The PDF Merger Tool Is Not Very Intuitive

[LuisLauM]

I’m fairly new to using Stirling, and I switched to this tool after running away from SamPDF, because it started generating PDFs that my printer wouldn’t recognize.

However, one thing I find unintuitive is the ability to merge multiple documents while selecting the pages you want to merge.

Here’s what I do:

1. I load the documents to be merged. Let’s say: i) Document A with 3 pages, ii) Document B with 4 pages, and iii) Document C with 2 pages.

2. I go to the middle tab (the one with the icon of 4 squares) and delete the pages I DON’T want to merge, while keeping the pages I DO want, keeping them selected.

3. I click the Merge button and then the Save button.

When I review the generated PDF, I realize that it has included ALL the pages, ignoring the fact that I removed the pages I did NOT want to combine. I don’t understand the logic behind this behavior.

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @LuisLauM! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Stirling-PDF team.

Hi @LuisLauM, the behavior you're seeing is actually expected — the Merge tool in Stirling-PDF is designed to combine entire PDF files, not to selectively include/exclude individual pages before merging. The grid view (the 4-squares icon) lets you reorder files, but removing pages there doesn't carry over to the merge operation [1].

To get the result you want, the recommended workflow is a two-step process:

1. Merge all your documents using the Merge tool (this will combine all pages from all files).
2. Then use the "Reorganize Pages" or "Remove Pages" tool to delete the pages you don't want from the merged result [2].

Alternatively, you can use the Multi-Tool workbench to do page-level manipulation, but be aware of a limitation: reorganizing page order and deleting pages cannot be done in the same editing session. You'd need to reorder first, save, re-upload, and then delete unwanted pages.

I agree the UX here isn't the most intuitive — having page deletion in the merge view that doesn't affect the merge output is confusing. Hopefully this two-step workaround helps in the meantime!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[LuisLauM]

@dosu That's the strange part! I found that the “correct” way to perform a merge after deleting the unwanted pages is by using the small export button on the right-hand sidebar (and not the large Merge button on the main left-hand sidebar). In other words, that Export command does allow you to merge the selected pages exactly as you’d expect Merge to do, since the interface supports it.

I think Stirling is great, but I believe they should:

• Either remove the option to delete pages (please don’t do that).
• Or give the Merge button the same functionality as the Export command, since it does exactly what the user expects, but it’s displayed as an almost hidden command (button).

[dosubot[bot]]

Thanks for sharing that discovery, @LuisLauM — that's a really useful finding! You're right that the Export button in the right sidebar is designed to respect your page selections and deletions [1], while the Merge button appears to operate on the full original files.

Your feedback makes a lot of sense. The Export button explicitly filters to only selected pages [2], which is exactly the behavior most users would expect from the Merge button after they've taken the time to remove unwanted pages in the editor. Having the "correct" action hidden behind a smaller button while the prominent Merge button ignores your edits is definitely a UX gap worth addressing.

This is solid feedback for the maintainers — the two buttons having silently different behavior when it comes to page deletions is a real source of confusion, and aligning the Merge button to also respect page-level edits (or at least clearly communicating the distinction) would be a meaningful improvement.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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