Sort order of images added in to pdf

[tim-p]

Hi

I've recently, very reluctantly, upgraded from Acrobat Pro X to DC. I mainly use Acrobat to create a document based on a single PDF, into whose pages window I drag a bunch of jpegs. Pro X behaved nicely - whatever sort order Mac Finder (or Windows Explorer) had the files in when you did the drag and drop was how it placed the files, by default. That worked for me as I happen to want the files placed oldest to newest jpeg, with the original pdf at the top. So I don't want to sort the entire document, just the files I aim inserting, at the point I am inserting them. If I later insert another bunch of jpegs I want them grouped together and sorted oldest to youngest as well. But if I have Finder set to do drag and drop sorted by age, what turns up in DC is a totally different order - might be alphabetical, but it's way different from the finder order. I can't find any setting which determines insert order. Can anyone help, please?

[tim-p]

And another problem - it is chopping up each imported jpeg into slices - I think it is analysing the pics and 'helpfully' separating some elements it thinks I may want separated. So I end up with each jpeg as a sort of chequerboard. I'd like it to leave my jpegs alone if possible!

[Document Geek]

I tried dragging jpegs into the Pages panel, but nothing happened. I have not heard of that capability before.

So to add jpegs to a PDF I first created a PDF from multiple files. In that dialog box there is an option to select each file and move it up or down. That is the only sorting method I can find. So it appears that you need to sort your files manually.

[tim-p]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

You can definitely do it - just highlight a bunch of jpegs and drag them into the pages sorter on the left, you have to wait a sec to see a line appear between existing pages or above/below the first or last pages, which shows where the whole lot will be inserted. Works in Windows and Mac.

[Document Geek]

Sure enough. That's  anew trick I didn't know about! But sadly, there is no way to change the import order of the jpegs when you drag them in. They go in alphabetically.

[tim-p]

My point is that it is a behaviour which has changed unhelpfully - like so much of DC. If I could stay with 10 I would, but Apple withdrawing 32 bit app support puts paid to that.

[Document Geek]

Oh, wow. Good to know! Maybe Gilad at: Custom-made Adobe Scripts  can write you a custom script. He's done that for me on a number of occasions when I needed a functionality that DC didn't have.

try67​

[try67]

Thanks for the reference! I've developed something similar, a (paid-for) tool that allows you to merge existing PDF files to a single file in a per-determined order, based on a text file. It can be found here: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Combine files to PDF from a list

[tim-p]

Hi guys

The workaround for this issue is to use acrobat to make a pdf from multiple docs - this gives you a dialogue into which you can drag and drop files and it then lets you sort them as you wish - alphabetical, date etc. It's much slower than the way you could do it in Acro X but it does at least work. Now I just need to persuade DC not to chop up all my jpegs.....

I doubt anyone from Adobe is listening, but if you are, congratulations one taking good professional software, dumbing it down and making it into a toy. Good work, guys....