hyperlink corrupted when saving excel as html

Question

Im using Excel for Mac 2011.  i created a spreadsheet with hyperlinks to files on a server.  i saved the document as an html on the server where the documents exist.  it worked fine in the browser.  i had to make a change to one of the links, so i saved it as an html again (in the same place where it was the first time).  now the links will not work, except for the one link i had to fix.  If i go back into the excel doc and open each hyperlink (i don't make any changes to the link, just open it and see that it is still there) then save the document as an html document, it will work.  

once i got it working again, i just saved the excel as the html again......and it stopped working again.  I didn't make any changes to the excel document.  i just recreated the html document.

on further examination, i noticed the path to one of the links was different.  when the link works i see the path has, for example AAAAA/../../BBBBB.  The "../" entries work fine to back up a level.  But when i examine the link that doesnt work it has replaced the "../" with "..:" .  it replaced the slash with a colon.  WHY????

This has to be a bug.

Answer 1

Thanks Gordon.

I know what the %20 represents and i understand it is normal.

i have tested this issue on the Mac and PC and i am only having the issue on the Mac versions of Office.  It should have nothing to do with the length of the link.

Microsoft needs to issue the patch for the Mac Office.

Answer 2

%20 is the ASCII representation of a space character, and it's OK to have these in a hyperlink.

I suspect the total length of your hyperlink exceeds 223 characters. Any link more than 200 characters is asking for trouble. Try a shorter link.

Answer 3

I have the latest updates.  That is not the answer.

I cannot upload the file.  it is not a file issue, because i accessed the same file with Microsoft Office 2010 on a PC and i did not experience any problems with the links.  It is only when i access the file with the Mac version of Office 2011 (or 2008).

here is an example of the issue.

this is what the link looks like when it works:

https://www.TEST.com/PatientCare/../../August%202012/PatientCare/08-09-12%20Minutes.pdf

if i open the word doc and resave it as an htm doc again (no changes were made), here is the what the link looks like.....that does not work:

https://www.TEST.com/PatientCare/..:..:August%25202012:PatientCare:08-09-12%2520Minutes.pdf

Notice it replaced the "/" with ":" and the "%20" with "%2520".  But also notice it only replaced it on the ones after the "::/".

If i have time i will create a test file that i can send.

Answer 4

Hey KDuaneS,

If you choose Excel > About Excel from the Menu bar at the top of your screen, what version of Office for Mac are you currently running?

If you found that you're not currently running version 14.2.3, you can get the latest updates by choosing Help > Check for Updates from within any Office application.

If that doesn't help, is there any chance you could upload an example file to **SkyDrive**so we can get a better understanding of your issue?