Needed to combine 6 PDFs into one before a job applicatio...
merge: The job application portal said "upload one PDF only." I had six: CV, cover letter, certificates, transcript, reference letter, and a portfolio summary. Thirty minutes to the deadline.
Didn't have Adobe Acrobat. Didn't want to spend 20 minutes figuring out how to use something complicated. Here's what I actually did.
What I used:
PdfPeaks Merge PDF — went straight to the tool, uploaded all six files one by one, dragged them into the right order (CV first, cover letter second, then everything else), clicked merge, downloaded the combined PDF in about 15 seconds.
No account required. No watermark on the output. The whole thing was done before I'd even started stressing about it properly.
One thing to know before you merge:
If any of your files are password-protected you have to remove that first — the merger won't touch a locked PDF. None of mine were, so it was fine. But worth checking.
Also, the order you arrange the files in before clicking merge is the order the pages appear in the final document. Obvious in hindsight but I nearly uploaded them backward the first time.
What I'd tried before that didn't work as well:
Tried opening them in Chrome and printing to PDF — that only works for one file at a time, you can't combine separate PDFs that way.
Found one tool that required account signup to download the result. Hard no when I have 30 minutes left.
After merging:
The combined file came out at 8.4MB — a bit large because my portfolio page had some images. Ran it through PdfPeaks Compress PDF on Balanced setting and got it down to 3.1MB. Uploaded fine.
Got the interview, for what it's worth.
Anyone know a good way to handle mixed portrait/landscape files in a merge? One of my certificates was landscape and it sat awkwardly in the middle of the final document. Curious if there's a clean fix for that short of rotating everything first.
Full guide with comparison table and tips for merging cleanly: How to Merge PDF Files Free — No Adobe, No Account