Enable or disable macros in Office for Mac

To help prevent macros that contain viruses from contaminating your system, by default Office for Mac displays a warning message whenever you try to open a document that contains a macro. This message appears regardless of whether the macro actually contains a virus. You can turn off the warning message, but if you do, make sure that you know and trust the source of the document before you open it.

Which Office for Mac Suite are you using?

Newer versions Office 2011

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1. Click the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint menu as appropriate.

2. Click Preferences

3. Click Security & Privacy

   • To allow all macros to run select the Enable all macros radio button.

     Caution: This will allow ALL macros, both good and bad, to run without any further warning. Only choose this setting if you're certain that you won't be opening any malicious or dangerous files.

   • To be prompted each time a macro is detected, select Disable all macros with notification. This is the default setting.

   • To silently disable all macros, select Disable all macros without notification. No macros will run and you won't receive any further prompts.

Word

PowerPoint

Excel

Word

1. On the Word menu, click Preferences.

2. Under Personal Settings, click Security  .

3. Do one of the following:

To	Do this
Enable macros when you open a file	Clear the Warn before opening a file that contains macros check box. Note: If you disable macro virus protection, you run the risk of infection, which could result in serious damage to your data.
See the warning message when you open a file that has a macro	Make sure that the Warn before opening a file that contains macros check box is selected.

PowerPoint

1. On the PowerPoint menu, click Preferences.

2. On the toolbar, click General  .

3. Do one of the following:

To	Do this
Enable macros when you open a file	Clear the Enable macro virus protection check box. Note: If you disable macro virus protection, you run the risk of infection, which could result in serious damage to your data.
See the warning message when you open a file that has a macro	Make sure that the Enable macro virus protection check box is selected.

Excel

1. On the Excel menu, click Preferences.

2. Under Sharing and Privacy, click Security  .

3. Do one of the following:

To	Do this
Enable macros when you open a file	Clear the Warn before opening a file that contains macros check box. Note: If you disable macro virus protection, you run the risk of infection, which could result in serious damage to your data.
See the warning message when you open a file that has a macro	Make sure that the Warn before opening a file that contains macros check box is selected.

See Also

Create, run, edit, or delete a macro