Episode 2491 - While using SmartRoster software, you try to export a report to Word. The export does not start and you get a message that says, "Microsoft Word Security Notice. Microsoft Office has identified a potential security concern. Microsoft has blocked macros from running because the source of this file is untrusted."
I recently posted episode 2485 that attempted to allow macros by using the Unblock checkbox in the workbook properties. That method won't work here. Instead, you can temporarily set up a trusted location. This video shows you how.
Table of Contents
(0:00) Microsoft is blocking macros from running.
(0:53) SmartRoster problem
(2:29) Behind the scenes
(3:11) Demo of solution
(3:45) SmartRoster working again
(4:03) Recap of Steps
I recently posted episode 2485 that attempted to allow macros by using the Unblock checkbox in the workbook properties. That method won't work here. Instead, you can temporarily set up a trusted location. This video shows you how.
Table of Contents
(0:00) Microsoft is blocking macros from running.
(0:53) SmartRoster problem
(2:29) Behind the scenes
(3:11) Demo of solution
(3:45) SmartRoster working again
(4:03) Recap of Steps
Transcript of the video:
This is another one of those videos that really could have two titles.
Learn Excel from MrExcel Podcast episode 2491. SmartRoster stops exporting to Word, with a solution.
Or Learn Excel from MrExcel Podcast episode 2491. Bill, my computer doesn't offer to unblock macros.
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
There are 2 points to this video this weekend. The first one is for anyone who's watching video #2485 where I showed about the new Microsoft policy of blocking macros if the file came from the web.
And how you go into Properties and unblock.
I am getting a lot of people saying “I don't have the option to unblock”.
And I think the solution that I offer to the SmartRoster folks is going to help you as well.
Primarily here I'm creating this video for other people who are using SmartRoster.
This is some software out of Australia.
It's been around forever, it's being used by nonprofits to create schedules, church scheduling, museum scheduling.
Anytime you have a whole bunch of volunteers who have, you know all kinds of weird schedules, SmartRoster will help you to to plan things out.
It's, you know, it's an .exe, right?
We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but we do know that for years SmartRoster has been successfully working.
You build your schedule.
You fill the vacancies, and then you're finally done.
It's a thankless job, so I'm going to thank you whoever you are for doing your scheduling, I know.
You know there's a team of us doing our scheduling and boy, it's so frustrating.
And then you're finally done and you click this “Export to Word” button.
And this button has been working forever.
You didn't buy a new computer, you didn't buy a new version of Office.
Just all of a sudden, now, Microsoft has decided to become super vigilant and they're now warning you.
“Microsoft Word Security Notice.
“Microsoft Office has identified a potential security concern.
“They have blocked macros from running because the source of the file is untrusted”.
And it points to this long file path here.
C, Users, That little bit of the file path is going to be different for everyone, Appdata, Local, Microsoft Windows, inet cache, blah blah blah blah blah and it's this temp file.
Alright, so as near as I can tell behind the scenes when we click Export to Word.
Smart roster is doing two things.
First, they're writing some VB script.
And then they must be, on the fly, creating a Word document with a very short macro that runs the VB script.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, I can't find exactly where that file is going, which prevents me from going in and using the solution from 2485 to unblock the macros.
And for you SmartRoster customer out there I share your frustration.
You're just trying to get the schedules published.
All of a sudden, it won't work.
But I found a solution that worked for us and hopefully it'll work for you.
Here we go.
Right, what we have to do is we have to go into Word.
And then File, Options.
Trust center, Trust center Settings, Trusted Locations.
And add a new location.
And, so I typed that whole path.
It's going to be different for everyone, of course, because of the user ID.
Choose “Subfolders for this Location are also Trusted”.
Made a note for myself that I did this for SmartRoster.
Click OK, Click OK, Click OK, right.
And then completely close Word.
Come back here.
Display your calendar.
And now if we choose Word, we get the notice.
But Word does open.
And it does successfully create the calendar, which is great.
This window is here the whole time.
You definitely don't want to click Disable Macros.
And then once your scheduling is done for the quarter or for the month, then you won't be using SmartRoster again for a while.
Go back into File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Trusted Locations, Click on that location, and Remove.
So that way, no other programs can run macros in that folder.
You'll just have to make a note to remind yourself next quarter to put the trusted location back.
Alright, so there you go, that's one other approach to try and get those macros to run is to set up a trusted location.
That is basically in a parent folder that will include wherever that macro is going to be stored.
The steps here again, you might want to pause the video here and screen shot this so you can follow along.
Open Word or Excel or PowerPoint - wherever the macro is being blocked.
Going to File, Options along the left near the bottom.
Choose Trust Center.
And then in the middle right of the dialog, choose Trust Center Settings.
Then back on the left near the top, Trusted Locations.
Down to the bottom right, Add New Location.
Type the correct path.
You have to be really careful to get that.
You know, you probably screenshot it from smart roster or wherever, and you don't need the whole path, just enough so that way, in my case I went to Windows.
I didn't keep going on beyond that.
And then because I didn't type the entire path, I chose “Subfolders of this Location are also Trusted”.
The type of comments remind yourself of why you added this trusted location that way, years from now.
You're like what?
why did I do this?
Click OK to finish adding location.
Click OK to close the Trust Center.
Click OK to close Options.
Close word or Excel or PowerPoint.
