How to Delete Pages from a PDF on Mac

Sometimes, the clearest path to editing a PDF is to simply remove a page you don’t want to be there. The problem? Editing PDFs on a Mac can sometimes feel confusing. That’s particularly true if you don’t have the right software to handle it.

Below, we’ll explore some of the best ways to edit a PDF by doing something simple: deleting the unwanted pages entirely. Here are the best ways to go about it:

How to Delete a Page from a PDF on Your Mac

Let’s say you have only one page to delete. You have a PDF document, you know which page needs to be deleted, and you’re ready to go. How should you go about it? If you have Nitro PDF Pro for Mac open, it will be easy to edit your PDF files and make quick work of it:

• Open the PDF within Nitro PDF Pro for Mac.
• Show the Thumbnail View within the sidebar. To do this, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar.

• Alternatively, select Thumbnails from the menu (View -> Thumbnails).
• Go to the thumbnail of the page you want to delete. Select it with your mouse cursor.
• Using your Mac, you can press Delete on the keyboard. Or you can go to Edit -> Delete or Edit -> Cut on your menu, as you can see below.

And that’s it. Make sure that you watch the thumbnails on the left to watch for the changes. The page shouldn’t only disappear from the main viewer, but from the thumbnail view as well.

To confirm that the page is gone, you may want to click on the preceding page in the thumbnail view. Then scroll to the next page. Is it the correct next page you wanted? If so, you’ve successfully removed the page from the PDF. Save your changes.

Deleting Multiple Pages

In an ideal world, you’ll only have one page to delete. But what happens when you need to get rid of multiple pages within the same document?

There are a few options here. First, we’ll tackle what happens when you have multiple pages in a row.

When You Have Multiple Pages in a Row to Delete

• Open the file within Nitro Sign.
• Show the Thumbnail View within the sidebar. To do this, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar.
• Alternatively, select Thumbnails from the menu (View -> Thumbnails).
• Go to the first page you want to delete. Select this thumbnail, then Shift-Click the thumbnail at the last of the range of pages that you’re choosing to delete.
• Confirm that the pages that you want to delete are currently selected, and no other pages.
• Using your Mac, you can press Delete on the keyboard. Or you can go to Edit -> Delete or Edit -> Cut on your menu.

This will give you a quick way to delete pages when you know you have a few in a row. But sometimes you may not have a few pages conveniently in a row like this. What can you do when you need to select multiple pages that don’t appear consecutively?

When You Have Multiple Pages (That Don’t Appear Consecutively) to Delete

If you know your way around a Mac mouse, you can simply use the steps so far and click the appropriate pages. However, you may be unfamiliar with this technique, which is why we’ll explain it below:

• Open the file within Nitro Sign.
• Show the Thumbnail View within the sidebar. Once again, you can click the Sidebar button
  

in the toolbar, or you can select Thumbnails from the menu (View -> Thumbnails).

• Now go to the sidebar and view the pages you want to delete.
• Command-click with your Mac mouse, selecting only those pages you know you want to delete.
• Once again, using your Mac, you can press Delete on the keyboard. Or you can go to Edit -> Delete or Edit -> Cut on your menu.

Note: this will only delete the highlighted pages, not the pages in between. To do that, you’ll want to refer to the previous section. Remember that the program will only delete the selected pages.

Once again, you should review the remaining pages on the PDF to see that the pages you do want there remain there. Remember to save your changes.

Will Deleting Pages on a PDF Affect the Table of Contents?

We’ve all been there before: struggling with the Table of Contents. Ideally, you would insert the Table of Contents last, when anything else you do within a document wouldn’t affect them.

But let’s say that you did some edits within your PDF and noticed that the Table of Contents changed. What can you do to edit this Table of Contents and make sure the table accurately reflects what’s in the PDF?

• Go to Edit -> Table of Contents within Nitro Sign.
• To edit a specific entry in the Table of Contents, double click on that entry. This will give you the capacity to edit the text directly. (Do this if, for example, the page is accurate but you need to change the title of the entry).

To Reassign the Destination of a Table of Contents shortcut, you can do the following:

• Select the entry, the destination of which you want to change.
• Select text in the document. Specify a new destination for the existing entry.
• Choose Set Destination in the “Cog” menu.

To Demote an entry in your Table of Contents, consider these steps:

• Select your entry.
• In the Cog Menu

choose Demote. The entry will become a subheading if it was a heading, for example.
You can similarly edit your Table of Contents by selecting other options in the Cog Menu with your section highlighted. Poke around with the functionality and see how well you can line up the Table of Contents with the real content in the PDF.

Tips for Deleting Pages from a PDF on Mac Devices

“Delete” can be a scary key to enter. If you’re working with an important business document in a PDF, you don’t want to delete anything that shouldn’t be deleted. And you certainly don’t want to lose vital business information. To make sure you go about it the right way, use the following tips:

• Always make sure you’ve highlighted the right pages before deleting them. This should go without saying, but once you get used to deleting pages from a PDF on Mac devices, you’ll probably start to move through them quickly. In that case, you might do the wrong thing without noticing it. For example, you might Command-Click when you thought you’ve Shift-Clicked, which then only deletes two pages. You’ll then be surprised to see that some of the pages you thought would be deleted remain. Or you may do the reverse, wondering where some pages went. To help mitigate this, always double-check that you’ve highlighted the correct pages for deletion. Always do this before you save the new version; otherwise you may have to revert to an earlier version of the document and start the process all over.
• Save multiple versions of the document. If you do make a mistake, it’s always nice to have a separate copy of the file for further editing. This way, a mistake like deleting the wrong pages might be inconvenient, but it doesn’t have to be catastrophic. You can simply turn to the old file version and begin editing again. Hopefully, this time you’ll remember to save a copy of the file in question.
• Try it out on a less important PDF first. You can follow the instructions on this page for the first time and get some good results. But you don’t want to feel like you’re experimenting on a PDF that’s too important. Instead, open an old PDF. Make sure it’s one you don’t need as much. Then try out the different instructions in this post. This will introduce you to the ins and outs of deleting PDF pages on your Mac. And if there are any blind spots, you can resolve those easily before you get to the main document.
  

Editing a PDF shouldn’t be too complicated. But it depends on what software you’re using. To try out Nitro Sign for free, sign up for a free trial and see everything you can accomplish when editing a PDF on your Mac device.