Problem with Digitally Signed VBA Project

[yonatan.goldman]

Hi-
After adding a self-created digital signature to a Word .dot file, I
get the "Project is unviewable" error message when I try to open the
VBA project. I had not protected the project. How can I make this
project viewable again??

TIA

 

[Jezebel]

This problem is not related to the signature.

1) You need to open the dot file itself. (Merely loading it, eg as an
add-in, makes the macros available, but not the project).

2) There is some quirkiness in Word's behaviour. Not sure of the exact
sequence, but projects can become unviewable -- even with the file open --
after running code that opens or closes other files. Re-starting Word fixes
it.

 

[yonatan.goldman]

1. The problem persists with the dot file open, not just loaded.

2. Restarting Word, and even rebooting the computer, doesn't solve the
problem.

 

[Jezebel]

Is your set up as .dot an add-in? If so, unload it as an add-in before
opening it as a file.

 

[yonatan.goldman]

It is not loaded as an add-in. I even tried renaming it with a .doc
extension. Didn't help.

 

[Jezebel]

guess you're stuffed then

It is not loaded as an add-in. I even tried renaming it with a .doc
extension. Didn't help.

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi-
After adding a self-created digital signature to a Word .dot file, I
get the "Project is unviewable" error message when I try to open the
VBA project. I had not protected the project. How can I make this
project viewable again??

It is possible that the file has been corrupted (you *do* have a backup of
the unsigned version??)

But before doing that, try the following, in this specific order.

1. Restart Word.
2. Make sure that there are no add-ins loaded in the Tools, templates and
add-ins dialog.
3. Open the template as a document.
4. Open the Word VBA editor and see if you can access the project.

If you can't, then the document probably has been corrupted. Which version
of Word are you using? Sometimes, opening and re-saving the document in a
different version of Word (especially a later one) can clear problems like
this.


--
Regards
Jonathan West - Word MVP
www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk
Please reply to the newsgroup
Keep your VBA code safe, sign the ClassicVB petition www.classicvb.org

 

[Gary Hillerson]

Actually, I just hit this problem and it turned into a significant
mess. If you've recently installed IE7 on the PC you use to sign code,
that's the problem.

We're using a certificate from Thawte that we purchased last spring to
sign our VBA projects. After I installed Internet Explorer 7, I found
I could no longer sign projects. Turns out that IE7 uses a new form of
certificate when signing (this only affects the signing machine).

The solution: contact Thawte or Verisign or whomever, and have them
reissue (free) your certificate. Then delete your old certificate in
IE 7, and reimport the new certificate into IE 7. Then you can sign
projects again.

HOWEVER: be forewarned. Once you get a reissued certificate, your old
certificate becomes invalid. If you timestamped your signature, then
your old signatures will work, altho they'll be noted as expired. If
you have not timestamped your old projects (which sadly, I had not
because I didn't know about that), your old signatures will be noted
as revoked. Timestamping for Thawte certificates is described here:
http://search.thawte.com/thawte/solution.jsp?id=vs9288)

Note that users who have upgraded to IE7 do not get any problems with
the old certificate; it only affects the signing machine. Had I known
that our old certificate would be marked as revoked, I would have
bought a new certificate and used it to sign new projects, while
retaining the usability of the old. We didn't do that, and now all of
our existing products have a revoked certificate, which sucks!

gary

 

[yonatan.goldman]

I tried many things to unlock the project, including what Jonathan
suggested. No luck.

I had indeed recently installed IE7. Besides this problem, it was
crashing regularly.

I had another problem recently with my PC, and as a result I've
reinstalled Windows XP (Pro), which means I'm back to IE6. I think
I'll keep it that way for a while.

Yes, fortunately I had a relatively recent backup.

Thanks to Jonathan, Gary, and Jezebel for your help.