Macro Plague

[kevs]

I've been plagued recently with the super annoying dialogue box says
document may have macros -- to point that all new documents will have this.

I have a clean normal now.

Should I not use macros? Is this part of it?

I have one macro in word, should I get rid of it? How do I delete it, can't
remember. Thanks!

Kevs





OS 10.4.7
Office 2004

 

[John McGhie [MVP Word, Word Mac]]

Hi Kevs:

The warning will fire whenever it detects the following:

1) The document contains a macro, OR

2) The template attached to the document contains a macro, AND

3) The template is not in a "Trusted Location".

If the template is in the location indicated by Word>Preferences>File
Locations>User Templates OR the location indicated by Word>Preferences>File
Locations>Workgroup Templates that is a "Trusted" location and the macro
warning will not fire. If the template is anywhere else, including a
subfolder within the trusted locations, it will fire.

If you move the template to a trusted location, the warning will go away.
If you have placed macros in your documents, you should be taken out and
shot: remove them

A "Template" and a "Document" are different things. They have a very
similar internal structure, but the Template has extra containers for
holding things such as macros and customisations. It is "possible" to
create these extra containers in a "Document" and fill them with macros and
toolbars and such. But if you do, you will live in Grief City, and so will
anyone you send documents to.

It's not a safe practice. Every antivirus product in the world is alert for
it and you will set off fire-alarms all over the world, in email systems, in
routers, in file servers and on people's desktops, if you do this. So I
strongly recommend that you do NOT put macros in edocuments. Put them in
Templates, which are designed to contain them, and keep your Templates only
in your Trusted Locations.

If you accept this advise, then I encourage you to use macros vigorously and
frequently Like a Harley Davidson, Word is built to be improved! Which
is another way of saying that it's a clumsy slug, just like the motorcycle,
until you Bend It To Your Will(TM). Since you are on a Mac, I strongly
suggest that you write all future macros in AppleScript, so they will work
in the future versions of Word Mac.

If you are sure that the macro you have is OK, then you can permanently
disable the warning by switching OFF "Macro virus protection." That's not a
bad strategy IF:
a) You are running an antivirus product that you keep up-to-date, and
b) You are on a Mac.

Cheers


--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[kevs]

Hi Kevs:

The warning will fire whenever it detects the following:

1) The document contains a macro, OR

2) The template attached to the document contains a macro, AND

3) The template is not in a "Trusted Location".

If the template is in the location indicated by Word>Preferences>File
Locations>User Templates OR the location indicated by Word>Preferences>File
Locations>Workgroup Templates that is a "Trusted" location and the macro
warning will not fire. If the template is anywhere else, including a
subfolder within the trusted locations, it will fire.

If you move the template to a trusted location, the warning will go away.
If you have placed macros in your documents, you should be taken out and
shot: remove them

A "Template" and a "Document" are different things. They have a very
similar internal structure, but the Template has extra containers for
holding things such as macros and customisations. It is "possible" to
create these extra containers in a "Document" and fill them with macros and
toolbars and such. But if you do, you will live in Grief City, and so will
anyone you send documents to.

It's not a safe practice. Every antivirus product in the world is alert for
it and you will set off fire-alarms all over the world, in email systems, in
routers, in file servers and on people's desktops, if you do this. So I
strongly recommend that you do NOT put macros in edocuments. Put them in
Templates, which are designed to contain them, and keep your Templates only
in your Trusted Locations.

If you accept this advise, then I encourage you to use macros vigorously and
frequently Like a Harley Davidson, Word is built to be improved! Which
is another way of saying that it's a clumsy slug, just like the motorcycle,
until you Bend It To Your Will(TM). Since you are on a Mac, I strongly
suggest that you write all future macros in AppleScript, so they will work
in the future versions of Word Mac.

If you are sure that the macro you have is OK, then you can permanently
disable the warning by switching OFF "Macro virus protection." That's not a
bad strategy IF:
a) You are running an antivirus product that you keep up-to-date, and
b) You are on a Mac.

Cheers

John,
I'm going to reread this a few times. But note:
I don't even know how to put a macro in a document, and hardly understand
much else about macros etc. I have a normal template that I confirmed
creates new documents without this issue.
Don't know why I get these files that have macros in them, have no idea.





OS 10.4.7
Office 2004

 

[John McGhie [MVP Word, Word Mac]]

Hi Kevs:

Yes. This is a very complex issue.

I didn't think that you had been "intentionally" putting macros in
documents.

That's why I suspect a virus. That's the most likely way that macros get
into documents when you didn't know they were doing so. There are also
various "helper" add-ins to Word that copy macros from one file to another.
These are "supposed" to put their extensions into the Normal template, or
into a template in your Word:Startup folder. The very annoying Adobe
PDFMaker is one that does this.

However, PDFMaker places its macros in a template named PDFMaker.dot which
it adds to the Startup folder. The Startup folder is a "Trusted" location,
so macros running from there should not trigger the warning.

So I am getting quite suspicious that you have a virus active in your
system.

No worries: Try your copy and paste technique. If that cures the
conditions, good. If it *is* a Macro virus, the problem will come back as
soon as you open the source of the infection. We'll help you find and deal
with it then.

Cheers

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]