Meanwhile, I can offer a workaround.
Instead of placing the PDF, try to open it. Illustrator would offer to choose pages, and if you keep the 'Import DF pages as links for optimal performance' option checked, you’ll get these pages linked, to move them into the actual document you needed them within.
But sure I agree that the Import Options dialog on Place should just allow this too.

When using 'Place' to add a file into an Illustrator document, intead of just having the ability to add one page at a time, I would like to see a button to add multiple pages, or ALL the pages in the window.

Hi Guys,

Not sure if these is some confusion to the question here or not but hopefully this clears it up if so....

Say i have a document already open and i am setting this document for print. I want to PLACE/LINK a Mulit-page PDF into my print document (not on about opening a multi-page PDF that's completely different). I would have to place the PDF i am after and choose which page i want i.e Pg 1, then in order to place the second page, go back to place, choose the same PDF and choose Pg 2 and so on and so on, this is just time consuming.

It should be like when you open a multi-page PDF it gives you option of what page, a range, or all pages.

To cover any other questions as to why i would need them to be linked...

1) So then i can go back to the original file if needed and do changes them rather than altering my print document, saving time and effort.

2) Makes my file quicker working when linked than original artworks.

Thanks.

Anthony, can you record this behavior on video, so that a team can reproduce it at their side, please? A test PDF would be nice to have as well.

Like other commenters have said, you can open a multi-page PDF with Illustrator and then select the option to "Import PDF pages as links". Check out the attached screenshot of the dialogue showing this option. And then you can copy those linked pages to any other document.

However, there are two major bugs with this workflow.

1) The crop setting changes when pasted into another document. If the pages originally included bleed, the pasted linked will not have the bleed. Or if there is empty space around the contents of the page, the empty space will be cropped out.

2) The pasted object is scaled differently as well when the crop setting is changed.

These issues make this workflow nearly unusable for me.

Well, so far we can import the range of PDF’s pages into a new document, as linked or embedded objects, and then drag-n-drop them into the document we want them to be placed in.
Two steps instead of one, but it works. Does it for you?

Jason, yes you can open a Multi-page PDF as separate artboards that's fine I understand that, but that's not what I was trying to say. You cannot place a multi-page PDF in one go, you have to keep going back through the finder to the same file and relink the second page and then the third and so on. You should be able to choose a file and choose a selection of 1-5 pages and place them with each click.

This exists on Mac, drag a multi-page PDF to the Illustrator dock icon. Not sure about Windows.

Our studio saves all our files for print with full Illustrator editing capabilities, as we often need to re-use artwork from previous jobs.
We also need to place copies of the print files on a proof page for QA before printing.
We prefer to place linked files on the proof page, so if they change it 'automagically' updates.
Occasionally we might have print files with as many as 400 plus artboards.
Currently, the only way for us to place linked images of a multi-page pdf is to place each page individually, which can be time-consuming, to say the least.
Also, if you accidentally switch tools in the middle of opening placed files, you can lose your progress.
I want to be able to use the 'import pdf menu' on all pdfs, to place all pages as links.

You mean in an existing document? Like you have some pages made already, and now you want to place pages from PDF on other blank artboards?

Working at a design studio, we create digital proofs that are set up on a template so our proof pages all look streamlined. We use one working file (.AI) and place that file as linked images into a separate proof file (.AI).

Currently you can only place one page of the AI or PDF file at a time. This can be really tedious when there are a dozen or more images we want to place. We like to maintain the link so that we don't need to export files to relink to the proof file every time we want a new proof.

The place feature in InDesign is exactly what I'm looking for: choosing my working AI file, "loading" the pointer with every artboard/page, and dropping all of them into our proof file in one swing.

perfect

Hello,
I have to place multi-page pdf's on a daily basis at work. The File, Open command let's me choose a pdf file and select which pages to open in Illustrator. It even has the option of opening them as links. This is great! Now, would it be possible to have Illustrator create artboards and populate them with pages from the pdf file? Perhaps through a dialog box? Thank you for your time!