Combine PDF exhibits into one filing-ready PDF — without uploading them

Drop in scans, contracts, screenshots, and Word drafts. Order them, label them, output a single PDF for court — all on your computer. Mac and Windows.

Download FileHop See the PDF Merge tool

The short answer

Most federal courts want exhibits combined into one PDF, separated by slip sheets, bookmarked, under a per-court size limit (typically 35–50MB), and ideally with metadata stripped. You can do all of the file-handling locally in FileHop's desktop app — the merge, the reorder, the compress, the metadata strip — and add bookmarks at the end in whichever PDF editor your firm already uses. The exhibits never have to leave your computer.

Before you start: what your court actually requires

Local rules vary, but four requirements show up in almost every federal district and most state e-filing portals. Verify each one against your court's specific rule before you file.

A single combined PDF (in most federal districts) or a set of separately-filed exhibits (some districts, oversize cases) — check your court's local rules.
A size cap that varies by court — federal CM/ECF limits run from roughly 3MB to 200MB per file (table below); state e-filing portals can be tighter (5MB and 2MB caps are common).
Slip sheets between exhibits — a one-page divider that reads 'Exhibit A' (or '1', or 'A-1' depending on whether you are plaintiff or defendant and which convention your court follows).
Electronic bookmarks linking to the first page of each exhibit — required in California state appellate (Rule of Court 8.74), required in the 9th Circuit (Technical Guide for PDF Documents), strongly recommended in most federal districts.

PDF size limits in major federal courts

Eight representative federal courts. This is not exhaustive — many districts publish their own limit, and several state portals are tighter still. The authoritative per-court source is the PACER CM/ECF help center.

Court / district	Per-file PDF size limit	Source
PACER / CM/ECF default	varies — set per court	PACER FAQ
C.D. Cal. (CACD)	35 MB	cacd.uscourts.gov
E.D. Pa. (PAED)	50 MB	court local rules
W.D. Wash. (WAWD)	100 MB	court local rules
S.D.N.Y. (SDNY)	10 MB per attachment	ECF tip sheet
W.D. La. (LAWD)	50 MB	lawd.uscourts.gov
N.D. Cal. (CAND)	50 MB combined	cand.uscourts.gov
U.S. Court of Federal Claims	up to 200 MB	court local rules

If your filed PDF will land over your court's limit, the compression step (Step 6) and split fallback (FAQ 6) cover both ways out. A dedicated guide on ECF size limits per court is planned as a sibling article.

Combining exhibits into one filing-ready PDF, step by step

Seven steps. Steps 1–4 and Step 6 happen inside FileHop. Step 5 (bookmarks) happens in whichever PDF editor your firm already owns. Step 7 is a three-minute verification.

1

Step 1: Gather and rename the source files in filing order

Put every exhibit in one folder. Name each file with a leading number or letter that matches the exhibit label: '01_Exhibit-A_Contract.pdf', '02_Exhibit-B_Email.pdf', and so on. This is the single highest-leverage step — FileHop merges files in the order you drag them in, and a clean file-name sort prevents the 'Exhibit C came before Exhibit B' problem every paralegal has hit. If any source is a Word document, export it to PDF (File → Save As → PDF) first; if any source is an image or screenshot, leave it as-is — FileHop handles mixed PDF inputs.
2

Step 2: Build your slip sheets (the one-page 'Exhibit A' dividers)

Open Word or Pages, create a one-page document containing only the words 'Exhibit A' centered in large type, and save as 'slip_A.pdf'. Repeat for B, C, D and however many exhibits you have. Yes, this is manual — and yes, every litigation paralegal does it this way. FileHop does not auto-generate slip sheets; what it does is let you drop them into the merge order alongside the actual exhibits, locally, without any of these draft pages touching a third-party server. Build slip sheets once for a matter and save the templates — you will reuse them for the next filing.
3

