The short answer
Extracting copies the pages you choose into a new document and leaves the original alone. It is the right move when someone asked for two pages of a ninety-page report — sending the whole thing makes them hunt, and may show them more than intended.
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Step by step
- Find the page numbers you actually need Use the page numbers your reader shows, not the ones printed on the page. A report with roman-numeral front matter makes those two different things.
- Enter the range Single pages, ranges and combinations all work — 4, 7, 12-18. The order you type is the order they appear in the result.
- Extract and check the first and last page Off-by-one is the usual error, and it shows immediately at the edges of each range.
- Check what the extracted pages still carry A page keeps everything that was on it, including headers, watermarks and a footer naming the document it came from.
- Clear the metadata if it is going outside The new file inherits the author and title from the original, so an extract from an internal report arrives labelled as one.
Questions
What is the difference between extracting and deleting pages?
Extracting builds a new document from the pages you name and leaves the original intact. Deleting produces the same document minus those pages. Use extract when you want a few pages, delete when you want to lose a few.
Do the extracted pages keep their bookmarks?
Bookmarks pointing at pages inside the range are kept; ones pointing at pages you did not take have nowhere to go and are dropped.
Can I extract every other page?
Type the numbers you want. For long alternating ranges — pulling every front out of a duplex scan, for example — splitting in a way built for that pattern is quicker than listing them all.
More in Merge & Organize PDF Pages .