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Preview used to open multiple PDFs in one window - by selecting multiple files in finder, you could right-click and open all of them together. This was particularly useful to 1) get a total page count of all documents combined and 2) Be able to search within all of the PDFs simultaneously.
Preferences -> Images has "open all in one window", but it seems to be nonfunctional - when I open multiple PDFs from finder, it opens in multiple windows even with this selected.
Oddly (to me anyway), I have also noted that in macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) it seems possible to change Preview behaviour by visiting System Preferences -> Dock -> Prefer tabs when opening documents manually (dock has little to do with finder or preview IMO). When this is changed to "always," you can open multiple documents in a tabbed format, but not in one window with each file on the lefthand side pane as before - this doesn't assist searching or getting a total page count.
The only workaround I have found so far is to drag and drop all files to one pre-existing preview window. You have to be exceptionally careful as dragging the document to the wrong area will add the PDF pages to the existing PDF, and even if you close preview, the changes persist.
1It is same for me in high sierra. What's worse is that I can't even drag and drop to an already existing window. – user26732 – 2017-11-21T17:29:42.930
1You can, you need to use the sidebar, and as I mention, be careful, it will merge the files and drop right in the middle of a file. – Gryph – 2017-11-22T18:10:10.150
I found it. I need to select the thumbnails view in sidebar to do drag and drop the files. Thanks, but it changes the original PDF as you mentioned. QA of apple is definitely deteriorating in every new release. I wish they reverse to the original way of opening multiple files. – user26732 – 2017-11-23T20:27:12.840
Update: This is a confirmed change in the function of MacOS, and not an error (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8265886). There are no effective workarounds (that are as quick in searching, especially), and so my daily workflow has been severely broken.
– Gryph – 2018-02-19T16:38:18.517One workaround for searching is to use Spotlight search in Finder. If you have all your pdfs in one folder you can search within that folder and it will search the pdf contents and match a file. Not as convenient though as you still have to open the file and search again within that file – Jason S – 2018-08-04T23:25:25.710
If you're going to edit my question, preserve grammar. The edits have made this question less intelligible. "have also noted that you can now in macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) the seem to have changed ". Come on. – Gryph – 2018-08-06T15:54:32.777