Macros Disabled

[Bill Martin]

Having spent hours some time back trying to get Word to stop nattering at me
that it demanded I enable macros, I finally got it resolved with some help
from people here.

Well, I allowed Microsoft to update the Office files and Word once again
natters at me every time I start, or close, Word that I should enable
macros. Just for grins I followed through the help system and find the
charming advice to set security to "Low", immediately followed by a warning
to never use "Low" if there is a chance there might be viruses on the
internet. I have never seen such a lame program in this regard. If I
weren't wedded to Excel I would dump Office in a heartbeat simply because of
Word.

Anyhow the problem once again turns out to be Word installing a
FineOffice6.dot file in it's startup folder. And yes Word does it, not
AbbyFine since I haven't run the OCR software in months.

I don't expect anyone here to do anything about this. I'm just forlornly
hoping that Microsoft might improve how it handles this security issue if
they hear people complain about it.

Either admit Word is hopelessly insecure and stop installing higher security
levels in it, or make the higher levels meaningful by not having Word
constantly insist that I lower the level.

Bill Martin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word will not question anything in its own Startup folder provided you have
"Trust all installed templates and add-ins" checked on the Trusted Sources
tab of Tools | Macro | Security. Unfortunately, this trust does not extend
to the Office Startup folder.

--
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.

 

[Stan Brown]

Mon, 3 Apr 2006 21:24:59 -0400 from Bill Martin

Well, I allowed Microsoft to update the Office files and Word once again
natters at me every time I start, or close, Word that I should enable
macros. Just for grins I followed through the help system and find the
charming advice to set security to "Low", immediately followed by a warning
to never use "Low" if there is a chance there might be viruses on the
internet.

Isn't this ridiculous?

Microsoft does the same thing with Internet Exploder: you have to set
security Low to run anything, and you have to use ActiveX for
Microsoft's own update pages, but Microsoft's official position is
not to use ActiveX if there might be malicious code on any Web page
you visit.

What a poor joke!

 

[Bill Martin]

I don't know anything about this and you may well be right. HOWEVER.... Do
I really need to know this much about Office internals, and where what files
are stored by whom to be allowed to set security "High" and write a simple
grocery list?

For that matter, I don't want to "trust all installed templates and add-ins"
anyhow. I just want no macros, no add ins, nothing but a dead dumb word
processor that doesn't natter about macros 10 times a day when I already
told it I don't want to execute any.

Bill

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Then don't try to load files that have macros.

Word did _not_ put a FineMacro6.dot in a Startup folder. You did, or some
other program you installed did. The people who wrote that program think you
need their macros. If you disagree, fine. Then don't use it.
--
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


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[Bill Martin]

You're missing the point that I didn't install it either. Somehow when Word
installed its updates, it looked around on the disk and thought that would
be a good file to move there with no guidance from me, and no other program
active. When I killed that file before, it stayed killed until Word
installed its updates.

And that as a poor, dumb, ignorant user I have no way of knowing it's there
or how it got there. As a systems programmer I have some appreciation of
what's going on, but should one have to be a systems programmer to use a
simple word processor?

I'm simply maintaining that if I tell Word to run no macros, it should be
smart enough to do what it's told. Do you disagree?

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

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you set Macro Security to High, macros will be disabled automatically.

--
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]

You've put your finger precisely my complaint. I agree Word should work the
way you say. However, if I simply set security "High" then Word badgers me
10 times a day to turn on macros.

Word will not quietly accept my telling it to run "High", and it won't
quietly accept me overriding the macros the first time. It continues to
natter about macros every single time Word is opened or closed. And when I
follow the help prompts, Word tells me to set security "Low" - unless I
think there might be viruses somewhere in the world.

Does this seem like a good user interface to you? Or more like something
that Microsoft could fix trivially if it chose to - simply by suppressing
the prompt after the first warning?

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

 

[Tony Jollans]

I rather think you're making a mountain out of a molehill here.

If you don't want any macros to run, ever, and you don't want to be nagged
then set security to Very High and uncheck both boxes on the Trusted
Publishers tab.

I do agree that, for an average user, the wording on the dialog (and in the
help) isn't particularly clear and doesn't really explain what or where a
trusted location is.

 

[Bill Martin]

Once again, I agree with you 100%. In point of fact that's exactly what I
did and Word natters constantly. Go back to read the posts and you'll see
the problem is that Word puts a file in a startup folder looking to "help"
me. And then when Word starts up it recognizes a conflict between those
settings you've described and the fact that there's a file in it's startup
folder. So it asks what to do? Which is fine, but it asks repeatedly.
Endlessly. Ad nauseam. It never remembers that it's already asked about
this. And it never tells a poor dumb user to go sort through its internal
files to resolve the problem.

I agree absolutely that Word should work like you and Suzanne have
described. I'm only suggesting Microsoft should in fact make it work that
way.

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

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you have an add-in in your Startup folder whose functionality you don't
want (since you're consistently disabling it), then why don't you just move
it out of the Startup folder?

--
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]

In fact I have done what you say and that's the only thing that solves the
problem. Also in fact however I've had to do it repeatedly whenever I allow
Office to update it's program from Microsoft's web site.

This whole thread began with the statement that I knew the solution to the
problem after hours of effort, and with help from this group, but that it
seemed Microsoft might want to eliminate the problem in future. Or not... ?

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

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Updating Word from Microsoft's website will not put Add-Ins in your startup
folder!
Updating the program that put the Add-In there to start with might.
--
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.