How to Open a PDF Document in Preview

If you're looking for an alternative to Adobe Reader to open your PDF files, look no further than Apple's built-in Preview application. In fact, I highly recommend using Preview instead of Adobe Reader due to its faster and more user-friendly annotation tools.

To make Preview the default app that opens PDF files on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Find the file in your Finder and right-click (or control-click) on it to access the contextual menu.

2. In the Get Info dialog box that opens, use the dropdown menu of applications under Open With to select Preview.

3. Click on the 'Change All' button and confirm your change.

By default, Preview is not set as the default PDF viewer on many Macs. To make it the default, follow these steps:

1. Find the file in your Finder and right-click (or control-click) on it to access the contextual menu.

2. In the Get Info dialog box that opens, use the dropdown menu of applications under Open With to select Preview.

Now you can open a specific PDF file within Adobe Reader if you prefer, but I recommend using Preview for its faster and more user-friendly annotation tools.

In addition to opening PDF files, Preview is also a great tool for combining multiple PDF files into one. You can do this in two easy ways:

Method 1: Drag and Drop Thumbnails to Combine PDFs

To combine two PDF files in their entirety, follow these steps:

1. Open up the first PDF in Preview, click View, and then Thumbnails to reveal the sidebar.

2. Open up another PDF in a different Preview window.

3. Drag a thumbnail of a page from one PDF into the sidebar of the other PDF.

You can also select multiple thumbnails by holding down the command key and then drag them to the other PDF.

Method 2: Insert Pages from One File into Another

To add a page to a PDF, follow these steps:

1. Open up the first PDF in Preview, click Edit, then Insert, and then Page from File.

2. Choose the file you want to insert.

3. Click the filename at the top of the window to choose a new name and save location.

Once you've inserted the pages, you can re-arrange them in the sidebar by dragging and dropping them into the desired order.

That's it! With these easy methods, you can combine multiple PDF files into one using Preview. And best of all, it's free and doesn't require any additional software or plugins.

How to open a pdf document in preview