How to enable macros?

[Will Friedwald]

I just noticed all my macros are no longer working (in every document)
- and I can no longer record any new ones either.

Help!

What can I do to enable macros?

I did nothing to change the settings of MS Word - the only change I
made recently is that I did change my main startup drive, am now
running everything (including MSW) from a different start-up drive.
Would that change anything in MS Word?

Help again!

thanks!

w

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Will:

Word retrieves everything (including macros) using fully-qualified path
names.

If you do not specify path names, Word looks "in relation to" the point in
the file system at which the executable is.

Have a look in Preferences>File Locations... The entries in there must
point to the drive and folder where the items in that dialog exist.

Change it so that the User Templates entry points to the folder that
actually contains your templates (on the correct drive...) and everything
should print back to life.

Cheers

I just noticed all my macros are no longer working (in every document)
- and I can no longer record any new ones either.

Help!

What can I do to enable macros?

I did nothing to change the settings of MS Word - the only change I
made recently is that I did change my main startup drive, am now
running everything (including MSW) from a different start-up drive.
Would that change anything in MS Word?

Help again!

thanks!

w

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Will Friedwald]

thanks!

I tried it - and the preferences entries seems to be correct, the
templates are in the correct drive - it the macros still don't work...

But here's something interesting: right now, I am starting up from an
External RAID drive (using that as my startup, supposedly it's slightly
faster than the internal drive). The problems I'm having with macros
are on this drive.

However, I have another copy of word on the internal drive (NOT my
startup) and when I use THAT copy of word (on the internal) - then the
macros do work!

I can't figure this one out!

Thanks again,

Will

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Where are the macros? Unless they are in the folder on the drive indicated
by your "User Templates" location, they will be disabled by Macro Security.

Word on the Mac lacks the Word PC ability to specify Macro Security. If
your macros are not in the copy of your templates on the drive in the folder
specified in your User Templates setting, they will be disabled.

There is no reason why you should not have Word, and your Templates, on an
external drive (they can even be on different drives...). However, the
macros won't run unless the copy of the template Word is trying to use is in
the location pointed to by either User Templates or the one pointed to by
Workgroup Templates.

Crude, but effective, macro virus protection.

Cheers

thanks!

I tried it - and the preferences entries seems to be correct, the
templates are in the correct drive - it the macros still don't work...

But here's something interesting: right now, I am starting up from an
External RAID drive (using that as my startup, supposedly it's slightly
faster than the internal drive). The problems I'm having with macros
are on this drive.

However, I have another copy of word on the internal drive (NOT my
startup) and when I use THAT copy of word (on the internal) - then the
macros do work!

I can't figure this one out!

Thanks again,

Will

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Will Friedwald]

J: Where are the macros? Unless they are in the folder on the drive
indicated
by your "User Templates" location, they will be disabled by Macro
Security.

Me: That makes perfect sense. What I am trying to figure out is this:
every Word program keeps the macros in a specific place. Even if the
program can't find my old macros - not the end of the world - it still
won't let me create any new ones! It's not like it can't find the
macros, it's like all macros old and new, are permanently disabled!

In other words, if it were a matter of not just finding existing
macros, then conceivably it should at least just let me create a new
one - or am I wrong?

Thanks again for your help!

will

 

[Will Friedwald]

J: Where are the macros? Unless they are in the folder on the drive
indicated
by your "User Templates" location, they will be disabled by Macro
Security.

Me: That makes perfect sense. What I am trying to figure out is this:
every Word program keeps the macros in a specific place. Even if the
program can't find my old macros - not the end of the world - it still
won't let me create any new ones! It's not like it can't find the
macros, it's like all macros old and new, are permanently disabled!

In other words, if it were a matter of not just finding existing
macros, then conceivably it should at least just let me create a new
one - or am I wrong?

Thanks again for your help!

will

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Will:

Ah hah! That's pretty diagnostic...

Check the file type of your template (ignore the extension, that "could" be
anything). Use GetInfo to check the file type itself...

A Word .dot and a .doc have different internal structures. Word on the Mac
will not allow you to create a macro unless the destination file is of type
"Template".

(Well, you could force it, but you would be taking quite a risk doing that!)

Other than that, check that the template files you have are actually read
AND write owned by YOU (your login user name).

If both the above are true, your destination file may be corrupt. If the
macro storage container in a file corrupts, Word can't write to it and will
give this indication.

Other than that, I can only think that the internal .plist files that enable
Microsoft Office applications to find the various pieces of themselves
became inconsistent when you moved things around. If that's the case, you
need to run the Remove Office tool, then re-install to your desired
locations to connect everything back up again.

Next time, do not allow Word to start until your templates are in the place
where you want them, then immediately correct your User Templates and
Workgroup Templates locations and Quit and Restart Word.

The remove Office tool in in your Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools
folder.

Hope this helps

J: Where are the macros? Unless they are in the folder on the drive
indicated
by your "User Templates" location, they will be disabled by Macro
Security.

Me: That makes perfect sense. What I am trying to figure out is this:
every Word program keeps the macros in a specific place. Even if the
program can't find my old macros - not the end of the world - it still
won't let me create any new ones! It's not like it can't find the
macros, it's like all macros old and new, are permanently disabled!

In other words, if it were a matter of not just finding existing
macros, then conceivably it should at least just let me create a new
one - or am I wrong?

Thanks again for your help!

will

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410