How to reorder PDF pages on Mac
Lift a page, drop it where it belongs. The fix for a document scanned in the wrong order.
Scanners produce documents in the wrong order constantly: a stack fed upside down, a double-sided batch interleaved, an appendix that went through before the body. Fixing it is dragging.
Reordering pages is free and always will be. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing is watermarked.
Reorder, step by step
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Open Organize Pages
From the document actions panel, under Pages. The document lays out as a grid.
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Pick up the page
Click and hold, then drag. The page lifts and the others make room as you move over them, so you can see where it will land before you let go.
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Drop it
Release where you want it. The pages renumber themselves.
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Or move a whole group
Select several first — ⇧-click for a run, ⌘-click for scattered pages — and drag the selection as one. A misplaced ten-page appendix moves in a single gesture.
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Save
⌘+S. Until you save, nothing on disk has changed.
Fixing a double-sided scan
A scanner that does one side at a time produces the fronts and then the backs: pages 1, 3, 5, 7 followed by 8, 6, 4, 2. It is a recognisable and irritating pattern.
The fix is mechanical rather than clever. Work from the end: the last page of the file belongs after page 1, the second-to-last after page 3, and so on. Using thumbnails to check the content as you go beats trusting the arithmetic — a stack that was fed in slightly out of order breaks the pattern and only your eyes will catch it.
Page thumbnails make an out-of-order document obvious: a chapter opening with white space at the top in the middle of a run of dense pages, a landscape page among portrait ones, a blank where none should be. Reading the shape of twenty pages takes seconds and catches what checking numbers misses.
If the pages are in the right order but upside down
That is rotation rather than reordering, and it is a different fix. Select the affected pages and rotate them; it applies to the document, so they are right way up for everyone who opens it afterwards.
Reordering a very long document
For a document where large blocks need to move, splitting and re-merging is sometimes faster than dragging. Split the document at the boundaries, then merge the pieces back in the order you want. For anything under about fifty pages, dragging is quicker.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change the order of pages in a PDF on a Mac?
Open Organize Pages, which lays the document out as a grid, and drag pages where you want them. Free, with no account.
Can I move several pages at once?
Yes. Select a run with ⇧-click or scattered pages with ⌘-click, then drag the whole selection as one.
How do I fix a double-sided scan that came out interleaved?
Work from the end: the last page belongs after page 1, the second-to-last after page 3, and so on. Check the thumbnails as you go rather than trusting the pattern.
Do the page numbers update?
The document's own page order updates. Numbers printed on the page by whoever made it do not — they are part of the page. Add page numbering if you need the printed numbers to match.
Is reordering free?
Yes, permanently. So is rotating, duplicating, extracting, deleting, merging and splitting.