"Insert link to file"- where did this go?

Anonymous
2013-02-06T22:04:23+00:00

I'm an attorney, and I created a great litigation and trial-management system using only OneNote.  We put it to use in a large "mass action" case with over fifty plaintiffs and tens of thousands of exhibits.  The system allowed us to completely outmaneuver the plaintiffs at trial, and we were able to line up exhibits, deposition citations, and both direct and cross examination questions from a single program.   We all credit a great deal of our defense verdict to the system.

The key feature that let us build the various pages for trial quickly was the ability to drag and drop exhibit pdfs into the onenote pages as links to files.  Due to the sheer volume of exhibits, as well as the ease of using tables, links were far more effective than inserting the files directly, and certainly more effective than inserting printouts. 

With OneNote 2013, this mission-critical feature appears to be missing.  I can only insert the file, or insert a printout.  I don't want to do either- I want to insert a link.  I know that I can insert links using the manual "insert link" function, but that is slower and more error prone than the simplicity of the previous versions.  Am I missing a key option to trigger?  Or is this a missing feature from OneNote 2013?  If the latter, I suspect we will stick with 2010....

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-06-10T13:19:11+00:00

    Unfortunately this feature is missing from OneNote 2013. I will pass this request to the team and see if we can bring it back.

     

    Please do push this feature request to the OneNote development team. While pushing out Windows 8 and Office 2013 in our department (major University), we immediately got complaints from users that reply on this feature. These users track hundreds of related documents (relating to Grants, Research, Admissions, etc) in a wide variety of locations on shared drives. Without OneNote this would be much harder to do and extremely inefficient. 

    In Office 2010 you could navigate with Windows Explorer to your file or folder, right-click on the path in the address, chose “Copy Address,” Alt+tab to OneNote and Ctrl-V to paste the link.  In Windows 8, "Copy Address” is still on the context menu in the address field of Windows Explorer, but it won’t paste anything with Ctrl+V, and with the mouse (wasting precious time and wrist comfort) it will only paste if you choose the option paste as text. Or you can do Alt+H, V, T and then it will paste as text (Alt+H, V, M, and Alt+H, V, K give no results). Or you can do it through the Insert, Link, Browse to file, copy address, close, tab to Address in the Link Dialog window and paste.  It works, but is more cumbersome.

    Also, it is worth noting that OneNote integration is the only reason we use Outlook as a mail client. An argument could be made that is now the major reason we use Office applications in general. Please bring this feature back.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-07T07:54:49+00:00

    The other point to note here is that this functionality is as it was previously in Outlook 2013 and the other office apps.  The only one that changed behaviour and lost the ability to insert a link is OneNote 2013.

    There should at least be some sort of consistency across the suite.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-06T20:41:18+00:00

    I second the need to bring this functionality back.  I would expect to be "forced" to paperclip a copy of my actual document in a physical paper notebook, but why force me to duplicate my data by putting a forked copy of a document into OneNote?  This is fine if you're working with data that exists only in OneNote, but not at all useful when OneNote is simply another piece of a larger workflow.

    I don't consider the workarounds helpful at all.  They take me almost as much time as it would to break out my college-ruled notebook and write down the full path to my file.  In my book, this is the equivalent of removing the ability to search OneNote from the Start Menu (don't laugh; this functionality was removed in Outlook 2013).

    That said, thank you in advance for listening to customer feedback and bringing this time-saving feature back.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-05-20T21:27:30+00:00

    Unfortunately this feature is missing from OneNote 2013. I will pass this request to the team and see if we can bring it back.

    Having said that, what can we do to make this easier? One way to accomplish can be:

    1. Shift + right click on the file
    2. Choose Copy as Path
    3. Go to OneNote, Insert > Link
    4. Paste it to address

    Another way could be to insert a shortcut:

    1. Right click on the file
    2. Choose Create Shortcut. This will create a shortcut to the file
    3. Inserted the shortcut into OneNote as a file.
    4. Double clicking on it will open the original file.

    I know both are not as simple as the original feature and sound backwards. Sorry, as I said I will check with the team.

     

     

    Hello Omer,

    As you can see, I'm not the only person with this concern.  It's been a bit over three months- any news as to whether this functionality will return?  I have been sufficiently frustrated with the cumbersome and time consuming work arounds that I'm considering returning to 2010. 

    Note: I apparently used a different login for my original posting.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-05-17T16:46:59+00:00

    I know, that's the way it works ..

    Bernd

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