Step 3: Merge into a single PDF in FileHop

Open FileHop and choose PDF → Merge. Drag your renamed exhibits and slip sheets into the file list in the order you want them in the final binder: slip_A.pdf → 01_Exhibit-A_Contract.pdf → slip_B.pdf → 02_Exhibit-B_Email.pdf, and so on. Re-order by dragging if anything is out of place. Click Merge. The file is built on your computer — nothing uploads.
→ Open the PDF Merge tool
4

Step 4: Fix any wrong page order or orientation

If the merge order ended up wrong — slip sheet behind the wrong exhibit, an extra blank you did not notice, or a scanned page that came in sideways — fix it on the combined file instead of redoing the whole merge. FileHop runs every page-level operation locally on the merged output, so the file still does not leave your computer.
5

Step 5: Add bookmarks (in your existing PDF editor, after the merge)

If your court requires electronic bookmarks — California state appellate (Rule of Court 8.74), the 9th Circuit per its Technical Guide for PDF Documents, and many federal district courts do — open the merged file in Adobe Acrobat, Power PDF, PDFpen, or whichever PDF editor your firm uses, and add a bookmark at the first page of each exhibit. Name each bookmark with the exhibit label and a brief description ('Exhibit A — Master Services Agreement'). This is the one step FileHop deliberately does not automate: the bookmark naming convention is jurisdiction-specific, and the lawyer is in a better position to write the descriptions than any tool. The good news is you only run this final pass once per filing.
6

Step 6: Strip metadata and compress to fit the court's limit

Back in FileHop: open the bookmarked merged file, choose PDF → Compress, and turn on the 'Remove metadata' option. This strips author, producer, creation/modification timestamps, and XMP — anything that would betray which workstation produced the file or carry tracked-changes residue from a source document. Pick a quality level that lands you under your court's size limit. Save. The file is now court-ready: combined, ordered, slip-sheeted, bookmarked, metadata-clean, and the right size.
→ Open the PDF Compressor
7

Step 7: Verify the file before filing

Close the final PDF and reopen it cold. Click through every bookmark and every slip sheet. Confirm pages are right-side-up, exhibits are in the order your filing actually references, and the metadata pane shows no author or tracked-changes residue. This is a three-minute check that prevents a thirty-minute re-file. If you redacted anything inside any of the exhibits before merging, double-check the redactions held when the file was flattened by the merge.

When to combine versus when to file separately

Most filings call for a single combined PDF. A handful do not. The decision is mostly mechanical — court rule plus file size plus number of exhibits.

Combine into one PDF when

✓All exhibits are under your court's combined size limit (commonly 35–50MB total)
✓The exhibits are related to the same motion or filing
✓Your court's local rule expressly allows combined exhibits (most federal districts do — check)
✓You have five or fewer single-page exhibits — combine them rather than file five tiny attachments

File separately when

→The combined file would exceed the court's size cap even after compression
→Local rules require each exhibit as a separate attachment (some bankruptcy districts; check)
→One exhibit is much larger than the others (e.g., one 50-page exhibit and five 1-page exhibits — keep the big one separate)
→You are filing under seal — sealed exhibits typically go as their own attachment

Why this workflow runs locally — and what 'local' actually means

The 'without uploading them' line in the headline is the wedge for this guide. Here is what it means in practice, with the limits stated honestly.

•Files are processed on your computer. The merge, the reorder, the compression, and the metadata strip all run inside the FileHop desktop app — your exhibits do not transit our servers.
•No telemetry on file contents. We do not log what you merged, what was in it, or what court you were filing in.
•No AI training on your files. We do not use your documents to train models.
•Open output format. FileHop writes standard PDF — no proprietary container, no lock-in, opens in any PDF reader your court uses.
•Honest scope: cloud OCR (for searchable-text exhibits) is opt-in and clearly labelled in the app. If you do not turn it on, no part of the file leaves your computer.

