web analytics

Website Link Contains # Symbol or Invalid Characters Not Recognized

Technology

Problem Summary. Some website links will contain what are considered to be invalid characters for a URL.

Problem Solution. If you are presented with a website URL that contains invalid characters, such a URL will not be recognized by email programs and other software that allows for a link to be asigned to highlighted text. The following address is an example:

Most software will not recognize the # symbol and will ignore everything after it. A solution would be to use the tinyURL.com service to convert the longer URL into a tiny one:

Alternatively, you might remove the #/ from the address and shorten the URL to see if it works. In this case, it does work:

By Greg Johnson

Greg Johnson is a freelance writer and tech consultant in Iowa City. He is also the founder and Director of the ResourcesForLife.com website. Learn more at AboutGregJohnson.com