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

Unfortunately, in Excel, I still ran into issues with safe URL encoded hyperlinks.

They would work once, then changed to a file:// hyperlink after you clicked on it once, and was broken again.

So I used the =Hyperlink() function and all was good because Excel can't change my concatenated URL string in the formula.

Yay, I win...nope

When files are in protected view, due to security settings or if the user is previewing the file as an attachment in Outlook, the # symbol still gets turned into %20-%20

Since our IT department doesn't allowed us to install another browser, we cant make Internet explorer the default browser (since it already is).

Comparing two PCs, one that I was able to change the default browser vs a standard load, I noticed that the following registry entry was missing from the standard load.

Solution: Save as Office Hyperlink Fix.reg (and double click)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice]
"Progid"="IE.HTTP"

After adding it to the standard load (required per every user) the links worked without any issues!

It's not all the registry entries required, but it was enough to get IE to ask to be the default browser again and add the rest (HTTPS...).

Answer 2

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 3

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 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

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 6

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