Reorder PDF pages

How to reorder PDF pages

1. Open your PDF to see a thumbnail of every page.
2. Drag pages into place, or use the move left and move right buttons.
3. Check the order from first to last.
4. Download the reordered PDF.

When pages end up in the wrong order

The usual cause is scanning. Double-sided documents scanned on a single-sided scanner come out as all the fronts and then all the backs. A pile fed in the wrong way round comes out last page first. Merging several PDFs can also leave an appendix before the main text, or a signature page in the middle.

For the fronts-then-backs problem on a 6-page document, the file reads 1, 3, 5, 6, 4, 2 if you turned the pile over, or 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 6 if you did not. Drag the pages so they read 1 to 6. It takes a minute, and it is much quicker than scanning again.

Dragging on a phone

On a touch screen, press and hold a thumbnail, then move it. If dragging feels fiddly on a small screen, use the move left and move right buttons under each page instead. They shift a page one place at a time, which is precise for small fixes.

On long documents, fix the order in blocks. Get the first ten pages right, then the next ten, and check the thumbnails as you go.

Tidying a document before you send it

Reordering is often one step of a small tidy-up. A common sequence is: merge the files, remove blank or duplicate pages, put the pages in order, turn any sideways pages, then add page numbers. Each tool works on your device, so you can run a contract or application through all of them without any upload.

Questions people ask