Splitting a PDF into parts with PDF by Zaweba

Large PDFs are awkward to share and slow to work with. A two hundred page scan won't go through an email size limit, a combined statement needs breaking back into separate months, and a manual with a dozen chapters would be easier to handle as a dozen files. Split in PDF by Zaweba cuts a document into parts by the rule that suits it.

Four ways to split

Every N pages cuts the document into equal parts. Split every 1 page and each page becomes its own file. Split every 2 and a stack of scanned double-sided forms comes apart into one file per form. Any regular pattern in a document is a good fit.

Before chosen pages cuts at the pages you pick. Use this when the parts are different lengths, such as a batch of scanned letters of two, three and five pages. Choose the first page of each letter and each one becomes its own file.

At each top-level bookmark splits at the document's outline, and names the parts after the bookmarks. For a well bookmarked report or manual, this is the cleanest split of all. A document with chapters as its top-level bookmarks comes out as one file per chapter, each already named after its chapter.

Into files under a size keeps every part below a size you set. This is the answer to email limits and upload forms that refuse anything too large. Set the limit and the document is divided into as many parts as it takes.

Safe naming

A part never overwrites an existing file. Whatever is already in the folder stays as it was. That makes splitting safe to run in a folder with other work in it, and means a second split doesn't destroy the results of the first.

Splitting many files at once

Split several files applies the same split to a list of PDFs, with all the parts in one folder. If you have thirty scanned batches that each need splitting every two pages, set the rule once and run it over the whole list. All the parts land together, ready to sort or rename.

This is where Split moves from a convenience to a real time saver. A job that would take an afternoon of opening, splitting and saving files one at a time is done in one pass.

Choosing the right split

Look at how the document is put together. If it has a good outline, split by bookmarks and the parts name themselves. If it is regular, every N pages is simplest. If it is irregular, choose the pages. If the only problem is size, split by size.

For scans, check the thumbnails first. A missing or extra page in a batch throws an every N pages split out of step for every part after it. Delete blanks and fix the order before splitting.

Related tools

Split works on the whole document by a rule. Extract pages takes particular pages you choose, to a new tab or to separate files. Copy and paste moves pages between open documents. And inserting pages from another PDF, or dropping PDFs between thumbnails, does the opposite job, putting documents back together.

With these together, PDF by Zaweba can take a document apart and put documents together in whatever shape you need, offline, without sending your files to a website to do it.