Microsoft PowerPoint Truncates Address Information Following the # or Hash Mark in Hyperlinks When Saving

When inserting a link containing a # or hash mark (i.e: http://www.example.com/index.html#toc) into a PowerPoint presentation, a problem is encountered in  Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 if the file is saved as PPTX/PPSX/PPTM format.
The link works when testing it, but after saving and reopened the file, the link no longer works. Inspection reveals that PowerPoint has truncated the hash mark (#) and everything beyond it. Replacing the hash mark (#) with %23 does not resolve the issue as PowerPoint retains the link when reopening the file until the next save and then truncates the address information again.

Resolution:

Save the file as PPT (97-2003) format instead of PPTX/PPSX/PPTM. The older format does not truncate the link.