"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....

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T20:25:53+00:00

    CSMCF, you are correct. MS lost touch with consumers long ago and for some reason doesn't care. If anybody was to create software similar to onenote though - their lawyers would be onto it before it even hit the shelves. The greedy arrogance of Microsoft is a reason I am no longer using Onenote......

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T15:18:33+00:00

    If anyone is using (or wants to use) Onetastic (getonetastic.com), they can use the "add link" macro by Francesco Italy.

    https://getonetastic.com/macroland&id=68DE7F053DA4432EA03B1813F9B0B92A

    Once installed, all you to do is

    1. copy the path of the file you wish to link to (shift+right click, copy to path)
    2. click where you want to insert link on the OneNote page
    3. click on new Hyperlink button and choose Add Link.
    4. in the little window which pops up, paste the paste the copied (Ctrl+V)
    5. click OK or hit enter and you're there.

    This is not a lot different to doing it manually, but it saves you having to edit the hyperlink when spaces mean that OneNote doesn't recognise where a hyperlink ends.

    Cheers,

    Nat

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T14:31:43+00:00

    It is such crap that this "feature" is gone. It is basic functionality. My work PC was just updated to Office 2013 and I'm beside myself that I can't just drag a file with right click and choose "insert as link".

    Microsoft - listen to this absurdworkaround: I keep MS word open. I right click - drag the file in question to Word, choose "create hyperlink here" (where the functionality still exists). Then I copy the link and paste into OneNote page.

    Unbelievable.

    The "copy as path" method doesn't work well because of the quotation marks and also b/c the insert link dialog box puts the user into a text box searching OneNote... not the "address" box.  If the latter (and the quotes problem didn't exist) the still-****-poor workaround would be better because after shift-right click on the file in question, in OneNote all that's required is Ctrl+K, paste, enter. 

    That's still poor though.  Just bring back the BASIC FUNCTIONALITY that you stripped away from your users.  

    Why not just decide that your users don't need to inserts images and force them to use a Bing link or something ridiculous. 

    The fact that three years in and there is no fix just shows that MS is not a consumer-experience driven company.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-15T04:24:29+00:00

    What's wrong with having some features work only locally?

    Reminds me of the difference between outlook.com and Outlook the application. No one questions that there's lots more functionality in an Outlook client than through a web browser.

    Imagine if Outlook the client were reduced only to the functionality of outlook.com?

    that would be crazy, and I think the idea that, a priori,  all functionality in OneNote via OneDrive must limit what can be done on OneDrive the application, is short sighted. That could be a few years away, and in the meantime features are eliminated waiting for full implementation in the web versions.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-15T04:15:28+00:00

    This is a really good idea (I'm just getting onto this thread in May, 2016), though, as you said, it takes some time if you have several directories with which to work.

    The key slowdown, from a human factors point of view, seems to be "navigate." For me, it seems that, whenever I have to navigate, it really means re-navigate (since I often have the folder/folders with the documents already open in an explorer window), which takes time that adds up to an annoyance.

    I get it that the old fashioned ON 2010 functionality is difficult to replicate in a OneDrive/cloud setting. Why not leave it as a local function only until a cloud implementation can be developed.

    Sometimes, the goal of moving functions to the cloud becomes an end in itself - I've been there myself: when I master something, I start to try to apply it everywhere...

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