Best programme to use to combine multiple files with an interactive TOC?

Report · May 10, 2016

Hello,

At work we often send out large tenders made up of multiple documents, which can prove a little hazardous to send. Originally this was sent in a paper copy, and we would like to achieve the same result as a one document flick through in a single PDF file, with a contents page generated by the programme I am using.

Which programme and skills do I need to do this?

The document would be upwards of 400 pages for each project. I have tried using Acrobat X as it is currently installed on my computer, and it seems to hiccup when I try to merge more than 2 or 3 documents. Should I be using something else?

For example we may have somewhere in the region of 50 documents made up of this general pattern..

Doc 1 word

Doc 2 Excel

Doc 3 word

Doc 4 pdf

Doc 5 word

Doc 6 pdf

I need to pull these together, keeping them in order and then insert a table of contents that helps with nagivation. Is this possible in one of the adobe suite programmes? Is there a specific word or phrase that I should be searching for to seek out tutorials?

I have tried to look on this forum but have struggled to see which programme I would need to achieve this. I'm based in the UK if that makes any difference.

Any help or guidance is hugely appreciated

Emily

Report · May 10, 2016

No version of Acrobat will create a TOC for you. It will create bookmarks, though, that will point to the first page of each of the merged files. These bookmarks can be converted into a clickable Table of Contents using a script, like this one I've developed: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Create TOC from Bookmarks

Any version of Acrobat should be able to handle the conversion, but you must make sure it's compatible with your OS and with your version of Office first.