Macros problem

[Guest]

We have a shared computer in an office. We are very concerned about viruses,
and do not want to "allow" or "trust" any kind of files.
Every time I open Word, it says to me "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."
I am worried about enabling macros with a "medium or low" secruity level,
and trusting other files.
Is there any way that i can get rid of this message but still keep our
security level at high, and not be at risk to viruses?
Oh, and I am very confused at what macros is in the first place. Do we even
need to enable it?

Thank you

 

[Anne Troy]

GSO: you're getting that error because there's code in either your
normal.dot file (Tools-->Options, File locations, "user templates" shows
where normal.dot is stored) or in your Word startup folder (same place, only
"startup"). It could be PDF writer or any number of other 3rd-party
templates that are installed into Word/Office.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

In Word, macros are programs (often user-written or recorded) that automate
repetitive or clumsy sets of steps, saving time, and reducing errors. Many
users can't live without them. Many many more never go anywhere near them.

If you're getting a macro message, then an active document or template
either contains macro(s) or a forms control of some kind. This article by
Microsoft explains in further detail:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q285514

In your case, it's important to find out WHY you're getting the message box,
since you haven't deliberately created any macros. Reason: most Word viruses
are implemented using malicious macros. So, if there are unexpected macros
in your documents or templaces, you need to find out why, and determine
whether they're a problem. If they're actually needed, you often can tame
the warning messages by digitally signing the VBA module responsible for
them. But, you definitely need to find out how they got there.

 

[Ed]

Macros are programs written in the Visual Basic for Applications language,
which is a part of most Microsoft Office programs. Word includes a macro
recorder, which will record your commands, keystrokes, and mouse clicks,
They are intended to help the user automate or make easier tasks that are
time and labor intensive, or routine and mundane. For example, I need to
replace every hyphen in my reports with a nonbreaking hyphen. I have a
macro assigned to a keystroke, rather than Ctrl+H etc. every time. I also
needed to take one huge file, break it up into possibly more than 1,000
separate documents, and pull data points out of each document to insert into
an Excel file. I use macros for both these tasks, and a whole lot more!

Setting your macro security to Medium (where mine is set) will allow you to
record and use macros, but will always give you the option of enabling
macros. High security simply disables macros, period. Low security allows
any macro to run. If you get a macro warning, the document has at least
been "touched" by a macro, which is not always malicious. If you press
ALT+F11 when the document is open, you should go into a new screen, which is
the Visual Basic Editor. You can view the components of your document on
the left side. Any Modules or Forms will trigger the macro warning. There
may also be macros in the ThisDocument component.

Here's some previous newsgroup posts about this issue:
http://tinyurl.com/cdlsc

http://tinyurl.com/88tbu

http://tinyurl.com/94k6f

http://tinyurl.com/b3bja

http://tinyurl.com/8v7zm



HTH

Ed