Hide the Word warnings and work in peace

Macros are a series of steps or actions that are executed automatically, they are very useful to automate tasks. However, when we open Word files that we have not created and contain a macro, warning messages are activated in the application and end up being annoying.

As is customary in the digital world, all the tools that watch over us and our privacy have some consideration. Either they are paid tools, or they slow down the operation of programs or the entire computer, or directly that they are annoying with their warning messages and their settings. Ideally, look for the balance between safety and comfort at work.

This is why it is important to understand the content of warning messages and their severity to configure notifications or alerts without compromising the security of the device and our information. These messages usually appear when they are run macros or when the documents are going to access external content as suspicious website links or files.

What are security warnings for?

Word, and also the rest of Microsoft 365 applications, have a message bar at the top, just below the ribbon. In this location are shown, among other content, security alerts and warnings when content that could be dangerous exists or is executed.

When trying to run a macro we will see a notice that informs us that they have been disabled, although we will also see these types of messages with ActiveX controls or connections of content and external data among others. Depending on the severity of the alert, we will see the messages with a yellow background or a red background.

These alerts are usually accompanied by a button that will help us configure that content that has been detected as potentially dangerous. We will have shortcuts for the macro options, enable content ActiveX or abort process executions of this type. If we know that the content is trustworthy we will only have to enable it, the problem is that if we do not deactivate these alerts it can be uncomfortable to receive these notifications continuously while we are working.

Enable or disable warnings

The safety messages we prevent greater evils, we must always be aware of this. That is why we must be safe when we are going to deactivate the warnings, since we have to be careful with the files that we open.

In Word (Microsoft 365)

For hide security warnings In the Word message bar we will have to follow these steps:

• We’ll go to File and then to Choices.
• We choose Trust Center.
• We click on Trust Center Settings.
• In the left side menu bar we will click on Message bar.

Once we have reached the Message Bar we will find three configuration options. The option “Show the message bar in all applications when active content such as ActiveX controls and macros have been blocked » it is the default with all warnings enabled.

The other possibility is to activate Never show information about blocked content. As we can deduce, blocking potentially dangerous content and activating notifications when such action occurs are different concepts.

We will also see suggestion in the Message Bar such as the possibility of Show policy tips in message bar. This option refers to being able to display warnings when policy tips appear. These must be created in advance so that Word warns us when there is a conflict when displaying sensitive information such as user bank details.

Previous versions

If we have previous versions of Microsoft Word, such as Office 2016, the operation is different and we will have to eliminate the warning messages in another way, disabling macros:

• We will click with the right mouse button on an empty place in the Options.
• We select Customize Ribbon.
• We activate the box Programmer.
• We select Macro settings in the left side menu.
• We will configure how we want disable macros.

As we always remember in these situations, we must be careful with this type of configuration that can create new vulnerabilities in our equipment.

Enable macros in Office

As we have said above, a macro is a set of actions that are executed in an automated and repetitive way when we open the file in which they have been created. These can be executed in any of the files compatible with the suite’s programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, etc. On the other hand, enabling macros we will avoid being inundated with warning messages.

If it’s about specific occasions the best way to activate a macro is by going precisely to the warning message and clicking on the button Enable content as long as we are sure that it is a trustworthy file.

Only during the session

In the event that we are going to need run macros throughout the session that we have started, we have another possibility to activate them only during the session:

• We are going to File.
• We select Security warning and we click on Enable content.
• Click on Advanced Options.
• In the section Microsoft Office security options we will activate the box Enable content for this session.
• We confirm by clicking on the button To accept.

Permanently

In the case that we work in a trusted environment, we can configure the macros in Office to be executed no need to show the warning before. For that we will follow these steps:

• Let’s go to the tab File and click on Choices.
• We will click on Trust Center.
• Click on Trust Center Settings.
• We select Macro settings in the left side menu.

In that menu we can configure the macros enabling or disabling them and choosing if we want to receive the security warnings or not.

Alerts about external content

Disabling notifications when we are going to access a website that is not safe can be dangerous, too many are interested in introducing viruses or any other type of malware on our computer and getting our data. In any case, if we are going to work with files that have links or files considered suspicious by Office but that we have the certainty that they are safe, we can go to the Trust Center to configure it based on our needs.

For this we must look for it in File / Trust Center / Trust Center Settings / External Content. Here we can configure the security measures around data connections, book links, linked data, dynamic data exchange or the connection of Microsoft Query files.

In earlier versions of Office

For previous versions of Office (2019, 2016, etc.) they also allow us to configure these security options:

• In any of the Office programs we click on File.
• We click on Options / Trust Center / Trust Center Settings.
• We select Privacy options.
• We activate or deactivate the box as we see fit Check Microsoft Office documents that come from or are linked to suspicious websites.
• Click on To accept to save and confirm the changes.

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