The trusted location seemed to be unique to each app, so depending on which macro are being blocked.
In the SmartRoster case, it was a Word macro.
But most of my viewers are Excel folks.
Or you might be in PowerPoint.
And then try exporting the calendar again or doing whatever you need to do to run the macro again.
There you go.
Hopefully that helps all the SmartRoster folks, or just anyone who's having problems with this new Microsoft policy blocking macros that have what they call the “Mark of the Web”.
Although in this case it clearly isn't coming from the web, it's being generated on the fly.
You know whatever, all right?
Well, I want to thank you for stopping by.
We'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
Learn Excel from MrExcel Podcast episode 2491. SmartRoster stops exporting to Word, with a solution.
Or Learn Excel from MrExcel Podcast episode 2491. Bill, my computer doesn't offer to unblock macros.
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
There are 2 points to this video this weekend. The first one is for anyone who's watching video #2485 where I showed about the new Microsoft policy of blocking macros if the file came from the web.
And how you go into Properties and unblock.
I am getting a lot of people saying “I don't have the option to unblock”.
And I think the solution that I offer to the SmartRoster folks is going to help you as well.
Primarily here I'm creating this video for other people who are using SmartRoster.
This is some software out of Australia.
It's been around forever, it's being used by nonprofits to create schedules, church scheduling, museum scheduling.
Anytime you have a whole bunch of volunteers who have, you know all kinds of weird schedules, SmartRoster will help you to to plan things out.
It's, you know, it's an .exe, right?
We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but we do know that for years SmartRoster has been successfully working.
You build your schedule.
You fill the vacancies, and then you're finally done.
It's a thankless job, so I'm going to thank you whoever you are for doing your scheduling, I know.
You know there's a team of us doing our scheduling and boy, it's so frustrating.
And then you're finally done and you click this “Export to Word” button.
And this button has been working forever.
You didn't buy a new computer, you didn't buy a new version of Office.
Just all of a sudden, now, Microsoft has decided to become super vigilant and they're now warning you.
“Microsoft Word Security Notice.
“Microsoft Office has identified a potential security concern.
“They have blocked macros from running because the source of the file is untrusted”.
And it points to this long file path here.
C, Users, That little bit of the file path is going to be different for everyone, Appdata, Local, Microsoft Windows, inet cache, blah blah blah blah blah and it's this temp file.
Alright, so as near as I can tell behind the scenes when we click Export to Word.
Smart roster is doing two things.
First, they're writing some VB script.
And then they must be, on the fly, creating a Word document with a very short macro that runs the VB script.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, I can't find exactly where that file is going, which prevents me from going in and using the solution from 2485 to unblock the macros.
And for you SmartRoster customer out there I share your frustration.
You're just trying to get the schedules published.
All of a sudden, it won't work.
But I found a solution that worked for us and hopefully it'll work for you.
Here we go.
Right, what we have to do is we have to go into Word.
And then File, Options.
Trust center, Trust center Settings, Trusted Locations.
And add a new location.
And, so I typed that whole path.
It's going to be different for everyone, of course, because of the user ID.
Choose “Subfolders for this Location are also Trusted”.
Made a note for myself that I did this for SmartRoster.
Click OK, Click OK, Click OK, right.
And then completely close Word.
Come back here.
Display your calendar.
And now if we choose Word, we get the notice.
But Word does open.
And it does successfully create the calendar, which is great.
This window is here the whole time.
You definitely don't want to click Disable Macros.
And then once your scheduling is done for the quarter or for the month, then you won't be using SmartRoster again for a while.
Go back into File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Trusted Locations, Click on that location, and Remove.
So that way, no other programs can run macros in that folder.
You'll just have to make a note to remind yourself next quarter to put the trusted location back.
Alright, so there you go, that's one other approach to try and get those macros to run is to set up a trusted location.
That is basically in a parent folder that will include wherever that macro is going to be stored.
The steps here again, you might want to pause the video here and screen shot this so you can follow along.
Open Word or Excel or PowerPoint - wherever the macro is being blocked.
Going to File, Options along the left near the bottom.
Choose Trust Center.
And then in the middle right of the dialog, choose Trust Center Settings.
Then back on the left near the top, Trusted Locations.
Down to the bottom right, Add New Location.
Type the correct path.
You have to be really careful to get that.
You know, you probably screenshot it from smart roster or wherever, and you don't need the whole path, just enough so that way, in my case I went to Windows.
I didn't keep going on beyond that.
And then because I didn't type the entire path, I chose “Subfolders of this Location are also Trusted”.
The type of comments remind yourself of why you added this trusted location that way, years from now.
You're like what?
why did I do this?
Click OK to finish adding location.
Click OK to close the Trust Center.
Click OK to close Options.
Close word or Excel or PowerPoint.
The trusted location seemed to be unique to each app, so depending on which macro are being blocked.
In the SmartRoster case, it was a Word macro.
But most of my viewers are Excel folks.
Or you might be in PowerPoint.
And then try exporting the calendar again or doing whatever you need to do to run the macro again.
There you go.
Hopefully that helps all the SmartRoster folks, or just anyone who's having problems with this new Microsoft policy blocking macros that have what they call the “Mark of the Web”.
Although in this case it clearly isn't coming from the web, it's being generated on the fly.
You know whatever, all right?
Well, I want to thank you for stopping by.
We'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
