Kelly LaForest (Alumni)
As avid SharePoint users, my colleagues and I are conditioned to avoid sending documents as email attachments whenever possible. (Why? I’ll save that lengthy list of reasons for a separate blog post). Our rampant use of Microsoft OneNote to brainstorm, compose, compile and collaborate reinforces this best practice since obtaining a link to a page in a notebook is a two click process.
The “Copy Link to” button is hidden in the context menu – so a simple right click on a page is all it takes to have a link added to your clip board.
The link that is copied to the clipboard acts differently depending on the program it is pasted into. For example, when pasted into Microsoft OneNote, a hyperlink that points OneNote to that page is inserted.
When pasted into a document in Microsoft Word or into an email in Microsoft Outlook, two hyperlinks are inserted:
The first opens Microsoft OneNote and points you to the page:
The second opens Microsoft OneNote Web App in the browser and points you to the page:
If you prefer, you can also highlight the text of choice and insert a hyperlink, but I warn you – it will insert the link that opens the page in OneNote Web Apps in your browser.
How do I insert a hyperlink that opens the page in the OneNote program instead?
Pasting the copied link into a program like Notepad allows you to cut and paste the link that opens the page in the OneNote program.
Reminder: Links that start with “onenote:” open then OneNote Program. Happy Hyperlinking!
Thanks for the hyperlink workaround. Greatly helpful!
I’m pleased that you found it useful! It was tripping me up for quite some time before I figured it out.
Thanks for explaining this. The (Web view> hyperlinks in an email are confusing for some one who doesn’t use OneNote.
Typing the display text, selecting it, opening the hyperlink dialog with Ctrl-k, and pasting the link works well enough.
Kelly,
This worked great for me on one computer! However, I opened the MS Word doc and MS Excel doc that I inserted the links into from a different computer, and when I clicked on the hyperlinks it just opened up a blank browser. Both hyperlinks began with onenote:///, so somehow the system doesn’t know to open the program.
Originally I had both MS Onenote 2007 and 2014 installed on this computer. At first the hyperlink opened OneNote 2007. So I deleted that older version and now the hyperlink only opens a web browser. Do you have any suggestions as to what system settings I can change to make my hyperlink open the OneNote program?
Thanks so much!
I am not a Mac user, however what we’d do on a Windows machine is go into the Settings > Default Programs > set to the version of OneNote that you want to open your files to be your default.
This works fine for email, word, OneNote, etc. However, it fails in a SharePoint list. When we add a link to a row in a list it fails. If we take the onenote: out of the link, it will “kinda” work. However, it will only go to the notebook and section. Not the page. The same link will work in other tools, just not SharePoint. Is there a way to make this work?
Hi Eric,
Interesting. I’ve come across this bug many times where the link will only take you to the Section (and not the specific page). I’ve found it to not be specific to SharePoint. It’s happened in SharePoint, Skype for Business, Yammer, Wunderlist, etc.
The solution I found was to fully sync the Notebook before creating the Page link. It’s a known issue that if the sync doesn’t fully complete, then the link will take you to the section within a notebook where the page lives but not to the page.
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Now, I am curious when you say:
“If we take the onenote: out of the link…”
Do you mean:
1. You are using the bottom link but only deleting the “onenote:” part?
2. Or do you mean you are deleting the entire bottom link that has the “onenote:” in it, and only using the top link?
The bottom link has a section id and page id and the top link uses a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) so they will act in different ways.
Kelly,
Thank you for your reply. I tried your suggestion to ensure the Notebook was fully synced before I copied the link to the page. Unfortunately, we are still getting the same behavior. If I take the exact same link to any other document (word, email, even a different onenote page) it works as expected. So I believe the error is not in the actual URL we are linking with. It seems to be a SharePoint related issue. Perhaps it is something in our installation or configuration.
As to the actual link itself and removing onenote from the link. When we paste the URL into the SharePoint web address field it will begin with onenote:https://then the rest of the URL. If we leave the onenote: in the URL, we receive an error telling us it is an invalid URL. So we have to take onenote: out of the URL and it passes the error check.
Thanks for the help anyway. We will just have to live with this shortcoming in SharePoint. Just one more in the list. 🙂
That is very strange as we use SP 2013, 2016 and Online at itgroove and do not have issues with OneNote links in our pages or lists.
What I’m trying to say is do not use the bottom link at all. Removing the “Onenote:” part won’t fit anything either. If you paste it into a browser it’s going to try and download the .one file. It’s a file that’s designed for using the desktop application. You have to use the top link that does not contain the “Onenote:” to have a link that works for the browser, and therefore in SharePoint.
I have the same problem:
1. I right-click and Copy Link to Page.
2. I Send it to a coworker using Lync.
3. The coworker clicks the link and it brings them to the correct Section but incorrect Page.
What did you do to “ensure the Notebook was fully synced before I copied the link to the page”?
I am going to post this comment thread to a Discussion Forum for other OneNote MVPs and Microsoft Product Team members to chime in as they may have other recommendations that I have not thought! Stay tuned.
Hi all,
When I click ‘Copy Link to Page’ to the Outlook, the firs link that leads to the OneNote client app is working quite well. The problem is with the second link – the Web View. When I click on the “Web View” it shows the following error message:
“Sorry something went wrong, an unexpected error has occurred.” This is not happening with all onenote documents, for some of them both link are functioning correctly.
Thanks for your help!
SharePoint 2013. When I use the link “onenote:http://…” I get an error that says “Sorry something went wrong, an unexpected error has occurred.” For the link to work, I have to delete the “onenote:” word and just use the stuff starting with “http://…” after the “onenote:” word, but the browser downloads the document (warning) then opens it in the client. Not the desired opening.
I have the same issue as Eric:”This works fine for email, word, OneNote, etc. However, it fails in a SharePoint list. When we add a link to a row in a list it fails.”
I am using SharePoint 2016 and Onenote 2016 (MS office proffesional plus 2016)
I have the same issue as Eric “This works fine for email, word, OneNote, etc. However, it fails in a SharePoint list. When we add a link to a row in a list it fails.”
I am using SP 2016 and One note (office proffesional 2016).
I have the same issue as Eric “This works fine for email, word, OneNote, etc. However, it fails in a SharePoint list. When we add a link to a row in a list it fails” I am using Sharepoint 2016 and OneNote 2016