Visual Basic for Applications is disabled by default in Excel 2007

When you use Microsoft Office Excel 2007, some features that are related to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) may be missing or disabled.

For example, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• When you try to open a workbook that contains macros, you receive the following error message:
  Security Alert Your security settings have disabled macros from running.
• You cannot locate the Macro dialog box. To access the Macro dialog box in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, point to Macros on the Tools menu, and then click Macros.

To work around this default functionality, use the following methods as appropriate for your situation.

Method 1: Enable the content for the current workbook

To enable the macros only in the workbook that you are opening, click Enable Content. If the workbook contains unsigned macros, you will again be prompted to enable the content. If you trust the workbook and the source of the workbook, click Enable this content, and then click OK.

Note If you do not trust the workbook or do not know the source of the workbook, we recommend that you do not enable the content. Instead, click Leave this content disabled (recommended), and then click OK.

Method 2: Locate the Macro dialog box

The Developer tab includes macro and form authoring tools and XML-related features. By default, the Developer tab is not displayed in the Ribbon. To display the Developer tab, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
2. Click Personalize.
3. Click to select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box.
4. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

To locate the Macro dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Click the Developer tab.
2. In the Code group, click Macros.

Method 3: Change the macro security settings

Warning This workaround may make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

To change how Excel 2007 handles macros, you may want to change the security settings. Macro security settings are located in the Trust Center. However, if you work in an organization, the system administrator may have changed the default setting. Therefore, you may be prevented from changing any settings.

Note When you change the macro security settings in the Trust Center, the settings are changed only for Excel 2007. The macro security settings are not changed for all programs in the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

To change the macro security settings in Excel 2007, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
2. Click Trust Center, click Trust Center Settings, and then click Macro Settings.
3. Under Macro Settings, click the macro security setting you want.

The following describes each macro security setting:

• Disable all macros without notification
  
  Click this option if you do not trust macros. All macros in documents and security alerts about macros are disabled. If documents have unsigned macros that you trust, you can put those documents in a trusted location. Documents in trusted locations are allowed to run without being checked by the Trust Center security feature.
  
  Note Typically, a trusted location is a folder on your hard disk or on a network share. Any files that you put in a trusted location can be opened without being checked by the Trust Center security feature.
• Disable all macros with notification
  
  This is the default setting. Click this option if you want macros to be disabled, but you want to receive security alerts if macros are present. Therefore, you can choose when to enable the macros individually.
• Disable all macros except digitally signed macros
  
  This setting is the same as the Disable all macros with notification option. However, if the macro is digitally signed by a trusted publisher, the macro can run if you have already trusted the publisher. If you have not trusted the publisher, you are notified. Therefore, you can choose to enable those signed macros or trust the publisher. All unsigned macros are disabled without notification.
• Enable all macros (not recommended, potentially dangerous code can run)
  
  Click this option to allow all macros to run. This setting makes your computer vulnerable to potentially malicious code. We do not recommend this setting.