Macros Disabled

[Bill Martin]

I just installed Office 2003 and am trying to come to grips with some of
the small differences from the '97 version I was using. Everytime I open
Word now, it gives me a "helpful" warning:

"The macros in this project are disabled. Please refer to the
online help to determine how to enable macros."

Now the thing is that I don't want to enable macros. I don't use them in a
word processor so I don't see any reason to open a security hole in Word
that I don't need. So how do I get Word to stop nattering to me about
enabling macros everytime I open a file that doesn't use them anyhow?

Thanks.

Bill

 

[Greg Maxey]

Bill,

The message is a result of the default security settings in Word2003. See
Tools>Macro>Security.

The default setting is "high." To each his or her own, but I recommend you
set Macro Security to Medium and then on the Trusted Publishers tab check
the box for "Trust all installed templates and
add-ins."

I think you will be free of the annoying message and still watertight.

 

[Bill Martin]

Bill,

The message is a result of the default security settings in Word2003.
See Tools>Macro>Security.

The default setting is "high." To each his or her own, but I
recommend you set Macro Security to Medium and then on the Trusted
Publishers tab check the box for "Trust all installed templates and
add-ins."

I think you will be free of the annoying message and still watertight.

----------------

That would probably work, but I don't see why I should enable macros just
to get Word to stop nattering whenever I open or close the program. Most
Microsoft warnings seem to have some way to tell the program to not warn
you about whatever repeatedly. I haven't been able to find where that's
buried in Word however.

It would be one thing if I were trying to run some document with macros
in it, but I'm not.

Bill

 

[Greg Maxey]

Actually I told you wrong. The default setting is "very high."

 

[Greg Maxey]

Keep looking if you want. I can certainly be wroing, but I think that you
are going to find that your options are to set the security level to medium
and be rid of the message or leave it as is and deal with the message.

Setting it to meduim does not mean that you have to enable any macros. It
just means that if you have Add-ins (e.g., Adobe, etc.) (have you checked?)
that they will run. If you recieve a document with macros (the good kind or
the bad) you will get the warning then with the option to let it run or not.

 

[Bill Martin]

Keep looking if you want. I can certainly be wroing, but I think that you
are going to find that your options are to set the security level to medium
and be rid of the message or leave it as is and deal with the message.

Setting it to meduim does not mean that you have to enable any macros. It
just means that if you have Add-ins (e.g., Adobe, etc.) (have you checked?)
that they will run. If you recieve a document with macros (the good kind or
the bad) you will get the warning then with the option to let it run or not.

Thanks Greg. I guess I'm just crumudgeonly about security. I don't much
like being forced to take it on faith that if I enable macros they really
won't run anyhow. That there are no security bugs in this one product.

It mystifies me why Microsoft would design in the high security levels, and
then make it impossible to use them. What could they possibly have been
thinking? Oops - maybe that's the problem.

Thanks.

Bill

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 02:31:50 -0500 from Bill Martin

It mystifies me why Microsoft would design in the high security levels, and
then make it impossible to use them. What could they possibly have been
thinking? Oops - maybe that's the problem.

I think you've put your finger on it. Microsoft products were
designed without security. As reports of exploits began coming thick
and fast in the late 90's and early 00's, Microsoft band-aided
security measures so they could say "security? oh yah, you betcha."

But the basic products had been written on the assumption of no
security, so they don't run with security features enabled. Hence you
have to disable security (in whole or in part) to do pretty much any
real work.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think you have misunderstood. Here's how it works:

1. You set the Security setting to Medium. This doesn't automatically enable
macros; it gives you a choice. You'll still get a message box, but instead
of saying that macros have been disabled, it will say that there are macros
and give you the choice of enabling or disabling them. This will apply to
documents that you open that may contain macros.

2. The message you're getting, however, is not from a document. Most likely
it is from an add-in (the message probably tells you what it is). You can
see some of the add-ins that are installed in Word by looking at the list in
the Tools | Templates and Add-ins dialog. Some add-ins (COM add-ins) are not
listed here; you can learn about those with another tool (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm).

3. Assuming that the add-ins are ones you want, and also to be able to use
the Microsoft Wizards that ship with Word, you need to "trust" certain
templates and add-ins. To do that, you check the box for "Trust all
installed templates and add-ins" on the Trusted Sources tab of Tools | Macro
| Security.

