How to split a PDF or extract pages

Two different jobs: extracting and splitting

People say split a PDF for two quite different things, and choosing the right one first saves time:

• Extract - you want *some* of the pages, as one new PDF. For example, the two pages of a 40-page contract that need a signature, or the payslip page from an HR bundle. Everything else is left out.
• Split - you want *all* of the pages, divided into several files. For example, a scanner saved twelve receipts as one PDF and you need twelve separate files, or a 60-page scan has to be cut into parts that fit an upload limit.

Split PDF does both. It asks which one you want, and before you press the button it tells you exactly what it will create.

Step by step: extract pages into one PDF

1. Open Split PDF and select your PDF, or drop it onto the box - one PDF at a time, up to 50 MB.
2. Choose Extract pages into one PDF.
3. Type the pages under Pages to extract, for example 1-3, 5 (see the examples below). A line under the box confirms what the new PDF will contain.
4. Press Extract pages and download the PDF.

Step by step: split into separate PDFs

1. Select your PDF and choose Split into separate PDFs.
2. Pick how to divide it: Every page gives one file per page; Every few pages lets you set how many pages go in each file; By ranges turns each range you type - such as 1-3, 4-6, 7- - into its own PDF.
3. Check the summary line, which lists the files that will be created.
4. Press Split PDF. Several files arrive as one ZIP, numbered so they stay in order; phones and computers open ZIP files without extra apps.

How to type pages and ranges

The same short notation works everywhere you type pages in SentrueFile:

Count from the start of the file. The numbers are positions in the PDF - 1 is always the first page - which can differ from the page numbers printed on the paper, especially in documents with a cover or Roman-numbered introduction. If in doubt, check the page in your PDF viewer's thumbnails first.

If you type a page the PDF doesn't have, or a range that runs backwards, the tool explains what's wrong before anything is created.

What happens to the pages

Splitting copies pages; it doesn't redraw or re-compress them. Each page in the new files is identical to the original, with the same text, pictures, size and orientation. Text you could search or copy before still can be.

As with merging, a few document-wide extras may not come along: bookmarks, fillable form fields and links between pages. Keep the original PDF if you need them.

When another tool fits better

• You want to see the pages while you choose - or reorder, rotate or delete them: Organize PDF shows every page as a preview.
• You need images, not PDFs - for a chat or a slide: PDF to JPG saves the pages you pick as JPG or PNG.
• You're splitting only to get under an upload limit - try Compress PDF first; a scan often shrinks enough to stay in one file.
• You need to put pages from several PDFs together - extract them here, then combine the results in Merge PDF.

Splitting confidential documents

Often the reason for extracting pages is privacy itself: sending a landlord one page of a bank statement instead of all of it, or a school the certificate without the rest of a file. Here the PDF is read and the new files are written by your browser on your own device - nothing is uploaded, so the pages you leave out never leave your computer or phone either.

Password-protected and restricted PDFs are refused, because they can't be changed. Save a copy without protection from the program that made the file, and split that.

Common splitting jobs and the settings for each

When you're splitting to get under an upload limit, start with fewer pages per file than you think you need: scanned pages vary a lot in size, and a part with several photo-heavy pages can be much bigger than the rest.

Naming and sending the parts

Split files arrive numbered in page order, which keeps them in sequence but doesn't say what each one is. Before sending, rename the parts to say what they contain - receipt-03-taxi.pdf, chapter-2.pdf, statement-march.pdf. The person receiving them will find what they need without opening every file, and you will too, months later.