Hi folks, hope you can help. I have an application that allows users to download data in an xml format. They will then open it in Excel, edit it and save it again as xml. How to use passport photo tool for mac. They will then upload this data to my application. Now my question is this, why, when the user opens the xml document does excel not automatically add data validation to the form?

A web-based XML validator. Can be used for free. Validates XML files, prompts the user for referenced files (e. G., XSD), shows good error messages. Data validation is a feature in Excel used to control what a user can enter into a cell. For example, you could use data validation to make sure a value is a number between 1 and 6 Custom - validates user input using a custom formula. In other words, you can write your own formula to validate input.

If the xml document is tied to an xsd schema, and that schema has predefined max lengths, data types etc, why are these rules not automatically applied to the excel document? Am I missing something or is this facility simply not available? Hi Mark, You are right.

Excel 2007 validates the data only on import and export. A note from the Excel help page on reads: 'This option does not validate data when you enter data in mapped cells. To make sure that the data that you enter conforms to any enumerations that are defined in the mapped schema, you may need to further validate the data by using the Data Validation command in the Data Tools group on the Data tab.

For more information, see and.' I am not sure of the reasons behind such an implementation. You could always post your feedback on Microsoft products on the website. Thanks for your suggestion. Regards, Avinash.

At the moment i open the file directly and open as an xml table. I have also tried importing the xsd schema (although the xml document does have a valid file path to the xsd schema) and then mapping to the fields but I was just a little surprised that the validation (indicated in all your documentation) a) has to be manually turned on and b) only happens when you save the document. What I wondered was why doesn't excel actually add DataValidation to the cells so that users can validate the document in the normal manner. MS could make this a really useful tool if they made xml import and validation a lot easier. Does MS have any plans for incorporating this kind of functionality? Again going back to the point that if you are allowing people to open and save xml documents and these documents point to valid and standards compliant xsd schema files (created in VS 2008), surely it is a no brainer to then map the elements rules to the mapped cells.

Hi Mark, You are right. Excel 2007 validates the data only on import and export. A note from the Excel help page on reads: 'This option does not validate data when you enter data in mapped cells.

To make sure that the data that you enter conforms to any enumerations that are defined in the mapped schema, you may need to further validate the data by using the Data Validation command in the Data Tools group on the Data tab. For more information, see and.' I am not sure of the reasons behind such an implementation. You could always post your feedback on Microsoft products on the website. Thanks for your suggestion. Regards, Avinash.

See solution in other versions of Excel: • • • • • Question: In Microsoft Excel 2011 for Mac, I want to set up a cell to only allow up to 15 characters. How can I do this? Answer: Select the cells that you wish to restrict to a certain number of characters. In this example, we've selected cells A2 to A9. Select the Data tab in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Then click on the Validate drop-down and select Data Validation from the popup menu. When the Data Validation window appears, set up your criteria. In this example, we've setup the cells to allow a text length of less than or equal to 15. Next, click on the Error Alert tab. Enter an Error message to appear when data entered does not conform to the validation rules. Now if a value is entered in one of those cells that is longer than 15 characters, the following error message will appear.