Excel hyperlink to web page location with id or named anchor

Question

In Excel, I can create a hyperlink to a web page. However, if the URL contains a # character, Excel always converts the hash sign to space-hyphen-space so the link no longer wor

Answer 1

You can create a hyperlink in a cell just by typing in the URL and hitting enter. Excel will recognize it as a URL if it has things like

".com"

and/or

"http://"

I tried your problem and didn't get it. Maybe there is some other problem with your URL. You might want to post a more similar URL to the one you are actually using(same character types)I have excel 2010 as well.

Answer 2

If the problem concerns links to the Share Point Server portals you can cut part of the hyperlink (in my case bolded part: Beginning_of_the_address /_layouts/15/start.aspx# /End_of_address).

For me works fine (MSO 16 + SPS 2k16).

Answer 3

I was able to get around this by using %23 in place of the # (hashtag|pound sign). My URL's now work within Excel 2013. The 'hovertext' shows the # symbol in the URL, but editing the link shows the %23.

http://www.example.com/page#location does not work

http://www.example.com/page%23location works

Answer 4

I had a coworker with this exact issue (including the %20-%20 error) in Word 2010 instead of Excel.

Solved the following way:

In Internet Explorer:

• Internet Options
• Programs tab
• HTML Editor: ensure this is not blank

Answer 5

It appears to be a browser problem not an Excel problem. Switching from Google Chrome to Internet Explorer solved it.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions ... just saying that you didn't find the same problem was what prompted me to look elsewhere.

Answer 6

This is not a browser problem. MS Office applications are mangling URLs with a # being replaced with ' - ' (the %20 is a space).

This annoying problem is admitted to exist by Microsoft themselves. To quote from that page:

These problems may occur when the name of file to which you create the hyperlink contains a pound sign (#).

NOTE: The pound sign is a valid character to use in a file name but is not accepted in hyperlinks in Office documents.

Their only workarounds are to remove the offending # or to copy and paste the URL from the document ... utterly ridiculous considering the reason most people would be using the # is to make it easier for users to find content.

Request that Microsoft improve this behavior by voting here: https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/32273917-stop-mangling-urls-containing-a-so-we-can-link-t