About Insert pages
Merging puts one document after another. Inserting puts one inside another: a missing page in the middle of a contract, an extra schedule between the body and the signatures, a new cover sheet at the front. The position is the whole point, and it is the part an ordinary merge cannot do.
This tool takes two PDFs. The first is the document being added to; the second is what goes inside it. You say before which page of the first document the second should land, and you get a single PDF with the pieces in place. It runs in your browser, so neither file is uploaded.
How to insert pages into a PDF
- Choose the document you are adding to, then the document that goes inside it. The page labels the two rows "Added to" and "Goes inside" so you can tell which is which.
- If you picked them the wrong way round, press the arrow on a row to swap them.
- In "Before page", write the page of the first document that the second should sit in front of. "1" puts the new pages at the front. "5" puts them between pages 4 and 5. A number past the end puts them at the back.
- Press the button. The tool reports how many pages went in and how many the result has in all.
- Look at the preview, then save the result.
When you would use it
- Replacing a page of a contract with a corrected version: remove the old page with Split PDF, then insert the new one in its place.
- Adding a signed page into a document at the right position instead of stapling it on the end.
- Putting a cover sheet or a table of contents at the front of a finished report.
- Slotting an appendix between the body of a document and its closing pages.
- Dropping a scanned page into the middle of a typed document.
What it will not do
- It handles exactly two files at a time. For a longer chain, insert twice, or use Merge PDF if the pieces simply go one after another.
- The whole second file goes in. To insert only part of it, cut it down first with Split PDF.
- It inserts at one place per run. Several separate insertions mean several runs.
- Page numbers that were printed on the pages do not change. If your document has numbers on each page, they will no longer run in order afterwards, so renumber with Page numbers if that matters.
- A password-protected file has to be unlocked before it can be used.
How it compares
Dragging pages between two windows in a desktop PDF program works well when you have that program installed. This is for the machine where you do not, or for when you want a quick answer in a browser tab.
Where a PDF carries fillable form fields, they stay fillable after the insertion. The tool tells you how many fields survived, so you can see that a form which arrives looking right but dead does not slip through.
Tips
- Counting from the first page, not from the number printed on the page. A document that opens with an unnumbered cover has a "page 1" that the printed numbers do not match.
- If the result looks wrong, you have lost nothing: both originals are untouched. Swap the files or change the page and run it again.