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

The best solution we have found, without manually changing registry entries, is to reset Internet Explorer to be the default browser. This resets the url, protocol and extension associations and resolves the issue.

Once you do that, even changing the default browser to Firefox and changing it back to IE will not break it again.

This solution is "cleaner" than playing around the registry and has been logged as the official solution at our company.

Answer 2

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