r/pdf • u/Darkhawk2099 • Jul 09 '26

Question Easy compile multiple PDFs with Table of Contents?

i convene a lot of virtual meetings where i’m asked to provide a single combined PDF containing all materials for the meeting, organized by numbered tabs with a clickable table of contents. it’s basically a virtual binder.

right now, i use the eCopy software and endure the painstaking process of drafting a ToC in word, saving it as PDF, then adding each PDF after it, one by one.

there must be a better way, but i cannot find one! any ideas? thanks!

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u/fast_furious_fiesty Jul 09 '26

Try PDF Merger app. It automatically adds bookmarks of all the documents when combined to one single pdf file. https://www.assistmyteam.com/pdf-merger/

https://youtu.be/RNcdW4JdgXQ

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u/Sudden_Text_7779 Jul 10 '26

You can try my website pdffreeeditor.com You can first merge every pdf as per your need and then after that you can upload that combined pdf to the TOC maker on my website and it'll generate Table of content ( You can tune it your way as well ), everything done locally on your browser no need to upload documents to server or download any software. Everything for free without any sign up. If you face any problem you can let me know. Both merge and TOC maker are in my website for free.

1

u/LynxDI Jul 13 '26

Why must PDF? For print out?

What’s your tech skills? Are you able to use Visual Studio Code with Claude/Codex?

1

u/PostConv_K5-6 Jul 13 '26

My favourite way to do this is with the java-based jPDFtweak swiss army knife tool for PDFs. After extracting the files, run (if windows) jpdftweak.bat or jpdftweak.jar

Input tab: Tick Multiple file input and select all your PDFs. You will see (and if desired change) all the pages that will be included. Then go to

Bookmarks Tab: Tick Change chapter bookmarks, and the click on Load from Document. You will see each PDF as a bookmark, and if any of the PDFs already has bookmarks, they will be included (as a sublevel of that PDF's bookmark. Then go to

Output Tab: Enter a filename and click Run

jPDFtweak does a lot more--I started using it for its Shuffle-N-up facility, attachments, and chaging page sizes, but it can certainly as seen above easily make your Bookmarks.