Organizing pages
Page changes are workspace operations. Refr records the new page order, rotation and crop in the workspace and never edits the source PDF. Every operation can be undone with ⌘Z.
Organize pages mode
Choose All tools › Organize pages. The document is replaced by a grid of page thumbnails, and the tool panel shows the page commands. The selected page has a blue border.
- Click a page to select it.
- Drag a page onto another page to move it to that position.
- Double-click a page to open it in the document view.
- Click Back to document to leave the grid.
Choosing a drawing tool, or switching to another tab, also leaves Organize mode.
Page commands
These apply to the selected page (the current page in the document view):
| Command | Does |
|---|---|
| Rotate clockwise and Rotate counterclockwise | Turn the page 90°. Rotate on the navigation rail rotates clockwise from any mode. |
| Move page earlier and Move page later | Move the page one position |
| Duplicate page | Inserts a copy right after the page, with copies of its annotations |
| Delete page | Removes the page after you confirm |
| Insert blank page | Inserts a blank page after the current one, with the same size as the current page |
| Insert from PDF | Appends the pages of other PDFs or workspaces (see Combining files) |
| Extract pages | Exports chosen pages as a new PDF (see Extracting pages) |
| Split into PDFs | Saves every page as its own PDF in a ZIP archive (see Splitting) |
A workspace always has at least one page, so you can't delete the last one.
Annotations stay with their page when you rotate or move it. On a rotated page they turn with the content.
Combining files
Combine files (in All tools and on Home) and Insert from PDF (in Organize mode) let
you pick one or more PDFs or .pdfspace workspaces. Their pages are appended to the end
of the current document, with any annotations and bookmarks they have. Drag pages
afterwards to put them where you want.
The combined workspace keeps each source PDF as a separate source. Adding the same file twice is fine, because every page gets new identifiers. The combined sources can be at most 64 MB, and a workspace can have at most 4,096 pages.
Cropping
- Choose Crop page in Edit mode, or Crop pages in All tools.
- Drag a rectangle over the part of the page to keep.
The page now shows only that area, in the viewer and in exported PDFs. Reset page crop in Edit mode shows the whole page again. Crop is stored per page, and you can undo it.
Cropping is not redaction. The content outside the crop is still in the PDF. It's hidden by the page's crop box and can be recovered by anyone with a PDF editor. Never crop to hide sensitive information.
Extracting pages
Choose Extract pages (Organize mode) or Extract selected pages (Convert mode). Type the pages to extract and click Extract:
| You type | Refr extracts |
|---|---|
3 |
Page 3 |
1, 3-5 |
Pages 1, 3, 4 and 5 |
all, or nothing |
Every page |
Pages are extracted in the order you list them, and duplicates are skipped. Ranges must go
upwards (3-5, not 5-3). Refr then asks where to save the new PDF, suggesting
<title>-extract.pdf. The extracted PDF includes the pages' annotations, rotation and
crop. The current document doesn't change.
Bookmarks and page labels
Pages can have workspace bookmark names, which are shown under thumbnails as 3 · Summary.
See Bookmarks.