Reorder, Delete and Blank pages modules

Three complementary modules let you put pages back in order, remove them or clean them up. All three show the grid of document pages on the left and their options sidebar on the right. They are available from the Organization category of the Dashboard.

Reordering pages

The Reorder module is the main tool for direct page manipulation. It combines several sub-functions in a single window.

Drag and drop

The main way of working is drag and drop in the left-hand grid: hold the click on a thumbnail and drag it to its new position. A blue insertion line shows the target location before you release the click.

Rotation section

First select the pages to rotate by clicking their thumbnails. Two buttons are then available:

−90°: anticlockwise rotation (a quarter turn to the left);
+90°: clockwise rotation (a quarter turn to the right).

As long as no page is selected, the buttons are greyed out and a "Select pages to enable rotation" message is shown.

You can also reach rotation by right-clicking a thumbnail in the grid.

Page management section

Three actions are gathered in this section:

Insert a blank page: adds an empty page after the last selected page (or right at the end if nothing is selected). The format of the new page reuses that of the preceding page, or A4 if there is no reference;
Duplicate selection: copies the selected pages and inserts them immediately afterwards;
Delete selection: removes the ticked pages from the grid. The button is disabled if the selection would cover every page of the document.

Reverse the order

At the very bottom of the panel, the Reverse order button turns the whole document around: the first page becomes the last, and vice versa. This action ignores the selection and always acts on the entire document.

Deleting pages

The Delete module is dedicated to safe deletion. It offers a more thorough view than simply deleting from the Reorder module grid.

"Current page only" mode

Enabled by default. In this mode, the action only deletes the page currently displayed. The button is then labelled "Delete page".

Custom selection

Turn off the Current page only switch to reach the advanced options:

Pages field: enter numbers or ranges separated by commas (e.g. 1-3, 5, 8) and click Apply to carry the entry over into the grid;
Even: selects every even page (2, 4, 6…);
Odd: selects every odd page (1, 3, 5…);
None: clears the selection.

Any selection made directly in the document grid (clicking a thumbnail) automatically switches the module to custom mode, and updates the range field accordingly.

An information line "X page(s) selected" recaps the total targeted.

Safety

The Delete button is disabled in two cases:

no page is selected;
the selection would cover the entire document (HtkPDF requires that at least one page remains).

If the document already contains only one page, a "The document must contain at least one page" warning message is shown.

The button label adapts to the volume: "Delete page" or "Delete X pages".

Deleting blank pages

The Delete blank pages module automates detecting and removing empty pages, useful after a scan or a large clean-up.

Running the analysis

Click Analyse document to start detection. A progress indicator appears during the analysis, which uses visual heuristics (very few or no dark pixels).

Viewing the results

Once the analysis is finished, the Results section is shown with two possible cases:

No blank page detected: the module says so and simply offers to run the analysis again;
N blank page(s) found: the thumbnails concerned are highlighted in the left-hand grid, and a Delete blank pages button appears. You can go through the grid before confirming, to validate the result of the analysis visually.

Deletion

Click Delete blank pages to remove all the identified pages. As with the Delete module, the button becomes disabled if the deletion would result in an empty document.

After deletion, the analysis state is reset: to check that no blank page remains, run Analyse document again.

Confirming and history

The three modules run in the unified editing view and create a checkpoint in the History at each operation, through the Undo and Redo buttons available at the top of the sidebar. The Apply button (footer) closes the module and carries the changes over to the current document. Changes stay pending until they are explicitly saved from the Dashboard (⌘S).

Note: deleting pages also erases the links and table-of-contents entries that pointed to those pages; the sub-entries of an erased entry move up one level. Undoing the deletion brings back the pages and their entries. If your document is structured, check the Outline after a bulk deletion to confirm that the cross-references are still coherent.

Screenshots

4 screenshots — click to enlarge