How to Combine Pages from Multiple Documents Into a Single New PDF

This guide explains how to combine pages from multiple documents into a single new PDF.

First, create a PrizmDocServerClient:

var prizmDocServer = new PrizmDocServerClient(/* your connection info */);

Then, call CombineToPdfAsync with a collection of ConversionSourceDocument instances, resulting in PrizmDoc Server combining the requested pages of those documents into a single new PDF:

IEnumerable<ConversionResult> result = await prizmDocServer.CombineToPdfAsync(
    new[] {
        // start with a boilerplate cover page
        new ConversionSourceDocument("boilerplate-cover-page.pdf"),
        // keep all but the first page of the "main" document
        new ConversionSourceDocument("project-proposal.docx", pages: "2-"),
        // end with a boilerplate back page
        new ConversionSourceDocument("boilerplate-back-page.pdf")
    }
);

This will upload all of the local files specified for each ConversionSourceDocument to PrizmDoc Server, ask PrizmDoc Server to combine the specified documents and pages to a PDF, and then return once the conversion is complete.

The returned result is just metadata about the output; the actual output file has not been downloaded yet. To actually download the result from PrizmDoc Server, call SaveAsync on the returned result:

await result.RemoteWorkFile.SaveAsync("output.pdf");

Or, if you'd prefer instead to download the bytes to a stream, call result.RemoteWorkFile.CopyToAsync:

await result.RemoteWorkFile.CopyToAsync(myStream);

Here is a complete example:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Accusoft.PrizmDocServer;
using Accusoft.PrizmDocServer.Conversion;

namespace Demos
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            MainAsync().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
        }

        static async Task MainAsync()
        {
            var prizmDocServer = new PrizmDocServerClient(/* your connection info */);

            // Take a DOCX file and replace its cover page with a boilerplate cover,
            // append a boilerplate back page, and then produce a new PDF.
            ConversionResult result = await prizmDocServer.CombineToPdfAsync(
                new[] {
                    // start with a boilerplate cover page
                    new ConversionSourceDocument("boilerplate-cover-page.pdf"),
                    // keep all but the first page of the "main" document
                    new ConversionSourceDocument("project-proposal.docx", pages: "2-"),
                    // end with a boilerplate back page
                    new ConversionSourceDocument("boilerplate-back-page.pdf")
                }
            );

            // Save the result to "output.pdf".
            await result.RemoteWorkFile.SaveAsync("output.pdf");
        }
    }
}

The CombineToPdfAsync method has additional options for applying headers and footers. See the CombineToPdfAsync reference documentation for more information. For an example of how to specify header and footer information, see How to Apply Headers and Footers.

Also, note that the CombineToPdfAsync methods are actually just convenience wrappers around the lower-level ConvertAsync methods. You could achieve the same sort of thing with a ConvertAsync call like so:

IEnumerable<ConversionResult> results = await prizmDocServer.ConvertAsync("project-proposal.docx", DestinationFileFormat.Pdf);
ConversionResult result = results.Single();

See the PrizmDocServerClient API reference for more information.