Inserting Files & Images in OneNote

Inserting files and images into OneNote is different than attaching files in OneNote. When you attach a file, you are linking from another source to a OneNote Page. It is link to a web page, link to file on your hard drive or link to another Notebook, Section or Page, for instance. The problem with attaching is when the source gets moved or disappears, your link may become invalid.

When you insert a file or image, it becomes part of the OneNote page regardless of where the source of the file or image is/was. The nicest thing about inserting a file or image is that it is actually there for you to “see”, making it much more useful for research planning, transcribing, data analysis, using the drawing tools to make notes on the image, etc.

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You can insert File Printouts, (Word Docs, PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets) Screen Clips, Pictures and Scans. I am going to walk you through inserting File Printouts and Pictures in this post. Screen clips were covered here. (Scans will come at a later time. Maybe a short post on embedding Excel Spreadsheets as well.)

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From the Insert Ribbon > Choose File Printout and navigate to the folder where your images are stored. Choose the file in your folder > Click Insert. The file will be inserted onto the page with a shortcut icon that links to the original file. (You can delete those.) The images can be resized and moved around the page.

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Insert Pictures works the same way as File Printout except that it defaults to looking in the Pictures Folder on your hard drive. One thing to note here is the Insert > Online Pictures option. You can insert pictures from searches on the web, your Facebook and Flickr accounts, (you will be asked to sign in to your accounts before they will be linked) and your OneDrive account.

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For me, a much simpler technique is to Drag and Drop the files and images onto the page. Use Windows Explorer to navigate the the folder where your images are kept. If you drag and drop an image, you don’t get the shortcut icon. When you drag and drop a PDF or Word Doc, you will be asked if you want to Attach File or Insert Printout. Choose Insert Printout if you want to “see” your file on the Page. (You will get the “link” icon for Word Docs and PDFs, but again, you can delete them.) If the image is in another Notebook, Section or Page, you can copy and paste the image to the new location or create a link to the image file at the new location.

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Cite This Page:

Erin Williamson Klein, “Inserting Files & Images in OneNote.” My Family History Files, 2 March 2015 (https://myfamilyhistoryfiles.com/organization/inserting-files-and-images-in-onenote : [access date]).

Please do not copy without attribution and link back to this page.

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