Fastr Workspace - Combine PDFs

Overview

In Fastr Workspace, the Combine PDFs functionality is used for managing your PDF pages, or making changes to these pages. The current functionality allows you to Insert Pages in your upload PDF, or Delete pages as necessary. This article will walk you through the steps for merging PDFs and address some frequently asked questions about the process. If you’re looking for information on uploading PDFs, please refer to this article:

Fastr Workspace - How to upload a PDF

Here’s the link to the article on updating the downloadable file: Fastr Workspace: Update Downloadable PDF

Combining PDFs

1. To get started with combining PDFs, you will need to have two publications in your account. Once the PDFs are uploaded, you can proceed with the merge process. In this example, I’m using two PDFs within the same publication slot, but you can also combine PDFs from different publication slots using this feature.
   
2. Once both PDFs are uploaded to your account, hover over a PDF and click the three dots that appear below it.
   

3. From the dropdown menu, select Combine Publication, which will present two options:

   Set as From Publication – This is the source PDF from which pages will be transferred. The From Publication will not change at all. This means the pages won't be removed or deleted, they will be duplicated. 
   Set as Into Publication – This is the destination PDF where the pages will be added. This PDF will be updated after making your changes. 
   

4. When you choose Set as From Publication, the selected PDF will appear in the From Publication section of the Combine Publications interface. Selecting Set as Into Publication will place the PDF in the Into Publication section.
   
5. To choose the other PDF for the Into Publication, you can repeat the same steps used for the From Publication, or simply drag the PDF into the Into Publication area from any content slot.
6. Once both PDFs are assigned, click Combine. This will open a new dashboard where you can either Replace or Insert pages.

Insert Pages

Here’s what each tool and option in the dashboard allows you to do in the Insert option:

1. Flip From and Into – Switches the From and Into PDFs, allowing you to reverse their roles. 

2. Insert - This option allows you to insert pages from the source PDF into the destination PDF.

3. Replace - Use this option to replace pages in the destination PDF using the source PDF

4. Preserve source links and widgets - This option is used when you want to preserve the source links during the page insertion process. It transfers the links and widgets to the destination PDF, maintaining the same positions as they had in the source pages.

5. Don't Preserve links and widgets - This option won't transfer any links from the source PDF.

6. Zoom In/Out – Helps you view the page thumbnails more clearly as you navigate.

7. Range – Allows you to select a range of pages (e.g., 1–5) quickly.

8. Jump To – Lets you jump directly to a specific page in long PDFs.

9. Restore Deleted / See Deleted Pages – Displays any pages that have been removed, giving you the option to restore them.

To transfer pages, simply select the desired pages from the From Publication section, then drag and drop them into the Into Publication section. You can place the pages exactly where you want them to appear.

From the screenshot above, you can see the two pages that were dragged and placed into the destination PDF. The orange border on the left side indicates the pages that were just inserted. You can also see both the source page number and the destination page number for each inserted page.

1. Undo Changes - This option will help you to undo the changes. Clicking on it will reverse the page transfer for that page.
2. Page adjustment -  This option will help you to move the page to the correct position after inserting the page to the destination PDF.

 Once you're done, click Finalize to complete the process. 
 

Replace Pages

Here’s what each tool and option in the dashboard allows you to do in the Replace option:

1. Flip From and Into – Switches the From and Into PDFs, allowing you to reverse their roles. 

2. Insert - This option allows you to insert pages from the source PDF into the destination PDF.

3. Replace - Use this option to replace pages in the destination PDF using the source PDF.

4. Use source links and widgets - This option is used when the user wants to preserve the source links while the replace pages process. This option will keep links and widget as it is of the source page.

5. Keep target links and widgets - This option does not transfer any links from the source page. All links on the destination page remain unchanged and retain their original positions on the newly inserted page.

6. Zoom In/Out – Helps you view the page thumbnails more clearly as you navigate.

7. Range – Allows you to select a range of pages (e.g., 1–5) quickly.

8. Jump To – Lets you jump directly to a specific page in long PDFs.

9. Restore Deleted / See Deleted Pages – Displays any pages that have been removed, giving you the option to restore them.

To transfer pages, select the desired pages on each side, then click the middle transfer option (Option 10). Note that the number of selected pages must be the same on both sides for the transfer to work.

After clicking the Replace button, the newly replaced page will be highlighted with a red border and will display the updated page number along with the source page number.

1. Undo Changes - This option will help you to undo the changes. Clicking on it will reverse the page replacement for that page only.

 Once you're done, click Finalize to complete the process. 

Whenever you make updates to a publication, the downloadable file is not updated automatically. To ensure the downloadable version reflects your latest changes, you’ll need to manually update it.

Here’s the link to the article on how to do this: Fastr Workspace: Update Downloadable PDF
 

FAQs

1. Will combining PDFs affect my original source files?
   • Answer: No. The original source PDFs remain unchanged. The combined result is created within the destination publication, so your source PDF stays intact.
2. Can I rearrange the pages after combining?
   • Answer: Yes. Using the Combine Publications dashboard, you can drag and drop pages to reorder them before finalizing.
3. How will this affect my mobile variant? Do I need to make the changes twice?
   • Answer: When using the Combine PDFs feature, it will make updates to both your mobile and desktop variants. At this time, we don't support the option to only combine Desktop, and leave mobile intact. If you plan on having different PDFs for Desktop and Mobile, we recommend uploading into a new Publication Slot. 
4. Will my downloadable PDF file get updated after Combining?
   • Answer: This is also part of our product roadmap, and we will be implementing this feature soon. Please reach out to support if you have any questions here

If you have any follow-up questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out to us at support@getfastr.com — we're happy to help! This feature is receiving continued support, so please let us know if you have any issues or feature requests!