Merge PDFs, reorder pages and add page numbers on Windows

1. Merge the files

Open the first PDF, then choose Organize → Merge. The open document is listed first. Click Add PDFs… to add the others, use the arrows to change their order, and type a page range next to a file (for example 1-3, 7) to include only some of its pages. Leave the range empty to include every page.

Tick Add a bookmark for each file to make each original file easy to find in the result. Click Merge… and choose where to save the combined PDF. Your original files are not changed.

The Merge PDFs dialog listing three files in order, each with an optional page range and arrows to reorder them. — Three files in order, each with an optional page range.

2. Reorder, rotate or remove pages

Open the merged file. In the Pages sidebar, drag a thumbnail to move a page, or select pages and press Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓. Shift-click selects a run of pages and Ctrl-click adds single pages to the selection. The Organize tab rotates, duplicates, deletes and extracts the selected pages.

The Organize tab with tools to rotate, delete, duplicate, move, insert, extract, crop, resize, merge and split; pages 2 and 3 are selected in the thumbnail sidebar. — Pages 2 and 3 selected, ready to move, rotate or extract.

Bookmarks and links follow the pages they point to. If a bookmark's page is deleted, Pagewright tells you.

3. Add page numbers

Choose Organize → Page numbers. Set the format — Page {n} of {total} gives "Page 3 of 12" — then the position, font, size, colour and margin, and which pages to number (for example all, odd or 2-9). A preview appears on the page. Click Apply.

The page numbers dialog with format 'Page {n} of {total}', position bottom-centre, font, size, colour, margin and page range settings. — Page number settings, with a preview on the page behind.

The same dialog adds headers and footers, watermarks and Bates numbers; save your settings as a preset to reuse them.

4. Save

Press Ctrl+S or Ctrl+Shift+S. Page numbers are written into the pages as real text when you save, so every PDF reader shows them.

Good to know

Split does the opposite of merge: by page ranges, every N pages, or at top-level bookmarks.
To number a whole set of files continuously — for example for legal documents — use batch processing or Advanced → Legal & Bates.
Encrypted PDFs can't be merged; they open for viewing and printing only.