How to use Pagemaker to Split a Pdf into Several Pdfs

September 4, 2009 4:05 AM

How do you break apart a multiple-page pdf into a bunch of separate-page pdfs in Pagemaker?
posted by joannemerriam to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: I don't have Pagemaker but there's a free tool called ConcatPDF that is designed expressly to do exactly what you're asking for. Windows-only though, and you have to install this and this before you install ConcatPDF. (Those are some components from Microsoft that it uses, also free.)
posted by XMLicious at 4:21 AM on September 4, 2009

Best answer: On a similar note, I don't have Pagemaker either, but there's a very command-line straightforward open-source tool called PDFtk. It has a frontend, too. Joining, splitting, rotating, adding/removing password protection.

HiH
posted by noztran at 4:29 AM on September 4, 2009

Best answer: What version of Pagemaker are you using? What OS are you on?

Can you import separate pages from the PDF into Pagemaker? I know you can do this in Indesign and Quark, can't remember if Pagebreaker allowed this. When placing the PDF, check to see if there's an option to add specific pages

Finally, what are you trying to do here? Obviously place separate PDF pages in Ragemaker, but to to what purpose? I ask in order to get a better idea of the full picture so that possible alternatives can be contemplate.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:36 AM on September 4, 2009

Best answer: I haven't used Pagemaker in close to a decade, so I'm really not sure. However, if you are on a Mac, you can do this pretty easily (if manually) in Preview. Simply open a multi-page PDF, open the drawer and highlight the first page. Then do a Copy, and then New from Clipboard. Save As... Then repeat for each successive page.

The drawback here, as I said, is that it's a manual process.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:45 AM on September 4, 2009

Don't use Pagemaker, use Acrobat.
posted by omnidrew at 7:00 AM on September 4, 2009

Seconding the recommendation to split the PDF before importing (Acrobat or Preview.app)
posted by misterbrandt at 7:36 AM on September 4, 2009

Response by poster: Actually this is for a client of mine. I do the web design for her organization's website. Because they're a charity and skint, buying new software isn't an option. She has Pagemaker. I don't know her OS or version (but I'll ask and if she uses Windows I can suggest ConCatPDF). She has large multiple-page pdfs and for the website would like to be able to put up separate pdfs for all the separate pages, since most people don't need the whole thing.

I have a Mac that I do the web design on and I have the pdfs. If there's a (free) tool that will let me break apart the pdf for her, that would be fine too.
posted by joannemerriam at 10:18 AM on September 4, 2009

I use PrimoPDF for this.
posted by mcschmidt00 at 2:31 PM on September 4, 2009