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

I just tried selecting a bunch of files in a directory and choosing "Copy To Path" - dropped these into Excel, no problem with extra quotes.  Use the Hyperlink function in Excel to make links you can copy over to OneNote - or again, first copy them to Word, where you can remove the table formatting if you want.

Tip: In Excel, the file paths you've copied over from the file directory will be in a column. Copy these over to another column and use "Find/Replace" to remove the file path that precedes the file name. Presto, you now have nicely-formatted file names for the Hyperlink function.

I just want to say that I think it is unfortunate and baffling that the drag-to-link function has been disabled for OneNote 2013. I have a lot of goodwill for this application and for its developers, but this "feature claw-back" has a huge impact on its usefulness and leaves me apprehensive about what other features may have been rescinded in the 2013 version.

Here's one technique that will work with importing hyperlinks to OneNote 2013, and is actually better than the drag-and-drop method we had enjoyed through 2010, before that feature apparently got withdrawn...

I use this to drop in a large number of nicely-formatted links at one time into OneNote:

1. Import into Excel the file paths of the files you wish to link, as well as the file names. You can do this easily with a free utility like "Karen's Directory Printer": http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp

Karen's utility will spit out a text file that you can import into Excel.

2. Use Excel's "Hyperlink" function to make links out of the file paths and file names you've just imported.  Note that this actually is better than importing directly for Explorer, because with the Hyperlink function, you can easily format the links to show only the file names, not the full path. Cleaner.
3. You can then copy the file links in Excel and paste them into OneNote 2013. OneNote will put them into a one-column table; if you don't want this, paste the links into Word first... I tried it with 2013 just now and it did not paste my link into a table cell. I do know that 2013 has a "Convert Table To Text" command under the "Table Tools" Layout context menu, "Data" section.

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

Agreed, this change is completely backward. I would love to again be able to drag a file onto the OneNote page and insert a link to the file. Simple as that.

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.