4. Trusting installed add-ins will take care of templates in your user
templates folder and the workgroup templates folder (if any), as well as
add-ins in Word's Startup folder. Unfortunately, this trust does not extend
to the Office Startup folder, so you may still get a message about add-ins
that load from there, but the message will tell you what the add-in is and
allow you to check a box to trust add-ins from that provider (Adobe, for
example, if you have Adobe Acrobat). Then you won't get a message from that
any more, either.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Tony Jollans]

It would be one thing if I were trying to run some document with macros

in it, but I'm not.

Well .. if you get this message you *are* (or Word is) trying to run some
macros. If it happens at start up then you are using something which has
been added to Word (not Word itself) - this may be either some code you have
in your Normal template or it may be an AddIn which is designed to work with
Word.

It was presumably something you trusted in Word 97 which means it may well
be safe to continue trusting it but it is not unreasonable to investigate
what it might be. If you want it, you need to arrange to let it do its
stuff - or, if not, you would be best to remove it. Firstly have a look
under Tools > templates and AddIns and see what you have - then you can
decide what to do.

 

[Bill Martin]

Actually, I think you may have misunderstood. I don't *want* any macros,
any add-ins, or anything else beyond a blank sheet I can type into. And
thus I shouldn't need to enable things I don't want in the first place -
I just simply want to use the highest security level that Microsoft
designed into Word. I *do* use add-ins and VBA macros heavily in Excel,
but I presume that does not mean that I have to enable them in Word?

My first note provided the text of the message. Here it is again in its
entirety: "The macros in this project are disabled. Please refer to the
online help or documentation of the host application to determine how to
enable macros."

Following up on some of your other suggestions (and by clicking on Tools>
Macro>Macros) I do find that there are 3 macros installed by Word
initially out of the box. If this were Excel I could then delete the
macros from that panel or edit them and delete their code. From Word
however the "Delete" button is grayed out and it's impossible to kill the
macros from within Word. (Adding insult to injury, the Description box
at the bottom says that I created the macros when plainly I did not.)

Trolling through my directory listings I finally found the file which was
creating the add-in and deleted it. This is a new subdirectory, created
by Office, which chose to set up Word so that I couldn't use the highest
security level designed in. So 5 hours later, and with your assistance,
I finally have Word working. Not a good out-of-the-box experience.

Your note was quite helpful and I thank you for it. Please don't feel
that my pique with Microsoft in any way reflects on your efforts here. I
appreciate the help.

Bill
------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Greg Maxey]

Bill,

Would you be willing to share what sub-directory and what file you deleted
so as to permit you to use Word on the highest security setting?

 

[Tony Jollans]

Hi Bill,

Word, out of the box, does not install any macros which try to run
automatically.

However Word does not uninstall macros which you may already have had on
your machine. What I suspect you have stumbled over is Word's improved
security now preventing something which always used to happen about which
you were blissfully unaware.

I would have to agre with you that the message would be a great deal more
helpful if it told you which project the macros were disabled in.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think Tony's assessment is correct. Office/Word out of the box doesn't
install any add-ins, so these have to be ones left over from a previous
installation. If you don't need the add-in that is using them, then you are
quite correct to remove the add-in. If you later find you're missing
functionality you need, presumably you can reinstall the add-in.

I suspect that the title bar on the message window that says "The macros in
this project are disabled" might have told you what project it was.

I'm sorry that you had this experience (though five hours is a short time
compared to how long some users are annoyed with Word), but I hope you will
see that it is not (directly) Microsoft's fault.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Bill Martin]

I certainly would be willing, but unfortunately unable. I deleted the
file, and later did some general housekeeping so it's not in still in the
trash either. It was in the Microsoft\Office11\Startup subdirectory and
was probably something not from Office itself, but rather something Office
chose to pull from elsewhere on the disk automatically during install.

Bill

 

[Charles Kenyon]

This indicates that you have an Add-In program installed. This is probably
installed to help other software work better with Word. If you follow Greg's
instructions, it will run as intended. If you want to see what it is, you
can look. http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

was probably something not from Office itself, but rather something Office

chose to pull from elsewhere on the disk automatically during install.

If you install Office as an upgrade (over an older version), it does its
best to retain all your personal settings, including any add-ins you have
already installed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.