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Macros

S

snappygate

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 19, 2008
1
0
Hi Everyone,

Recently when I go to open word files there's a message box that comes up saying the file contains Macros and do I want to proceed. Although I've been assured by various people that Macros don't generally contain viruses my university email account has been treating these files as viruses and deleting any emails I send with word files attached from the server. Even when I can successfully send the word file anyone who tries to open it on a PC gets a virus message and can't open the file. I can only assume this is happening due to the files containing macros. I've updated word on my mac and installed avast to check for viruses (there weren't any, as you would expect....).

Any suggestions as to what the problem is or how I can remove/block macros from my word files? This is causing me a world of hurt at the moment, lots of important work, thesis chapters etc have not gone through to my supervisor etc...:mad:

Thanks everyone :)
 
I would suspect that, if the files are triggering virus scanners, either on PCs or on email filters, that they actually are macro viruses. Unless you know exactly what these macros are for and why they're in your document(s), then your files probably really are infected with macro viruses. Documents don't just sprout macros on their own.

One of the easiest ways to get rid of them would be to open them on a computer that has only Word 2008 installed. Word 2008 doesn't support macros; it will warn you and offer to remove the macros.

If you only have older versions of Word, then open Word preferences, go to Security, check the "warn before opening documents containing macros" box, and then re-open the document. Then open the file, be careful to choose the "open without macros" option, and then save the opened file over the old one.

It's rare that a macro virus affects Word for Mac, but it is possible and it does happen. If you've often opened these infected files on your Mac, though, your normal.dot (the default "blank document" template) file may be infected, as well as any other Word files on your computer. You'd have to delete the normal.dot file from your Microsoft Office User data folder, and clean up the other files in the same way.
 
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