Data that is not valid is synchronized to a SharePoint list in SharePoint Portal Server 2003

When you synchronize a published Excel list to a SharePoint list, the synchronization process may insert numeric data that is outside the range defined for one or more columns in the SharePoint list. This numeric data is marked for data validation.

This issue occurs because the numeric values in Excel are not validated before they are synchronized with the columns of the SharePoint Web site. Excel cannot access the rules that SharePoint uses to validate data, and therefore it is possible to enter a value that is outside the validation range for the columns in the list.

Additionally, Excel cannot validate the data during the synchronization process to an existing published list on a SharePoint Web site. After the Excel list has been synchronized with its published version on the SharePoint Web site, the validation rules for the columns are then applied to the synchronized data by the SharePoint server.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.