Troubleshoot macro security and warnings

Your network administrator might have enforced a security level for your workgroup or corporation to ensure that you use only macros that have been determined to be virus-free. For more information, see your network administrator.

Your access to the document or template to which you want to copy macros might be restricted in one of the following ways:

• Protected except for comments or tracked changes    To remove protection, click Unprotect Document on the Tools menu. If the document is protected with a password, you must know the password before you can remove protection from the document.
• Protected with a password to modify    You can open the document or template, but you can't save changes to it without the password.
• Protected as a read-only file    You can open the document or template, but if you change it, you need to give it a different file name to be able to save it.
• Limited to users with network privileges    If the document or template you're trying to access is on a network, you might not have the user permissions necessary to save changes to it.

The macros might have been digitally signed from within the Visual Basic Editor in a version 2000 or later program. Microsoft Office 97 programs don't recognize digital signatures, so they can't update the signature if you modify a signed Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro. Therefore, to prevent modifications, you cannot view in Office 97 the code for macros that have been digitally signed in Microsoft Office 2000 or later.

If some items— such as templates, wizards, or custom commands— do not function the way you expect, you may be running a Microsoft Office program with the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) shared feature disabled. Many features in Office are created in VBA or depend on VBA support to function correctly. If you choose not to install the VBA feature, these dependent applications and features will be disabled or not installed.

For additional information about the effects of disabling VBA, see the Microsoft Office 2003 Resource Kit Web site.

To re-enable VBA, follow these steps:

1. Run the Office Setup program again.

   How?

   1. Quit all programs.
   2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.
   3. In the Currently installed programs box, click Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Office Word 2003, depending on whether you installed Word as part of Office or as an individual program, and then click Change.
2. On the Maintenance Mode Options screen, click Add or Remove Features, and then click Next.
3. On the Custom Setup screen, select the Choose advanced customization of applications check box, and then click Next.
4. On the Advanced Customization screen, click the expand indicator next to Office Shared Features.
5. Click the arrow next to Visual Basic for Applications, and then click Run from My Computer.

If someone else set up your Office installation for you, contact your system administrator or Information Technology (IT) professional to see whether you are running Office with VBA disabled.

You may have cleared the Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box. To avoid these messages, re-select the check box or digitally sign the macros in your Normal.dot template and trust the certificate used to sign them. After you sign Normal.dot, any further macros you add to the file will be automatically signed if the certificate used to sign them originally is installed on your computer.

To avoid macro warnings, attach a digital signature to each macro project and add that signature to your list of trusted sources. If the macros are already signed and if you are willing to trust all macros signed with that certificate, add the signer to your list of trusted sources. This will stop macro warnings when your Security setting is set to High or Medium.

Note  The presence of a certificate does not guarantee that a macro is safe. Always review the details of the certificate— for example, look at the Issued to and Issued by fields to determine whether you trust its publisher, and look at the Valid from field to determine whether the certificate is current.

A less secure option is to change the security level to Low. If you do use Low, you use Microsoft Word in its least secure setting. Be sure to take the following precautions to minimize your risk of getting a macro virus infection on your computer: Run a specialized antivirus software that can check files and add-ins for macro viruses and keep this software up to date, and be sure all the macros that you use are from trusted sources.

• The security level might be set to Low    To receive a warning that a file or add-in contains macros, change the security level to Medium.
• The security level might be set to High and the macros are not digitally signed    To receive a warning that a file or add-in contains macros that have not been digitally signed, change the security level to Medium.
• You or someone you have designated as a trusted source might have developed the macros    If so, the file is opened and macros are enabled. If you no longer trust the macro developer, you can remove the developer from the list of trusted publishers.

• To be prompted every time you open a file or load an add-in that contains macros, remove every source from the list of trusted publishers.

  To confirm that the macros in the file were signed and to see the name of the source of this file, point to Options on the Tools menu, and then click Security. Under Macro security, click Macro Security, and then click the Trusted Publishers tab.

The appearance of this message indicates that your Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) project does not have access to the Visual Basic object model. To allow access, click Options on the Tools menu, click the Security tab, and then click Macro Security. On the Trusted Publishers tab, select the Trust access to Visual Basic Project check box.

Note  By allowing this access, macros in any documents that you open can access the core Visual Basic objects, methods, and properties. This represents a possible security hazard.

• The macro you want to run might not be from a trusted source    If the security level is set to Medium or High, and you open a file or load an add-in that contains digitally signed macros that are not from a trusted source, you receive a macro warning. If you are sure you trust the macro developer, add the name to the list of trusted publishers.
• The file might contain a macro virus    If you don't expect the file to contain a macro, you might have a virus that is adding a macro virus to the file. Check your computer for viruses, and try to get an uninfected copy of the file from the source.
• The macro might be in a file you downloaded as an HTML page from a Web site and opened as a temporary file    If your virus scanner tells you it cleaned out a virus in this file every time you open it, you are removing the virus from the temporary file only, not from the original file on the Web server. Check your computer for viruses, and notify the source about problems with the original file.
• The file contains legitimate macros    If you know these are legitimate and safe macros, you might want to digitally sign those macros and then add your name to the list of trusted publishers.

This warning appears in the Security Warning box if the security level is set to High or Medium and if you open a file or load an add-in that contains digitally signed macros but the digital certificate has not been authenticated. For example, if the macro developer has created his or her own digital certificate, you receive this warning. If the security setting is set to High, Microsoft Office Word 2003 will not allow you to run macros from an unauthenticated source. In addition, you will be unable to add the source to your list of trusted publishers.

This type of unauthenticated certificate can be forged by malicious users to claim that it is anyone's certificate. For example, a malicious user can create a certificate named "Microsoft Corporation." The only warning you have that the certificate is false is this warning. You should not expect professional software developers to sign with an unauthenticated certificate. You should expect this type of certificate only from individual co-workers or friends.