Excel hyperlink to web page location with id or named anchor

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

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.

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