Splitting PDFs into single pages using Automator

Every quarter at Mozilla managers get an automatically generated PDF report that we need to split into single pages.

The first time, I did that with Preview.app... dragging each page out. Slow, but reliable! It was only two pages, so it's doable.

The second time, I automated it, using THE AUTOMATOR!

This app was introduced in 2005 in Mac OS X and I've never actually used it for good. Well, I'm glad I finally found some good use for it, as these reports are getting longer and I would rather spend my time on something more interesting than dragging thumbnails around :-)

https://youtu.be/d0LlhkjEsso

So, instructions if you don't like watching videos:

  1. Open Automator
  2. Create a new workflow
  3. Select Library... Ask For Finder Items... double click to add it to the workflow
  4. Select PDFs... Split PDF
  5. And RUN IT, using the bottom on the top right!
It will ask you for the PDF you want to split, then it will split it in pages and place it on the Desktop.

You could get fancier, and you probably still need to rename the individual files, but I haven't researched that bit yet.

Happy (and fast) splitting!