Article ID: 211948
Article Last Modified on 1/24/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q211948
SYMPTOMS
When you open a Microsoft Word document or template that contains macros, the following message is not displayed, and you are not given the opportunity to enable or disable the macros:
CAUSE
This behavior may occur for any of the following causes.
Cause 1: File Location
Microsoft Word considers documents and templates that are stored in either of the following folders to be "trustworthy" or free of unwanted macros or macro viruses:
- User templates folder
- Workgroup templates folder
Do not place documents or templates in the user or workgroup templates folder unless you are absolutely certain that they are free of macro virus code. You should scan your documents and templates regularly using a third-party virus detection program that is capable of detecting Word macro viruses.
To determine where Word is storing your templates, click Options on the Tools menu, and then click the File Locations tab.
Cause 2: Security Level
The security level in Word is set to either Low or High.
When the security level is set to Low, you are not protected from potentially unsafe macros. Use this setting only if you have virus scanning software installed, or you are sure all documents you open are safe.
When the security level is set to High, only signed macros from trusted sources are allowed to run. Unsigned macros are automatically disabled.
To change the security level:
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Security.
- On the Security Level tab, click to select the level of security you want in Microsoft Word. To be able to choose to enable or disable macros when you open a file containing macros, click Medium.
- Click OK.
Cause 3: File Is from a Trusted Source
The certificate that was used to sign these macros may be in your list of trusted sources.
NOTE: For security reasons, your system administrator can disable the ability to add a certificate to the list of trusted sources. In this case, only certificates that were added to the list of trusted sources when your program was originally installed are trusted.
To trust macros from a source:
- Open the document or template containing macros that you want to trust.
- When Word displays the following message, click to select the Always trust macros from this source check box and then click Enable Macros.
NOTE: Don't accept to trust macros from a source that you don't know.
To check what sources are trusted, follow these steps.
For Word 2000 and for Word 2002
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro and click Security.
- Click the Trusted Sources tab.
For Microsoft Office Word 2003
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro and click Security.
- Click the Trusted Publishers tab.
- Click the Prior Trusted Sources tab to view sources from an earlier version of Office.
Cause 4: Trust All Installed Add-Ins and Templates Selected
The Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box is selected. Clear this check box if you want Microsoft Office to warn you about previously installed templates, add-ins, and COM add-ins. To change this option, follow these steps.
For Word 2000 and for Word 2002
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Security.
- On the Trusted Sources tab, click to clear the Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box.
- Click OK.
For Word 2003
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Security.
- On the Trusted Publishers tab, click to clear the Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box.
- Click OK.
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft Office 2003 added a new setting for macro security. The new Very High macro security setting stops all Com add-ins, Smart Tag .dll files, and macros from running automatically in Office 2003. For additional information about the new setting, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
827725 Description of the Very High security setting in Office 2003
For additional information about macros and macro viruses, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
233396 WD2000: How to Reduce the Chances of Macro Virus Infection
232465 WD2000: Converting Macros from Word 97 to Word 2000
211607 WD2000: Frequently Asked Questions About Word Macro Viruses
49500 List of Antivirus Software Vendors
Keywords: kbprb kbtemplate kbvirus KB211948
