Outlook 2002 SP3 ActiveX warning

[Hyde the darker side]

Apologies if this is posted to the wrong forum.

I’m getting the following warning message when trying to paste from Word
2002 SP3 into a fresh HTML formatted email.

“your current security settings prohibit running activeX controls on this
page. As a result, the page may not display correctly.â€

I’ve narrowed the activation of this warning to a single word or part of a
word in various paragraphs of a CV I received and then used as a template to
formulate my own CV. So it’s not the same word that activates the warning,
nor does it look like it’s a word in a particular position within the
paragraph.

I’ve disabled all macros and removed all COM add-ins in Word, and these two
offending documents are the only ones that cause this warning message.

How can I track down what is actually causing this and remove it?

My work around for my own CV was to save it as an rtf document and then open
that format and once again save it with a doc extension. But I’d still like
to know how to trace the offending code that’s causing the warning in the
original documents so that I can evaluate any risk.

I’m running XP SP2 with firewall enabled. AVG Free Edition anti virus
software with the most up-to-date protection and also run Lavasofts Ad-Aware
SE with the latest updates. None of these products reports any problem with
my laptop.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Helmut Obertanner]

Hello Hyde,

this can be deactivated by a RegistryKey, but then you have a Security Flaw.
There is a good article on microsoft about Office Security:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011403201033.aspx

Hope that helps,
Helmut Obertanner



""Hyde" the darker side" <[email protected]>
schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:[email protected]...

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Helmut

Many thanks, but I absolutely don't want to deactivate any security measure
without first knowing what ActiveX control is being held behind the text I'm
cutting from the Word document and pasting into the Outlook email.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Helmut Obertanner]

Hello Hyde.

there must be some Hyperlink or Active-X Object in your Text that you want
to paste in the Email.

Greets, Helmut Obertanner


""Hyde" the darker side" <[email protected]>
schrieb im Newsbeitrag

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Helmut

There must be. Trouble is I can't isolate it or identify it. It looks like
standard text.

Having first pasted the whole paragraph and received the warning from
Outlook, I started to paste the paragraph line by line until the warning was
displayed. Having identified which line of text caused the warning, I pasted
each individual word in that line until I identified the offending word, or
part word in this case. I get it when I paste "(SLA", the complete string
being "(SLA)". It doesn't change the cursor style as it would for hyperlink,
so I don't think it's that. If I remove all formatting it still causes the
warning message when pasted to Outlook.

In the next paragraph that throws up the same problem, the text is "France".

The only solution that worked was saving the document in RTF format. Word
warned me that I would lose some formatting and any macros, but this wasn't a
problem since I didn't want the offending item anyway.

I'd just like a way of getting a better warning message that tells me what
the activeX control is that is causing the warning in the first place.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Helmut Obertanner]

Could you try to paste the whole Text to WordPad or Notepad first, and then
to Outlook.
What happens ?

Do you use Word as Maileditor in Outlook ?
Maybe it's some kind of Word Autotext macro ?

Greets, Helmut Obertanner.

""Hyde" the darker side" <[email protected]>
schrieb im Newsbeitrag

 

[Hyde the darker side]

No I don't get the warning message if I paste to either WordPad or NotePad
first. But then I wouldn't expect to. Neither of these applications support
macros. Doing this is equivalent to saving the document in RTF format.

No I don't use Word as my Email Editor.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Well, I've found my own solution....

Turns out the warning message in outlook was being triggered by a "smart
tag" in the word document. Don't ask me why the smart tag was there though.

I found it by viewing the source code of an email I sent to myself with the
offending text. An extract of the code appears below:-

<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2604" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times
New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;
mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">agreement
(</SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times
New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;
mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">SLA</SPAN></st1lace><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times
New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;
mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Requirements analysis carried out using
workshops and stakeholder interviews.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I project </SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

Words help pages suggest that you can remove smart tags using the tools >
auto correct options, but this didn't work for me. The only option that
worked was on a "save as" where using the tools option in the save as dialog
box I selected the security options and "remove all personal data" option
ticked. An extract of the revised code appears below:-

<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2604" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times
New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;
mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">agreement
(SLA).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Requirements analysis
carried out using workshops and stakeholder interviews.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I project
</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

I hope the above helps others.

Regards
Hyde.