How do I protect a document out of design mode?

[Design Mode]

I have created a form that I need to send out to business partners. How can
I protect the document out of design mode. I tested the form by sending it
to another computer and when it was opened up, the design mode was on and
they were unable to write or check in the boxes. How can I fix this?

 

[Jay Freedman]

This will happen if you used items out of the Control Toolbox, and the
receiving PC has the macro security level set to High. The reason is
that the security mechanism considers those controls (which are
ActiveX) to be in the same threat class as macros as possible viruses,
so it disables them. As a side-effect, this puts the document into
design mode.

You have three possible solutions:

1. Don't use any Control Toolbox items. Stick to what's on the Forms
toolbar.

2. Tell recipients that they have to go to Tools > Macro > Security
and set the level to Medium. Every time they open your form, they'll
have to click the Enable button in the virus warning box.

3. Pay big money for a digital security certificate, and sign your
form. Each recipient will be asked once to accept the certificate.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[danka]

Hello:

If my organization has acquired a digital certificate what it takes to have
w Word document having control toolbox items certified? Is it something very
complicated?

If I cannot distribute a document containing controls easly I guess those
controls are not very useless. Why to bother to include those tools?

Thanks.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Once you buy a digital certificate (usually from a company such as Verisign)
and install it on your computer, the process of signing any particular
document isn't complicated. This is from the help topic "Digitally sign a
file or macro project":

1.. On the Tools menu, click Options, and click the Security tab.
2.. Click Digital signatures.
3.. Click Add.
4.. Select the certificate you want to add, and then click OK.

The harder part is getting a certificate and keeping it up to date -- it's
usually issued for one or two years and then expires, and needs to be
renewed (for more big bucks).

These ActiveX controls were originally built to be included on Web pages. I
don't know what led Microsoft to include them in Word -- I don't find them
useful at all, because of the rigamarole involved in using them. You might
want to read
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnword2k2/html/odc_activeX.asp
for more background.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[danka]

Hello:

My IT installators initially told me that they would install digital
signature software on my machine but then they withdrew their offer and
advised that digital signatures are not supported.

Well, I was told that I can use my own, so I downloaded the utility for
signining VBA for Office from Microsoft site. This does not however supress
the macro security warnings (with medium level macro secruity).

Presently, I can see only one option - installation of templates to bypass
the security warnings... If I want to use macro and VBAs and I don't want to
spend $$s on security certificates that are recognized as valid by
Microsoft..

Is all this correct?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Distributing templates is the normal way to distribute macros.

If you distribute your templates and your recipients put them in the user
templates folder or the workgroup templates folder or the Word startup
folder, and if they check the macro security option to trust installed
templates and Add-Ins, then they will not receive a security prompt for your
templates and your macros will run.

For more on the different kinds of templates, tabs on the file new dialog,
and locations of templates folders see
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.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


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from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Agreed (assuming "macros" also includes the ActiveX controls).

Let me emphasize something Charles said: It isn't enough just to
distribute templates; the templates must be stored in what Word
considers a "trusted location" in order to avoid security prompts.
These are the three locations Charles listed. Of those, the Startup
folder isn't practical for what you're doing; templates stored there
are loaded during Word startup and aren't generally available as the
basis for documents.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.