Why did the bookmarks sidebar disappear from my PDF after merging?
Because bookmarks are not part of the pages; they are a list stored at the level of the whole document. [[merge-pdf]] copies pages with their content and annotations into a new file and does not bring that list along. Everything you wrote is there, the sidebar is just empty, and page numbers plus a contents page make up for it.
Pages are one thing, the outline is another
Picture each file as a folder of sheets with an index card clipped to the outside. Merging in Merge PDFs takes the sheets out of every folder and puts them into a new folder in your order, while the index cards stay on the old folders. That is what happens here: text, images and links sitting on each page come across, and the bookmarks that live outside the pages do not.
You usually notice it with long files, such as a user manual, an annual report or a staff handbook, where the sidebar was how you jumped between sections.
Making up for the outline in the merged file
- After merging, open the file in PDF page numbering and stamp a number on every page, so readers can jump to any page from the page box in their viewer.
- Prepare a simple contents page listing each section and its page in the merged file, and save it as a PDF.
- Merge again with the contents page first in the list, then number the final file.
Three files: policies with 12 pages, prices with 4 and terms with 6.
With a contents page in front, the file has 23 pages: contents on 1, policies on 2 to 13, prices on 14 to 17 and terms on 18 to 23.
When that is not enough
If the sidebar is central to how people read the document, say a handbook of several hundred pages with many subsections, page numbers alone make for slow browsing. Then either send the files separately, each with its own bookmarks, or use a full desktop editor that rebuilds bookmarks after combining. Our tool does not do that, and it is better to know before you rely on it for a big handbook.
Common questions
Do the links inside pages disappear too?
Links placed on pages are annotations, which are copied with the page, so web links normally survive. What goes is the sidebar outline.
Have I lost any text?
No. Every page's content comes across in full. Only the navigation aid is missing.
Does document information such as the title come across?
No. Document metadata like the title and author is not carried over either, because, like bookmarks, it belongs to the document rather than a page.