If you work in the spreadsheet form design template rather than the online form designer, there’s a chance you might see this warning message when deploying a form design on your server:

What does this message mean

There is generally nothing to be concerned with about this warning. This warning appears because there is a limit to how much of a spreadsheet form template the form validator will read through. The form validator will read 1000 columns and 50,000 rows on the survey sheet of the form design template only. This helps limit the load that certain uncommon form designs might place on our system’s resources. The supported cell range on the survey sheet should be in excess of any form one might reasonably design, including leeway for plenty of extra columns for notes and comments.

Why did this message appear

Most of the time, when users get this warning it is because there is an out of range value (beyond 1000 columns, or after 50,000 rows) that was detected. Most such values are recorded when users overshoot while navigating their survey sheet (to the end of the cell or column range) and enter keystroke in error without noticing, before managing to get back to the active cell range. If this is truly an error, you have nothing to worry about. However, if some important part of the design is located outside the active cell range of the survey sheet of the form design template, you should locate it and move it into the active cell range. Generally, you should have a good idea of whether any part of your design is missing (possibly located out of range).

How can this error be fixed

The short answer is that there’s nothing to worry about if your full form design exists inside the active cell range of the survey sheet of the form design template. You can just ignore the error. If it bothers you, the easiest fix would be to generate a new blank form design template from the server console and copy the content of your design into the active range of the survey sheet in a blank form design template and continue to use this copy. Don’t forget the content of your choices and settings sheets!

Otherwise, there would be no consequence for your survey or collected data as a result of this warning message.

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