Problem inserting PDF file printout in OneNote?

Also, I can insert them if I go in to the PDF file and print it to OneNote. But that is a huge hassle, I'd much rather be able to do it directly from ON. Also, when I get it in by "printing" it, the pages go in sideways. (The pages I want to insert are in landscape, and they turn clockwise in ON)

I had this same problem where I was not able to insert a PDF or powerpoint into onenote regardless if I did it from onenote itself or if I pressed file and then print on the PDF or powerpoint. After going to the microsoft store and switching out my surface book 3 times and asking for help and no one being able to help me, I finally figured it out. If you open one note and then on the top right hand corner you see a white and grey box with a person in it, click on it. Click on Account Settings. A new screen will open up, then on the left hand side click on Options. It is right below Account. Then another new screen will pop up. On the left hand side, click on Advanced. Then scroll down to where it says Printouts as a heading. Uncheck the box that says, "Insert long printouts on multiple pages" and then click ok. Now when you try to file printout a file, after clicking on the file, a box will pop up asking if you want to insert it as multiple pages or a single page. Click a single page and it will automatically insert the file into onenote. I hope this helps everyone who is struggling with onenote. I literally tried figuring out this problem for an entire week and then I finally found the solution and I can't believe it was such an easy fix. Goodluck!

I understand the frustration, but making random claims won't help anyone. There isn't some licensing issue between Adobe/Microsoft that would prevent you from inserting printouts into OneNote.

Here is how this works and why it fails for some people:

OneNote doesn't know how to print any document. It relies on applications registering themselves for printing file extensions. This registration is in the registry. OneNote checks the following keys:

Assuming the extension of the file you are trying to insert is .pdf. We first check:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.pdf

My computer has this value: (Default)=AcroExch.Document

This gives us the programmatic identifier of the file type, then we check for the current version of the identifier:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.Document\CurVer

My computer has this value: (Default)=AcroExch.Document.7

Then we use this identifier to check if an application is registered to print. This can be either one of the following:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.Document.7\shell\Printto\command

My computer has this value: (Default)="C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /p /h "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.Document.7\shell\Print\command

My computer has this value: (Default)="C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /t "%1" "%2" "%3" "%4"

Then OneNote executes the command in these keys. Now we have no idea what application this launches and what it does, we assume it will print the passed in file name back to OneNote. If we cannot find one of the registry keys above, or executing the command in the key fails (e.g. AcroRd32.exe is not found or is corrupt etc.) we will display the error mentioned here.

The error is not bogus, it says: "The file you have selected cannot be inserted as a Printout. There may be a problem with the file, or you may not have the right program installed. You must first install a program that can open and print this file type, and then try again."

This isn't about putting the document inside OneNote, it is about the printing part. That is why when you print to OneNote, everything is fine. OneNote doesn't know how to do the "printing" part if the registration in the registry is missing or incorrect.

There can be of course some subtle bug either in OneNote or the application that handles the file type, that causes this to fail even though you have an application that handles the file type installed. Note that if the application is only registering itself for "open" and is not registering for "print", then it doesn't help.

The registration also surfaces itself when you right click on a printable document in windows explorer as a menu item named "Print". That is why I refer people to check that when they hit this problem.

What is the application that opens the PDF files in your computer? If it didn't correctly register the print command on PDF file extension, this wouldn't work. You can try to repair/re-install that application.

For rotated printout issue, you need to pick the orientation while printing (from the print dialog). Or if they are already in OneNote as rotated and you don't want to re-print, you can use Onetastic add-in which adds a Rotate Printout menu item to the right click menu of printouts. (See http://omeratay.com/onetastic)