Delete pages from existing PDF

[drewworksonthings]

It's just stunning to me that in 2023, a paid professional version of Adobe Acrobat, doesn't allow me to open a 12-page PDF, select 3 of those pages, and delete them, then save the PDF. 

Some help documentation on the web suggests that this is indeed an option with the "Organize Pages" panel. Which would likely be true if the "Organize Pages" panel did exist in our reality. But it does not. 

What I *can* do, is work *around* the dysfunction of Acrobat, and "Print to PDF" in the print options, than only list the page numbers of the PDF that I want to keep, and save that exported PDF file. But that's laughable and not a proper solution in a piece of software that is allegedly designed for working with and editing PDFs. 

Imagine if I wanted to export a JPG in Photoshop and the only option was to screenshot with your operating system. That's how ridiculous this is. 

It's insane that the Mac OS itself can easily handle this by default in seconds, but Windows can't do it, and even expensive software that is DESIGNED for editing PDFs can't even do it. Can't imagine spending my own money on this software.

[gary_sc]

Yes, Acrobat can do this; it's just that someone at Adobe thought that by moving everything around, it would be easier for you (LOL).

After opening the document, first, on the left side of the screen, click on All Tools, and then click on Organize Pages

Then, select the three pages you wish to delete (either by Shift-clicking for continuous pages or Command/Control-clicking for discontinuous pages), then right-click and delete away.

It's all there, not necessarily in logical places, and you may have to hunt around for it, but it's all there.

Good luck!

 

[drewworksonthings]

This is another instance of someone saying, "use 'Organize Pages'" but that option is not there. Period. Right Clicking does not allow me to delete at all, it's not an option. I have the Tools panel there on the right, but Organize Pages is not there as an option. 

[gary_sc]

If you have Acrobat Pro, you should have this. That's probably why people are suggesting you go to that option. 

If you did purchase Acrobat Pro and are not seeing this, then that implies that you are using Acrobat Reader, not Acrobat Pro. 

Please take a screenshot of what it says when you look at the "About Acrobat Pro" and share that here. If it says About Acrobat Reader, than close that, look on your computer for Acrobat Pro and try that.

[drewworksonthings]

UPDATE: 

My Paid Version Acrobat was not quite Pro enough. 

To recap: 

I use Creative Cloud and have the full subscription. 

I open the Creative Cloud app, and went to the Apps and found Acrobat. I did NOT click on "Acrobat Reader" because that was a different entry. I just installed the normal "Adobe Acrobat" which for decades has been the non-reader version of the app. Anyone can install "Acrobat Reader" but to get "Adobe Acrobat" you have to pay. 

So that's what I installed, and that's what I have been using. 

But that still didn't have the "Organize Pages" tool. 

Not only that, searching in the app itself for help with that yielded no results. 

But I kept searching around, and found a submenu item called "Installl premium updates" 

Now, I just installed this app like 3 months ago, and I keep Creative Cloud running in the background all the time installing whatever updates it needs to, so I'm thinking this is just redundant and unneccessary. But on a whim, I clicked. 

Turns out that installing the paid version of Acrobat directly from Creative Cloud just plain doesn't install the paid version. You have to install that version, than hunt for this buried menu option, and use it to download the features you were already paying for. 

After updating that, the mythical unicorn of organizing pages finally appeared. 

Of course, Adobe is no better looking at this point, worse actually, for hiding their paid tools, inside their own paid app version. Insanity. They should at least start charging you an extra fee to download the pro features you already paid for. May as well at that point. 

[drewworksonthings]

BTW, the instructions for how to actually ENABLE the paid features of the paid app you already installed, should be at the top of every page telling you how to access those features. It's easily the largest roadblock to doing them.

And that enablement should be floating at the top of the software at all times for paying accounts. "You paid for the full version of Acrobat, do you want to actually download the paid features?" 

[gary_sc]

Because you were using Acrobat Reader before, Adobe may not have downloaded Acrobat Pro. Either that, or your Mac was reverting to the Acrobat it was prior to downloading the Pro version (I've been using Macs since 1985, so I know this can happen). 

What you do need to do is to click on any PDF in the Finder and do a Command-i. This will cause a pop-up window to appear on the left side of the screen. Toward the bottom, you'll see a section that says "Open with"

If it doesn't say Adobe Acrobat but does say Acrobat Reader, then press on the double-arrow for the drop-down menu and select Acrobat.app. Then below this, you will see an option to "Change All." This will cause any PDF you double-click to open in Acrobat Pro.

(And yes, it's very confusing how Adobe keeps changing the name from Acrobat to Acrobat Pro or Adobe Reader to Acrobat Reader.)

[drewworksonthings]

I went to Creative Cloud first to install the actual paid Acrobat from the Creative Cloud app directly.

And then I manually opened that app that it installed. Then used that app to open the PDF I was trying to edit.

Still no readily available Organize Pages option. I still had to do the process described above to "enable" those extra features, which is nonsensical that they weren't already installed.



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[Amal.]

Hi @drewworksonthings 

Hope you are doing well, and sorry for the trouble.

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. If the PDF file is shared with you, please try to download/save it locally on your computer first and then try opening it with Acrobat Pro and check if that works.

As you get more comfortable with the new interface, please contact us with specific questions on tools, features, or functionalities. We’re happy to provide helpful resources and answers to your questions.

We will follow up with a detailed community-featured post, guiding you to familiarise yourself with the new interface and regular updates on upcoming changes.

Regards

Amal