What exactly is "Character output size"?

Hi everyone,

I've recently gotten an error when trying to export a new WebI report to Excel, telling me that the "Maximum character output size limit reached.Contact you BusinessObjects administrator. (Error: ERR_WIS_30272)"

Now, I know that this can be resolved by changing the setting on the appropriate server, and that this can give performance issues. But what I want to know is what "Character output size" actually means? Is it a cell, a column, or what is the actual definition of this?

I am on BI4 SP5.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Best regards,

Kris