Here’s how to delete whole pages or rearrange the page order from a PDF document without paying for PDF editing software.
A lot of people never need PDF editing software. Making PDF’s is easy using Microsoft Office or the ‘Print to PDF’ feature in Windows.
Simple editing, like deleting pages or rearranging the order of pages in existing PDF’s is beyond the ability of PDF Reader software. The Adobe Reader software lets you overlay comments or notes to a PDF but not change the original content.
A regular need is deleting excess pages from a PDF. Pages of ‘terms and conditions’ legalese or maybe blank pages that were accidently added.
Print PDF to a PDF
The easiest free option already on your computer. Windows 10 comes with a ‘Print to PDF’ option that’s probably already in your printer list.
Macintosh computer also have an in-built Print to PDF feature. It’s a ‘printer’ in the Print dialog.
For earlier versions of Windows, install a ‘Print to PDF’ free add-on (if there isn’t one already). Mac users have a ‘Save as PDF’ on the Print dialog.
Open the PDF file in your reader software, choose Print and select the pages you want to keep (e.g. 1-3 or 2-6). Then ‘print’ to a new PDF file name. Simple as that.
Rearranging pages
Use the same trick to rearrange or reorder the pages in a PDF. ‘Print to PDF’ but specify a different page order for the print.
For example, here’s a ten page PDF reduced to just three pages but with Page 2 of the source PDF first, then page 1 and finally page 3.
Word 2013 / 2016
Word 2013/2016 for Windows can import and convert PDF files into Word documents.
Just open the PDF in Word then remove the content you don’t want. Then ‘Save As’ to PDF, probably with another file name.
As we’ve mentioned before, the conversion of a PDF to Word isn’t perfect. What you see in Word may not exactly match the original PDF. That might not matter, depending on your need.
If you need each PDF page to look exactly the same, you may need a tool that can delete pages without affecting the look of other pages.
Online Tools
For occasional need, there are several online PDF tools that can delete pages and other tasks. Just two of the many online services:
PDF2GO https://www.pdf2go.com/sort-delete-pdf
SmallPDF https://smallpdf.com/edit-pdf
The concern with any online editing tool is privacy. There’s the risk that the service will ‘read’ or share the PDF file with others.
If privacy is an issue, search for one of several free PDF editors you can download and install on your computer.