Why uploading sensitive files to online converters is a problem → How offline conversion actually works → FileHop for lawyers — the full workflow set →

Sources cited in this guide

Authoritative pages used to verify the requirements above. No endorsement implied.

FAQs

Do I need to add bookmarks to a combined PDF before filing in federal court? ▼

Required in some courts — California appellate via Rule of Court 8.74 and the 9th Circuit per its Technical Guide — strongly recommended in most federal districts, and a best practice everywhere. FileHop does not auto-add bookmarks; do that step in your existing PDF editor after the FileHop merge.

What is a slip sheet and is it really required? ▼

A slip sheet is a one-page divider that reads only 'Exhibit A' (or B, 1, 2, and so on). When you combine multiple exhibits into one PDF, courts use slip sheets to make each exhibit visually distinct in the binder. Most federal courts require or strongly recommend them; N.D. Cal. explicitly does. Build them in Word, save as PDF, and drop them into your merge order.

How big can a PDF be in CM/ECF? ▼

There is no single PACER-wide limit — it is set per court and ranges from roughly 3MB (some bankruptcy districts) to 200MB (the U.S. Court of Federal Claims). Most federal districts land between 35MB and 50MB. Always check your specific court's local rule.

Can I combine exhibits in Adobe Acrobat instead? ▼

Yes — Adobe Acrobat Pro, Power PDF, PDFpen, and most desktop PDF editors will combine PDFs. The reason to consider FileHop specifically is that the file never uploads to a third-party server (Adobe's hosted online merger does upload), the merge is free to run as many times as you need, and the metadata-strip step is built into the same workflow.

Does FileHop do Bates numbering? ▼

No. Bates stamping is not a FileHop feature today. If your filing requires Bates numbers, do that step in Adobe Acrobat, Power PDF, or a dedicated Bates tool before or after the FileHop merge. We would rather acknowledge the gap than overpromise.

What if my combined exhibit PDF is over the court's size limit? ▼

Two options. First, compress in FileHop (PDF → Compress, with 'Remove metadata' on) to a quality level that lands under the limit — for most scan-heavy exhibit sets this yields a 60–80% size reduction without a readability hit. Second, if compression is not enough, split into smaller files using FileHop's Split PDF tool and file as multiple attachments per your court's separate-attachment rule.

Will combining the PDF strip the metadata from each source file? ▼

Not automatically. The merge step preserves metadata from the source PDFs. To strip metadata, run the merged file through PDF → Compress in FileHop with 'Remove metadata' enabled. This removes author, producer, creation/modification timestamps, XMP, and any tracked-changes residue the source files were carrying.

Can I do this on an iPad or Linux machine? ▼

Not today. FileHop runs on macOS and Windows. iPad and Linux are not supported, and we will not promise a timeline.

Is uploading exhibits to a free online PDF merger a real problem? ▼

Yes, and most state bars expect counsel to think about it under the 'reasonable security measures' standard articulated in ABA Formal Opinion 477R. Free online mergers' terms of service almost universally grant the operator some right to your uploaded content; for client files protected by privilege or under a protective order, that is a problem you do not want to explain to your client or to opposing counsel. Process locally.

Can FileHop e-sign or certify the combined PDF? ▼

FileHop supports drawn signatures — you draw with a mouse or trackpad and FileHop places the image on the PDF. It does not currently issue certificate-backed digital signatures. If your court requires a PKI-backed e-signature for the cover page, do that step in Adobe Acrobat or a certificate authority's signing tool before filing.

One last thing before you file

Open the final PDF cold, click through every bookmark and slip sheet, check the metadata pane, and confirm the file size is under your court's cap. Three minutes of verification saves a same-day re-file. If you are a lawyer doing this kind of file work regularly — combine, compress, redact, annotate, sign — the persona page at /for/lawyers/ is the broader workflow set.

Download FileHop (Mac + Windows) See the full lawyer workflow set