.

We will call it Plucky Pony Projections.pdf, and we will Save it. So now we have a PDF, and as I promised, two pages show up. So we have managed to pick the two sheets that were inside of the Excel file and convert them into their own pages in the PDF.

Again, you have the type of control to choose Sheets, Page Ranges, etcetera, when you are building these PDF files. So you don't need to convert the entire original document into a PDF, you can be selective about the pieces that you want to include inside of that PDF.