Splitting a 300-page handbook so each team only gets their section

We had one master onboarding PDF. HR needed policies, engineering needed security rules, sales needed pricing guardrails. Mailing the full 312-page file to everyone was how leaks happened.

Split by ranges, not by guesswork

Write down page numbers from the PDF viewer sidebar first. Off-by-one errors send the wrong appendix to the wrong Slack channel. I keep a tiny spreadsheet: team name, start page, end page, filename.

• Name outputs clearly: onboarding-engineering-v3.pdf
• Keep the master file read-only somewhere internal
• If pages shift, regenerate all splits — don't patch one slice by hand

Browser-based split avoids uploading the entire handbook to a converter with a vague privacy policy. For internal docs, that's often the difference between security approving the workflow or blocking it.