How Does PDF Rearranging Work?

PDF rearranging is one of the most useful features of Adobe Acrobat X Pro. You can use it to rearrange the pages in a PDF document, either by moving them around or by deleting unwanted content. This feature isn’t just for business users—it’s also great for anyone who has ever wanted to rearrange their photo album or textbook into a more logical order.

Step 1: Rearrange the pages in Adobe Acrobat X Pro

The easiest way to rearrange the pages in Acrobat X Pro is to use the Page Order dialog box.

This is opened by going to File > Page Order.

The first thing you’ll see is a list of all your documents and all the pages within each of those documents. You can click on any one of these items to select it for further manipulation, or simply click on All Documents if you want to change everything at once. The second button down from this allows you to select all pages that have been moved or deleted (or both).

As per the professionals at Adobe Acrobat, “clicking on it will turn every page black in its list—that means that if you’ve done something with this page (like move or delete), then it’s still part of your document but isn’t visible anywhere in Acrobat X Pro right now.” This is because its position has changed somehow since the last time you saved changes into Adobe Document Cloud storage system.

Step 2: Rearrange pages using your computer’s file browser

Now it’s time to edit the file itself. Open your computer’s file browser, and navigate to the folder where you saved your PDF. To rearrange pages in Acrobat, simply drag and drop them into the new order you want using your mouse. If this feels awkward (or if you don’t have a mouse), select the page(s) instead of dragging them. Right-click on each page and choose “Move” from the context menu that appears; then click “OK” when prompted by Acrobat to confirm that you’re sure about moving them around—and voila! Your document is now rearranged!

Step 3: Rearrange pages using the preview pane in Windows 8

To move pages in Windows 8, you’ll need to open the preview pane. You can do this by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.

When you’ve opened the Preview pane, you’ll see a list of all your PDF files. Selecting one will open it up for editing with Acrobat Reader DC (or another program—it doesn’t matter which). Once you’re ready to rearrange pages, click and drag them around with your mouse until they’re in the order that makes sense for how you want readers to read through them.

Step 4: Rearrange pages in PDF Summarizer for Windows (free)

  • To rearrange pages in PDF Summarizer for Windows (free), select PDF Page Reorder from the menu bar at the top of your screen.
  • Select one or more pages from the list on the left side of your screen and drag them into any order you like that best suits your needs. You can also make sure all selected pages are equal in length by clicking “Calculate Lengths.”
  • When you’re done arranging, click Save Changes and exit out of PDF Summarizer for Windows (free).

PDF rearranging is a relatively straightforward process. You can rearrange PDF pages quickly and easily using Adobe Acrobat X Pro, Windows 8 and 10, or a free program called PDF Summarizer for Windows.