Inserting PDF files via the Image icon in ckeditor. Is there a better way? I would like to insert inline files throughout the text editor, without having to attach them all at the bottom of the page. I figured out that I can upload them via the image icon, remove the blank image, and then insert the link by browsing to the file I just uploaded. But surely there is a better way?

Can anyone share?
The canonical "Drupal way" is to keep files in file fields. You are free not to display them in your theme for readers and only keep links in body. Having them explicitly linked to a node has some advantages: you can keep track if files are used or should be deleted, you can display them in views, in search you can possibly add "with attachment" option and so on.

You can write a CKEditor plugin - copy image uploading one, change output from &lt;img src=" to &lt;a href=" and you have what you wanted. It's what you want, but be careful, you might regret it in the future if you'll ever need that node-file relation.