[Athena28]

Hi,

Whenever I open any Word Doc. I get the following messages:

"The command cannot be performed because a dialog box is open. Click OK, and then close open dialog boxes to continue."

I click ok.

There's then another error message:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP\PDFMaker.dot contains macros by Adobe Systems Incorporated

Macros may contain viruses. It is usually safe to disable macros, but if the macros are legitimate you may lose some functionality.

The security level is set to High. Therefore, you cannot enable macros from sources that you do not trust."

I am then given the option to check a box entitled:

"Always trust macros from this publisher."

Or I can click on "Disable Macros."

If I close both of these boxes without doing anything another error message appears:

"The macros in this project are disabled. Please refer to online help or documentation of the host application to determine how to enable macros."

I click ok and the document opens.

I didn't purposely create macros. Most of my word docs. don't have macros. A few might because I copied/pasted articles from newspapers but these error messages appear in simple letters I've typed that contain no macros. This even occurs when I open a brand new blank word doc.

How do I get rid of all these error messages?

Thanks.

--
MY SPECS:

Dell Latitude D820
Genuine Intel[R] CPU
T2300 @ 1.66 GHz
981MHz, 0.99 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension
Win XP, Home Edition, Version 2002
Service Pack 2
IE 6.0
Word 2003
Adobe Reader 8

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Hi Athena28.

The template file you reference (PDFMaker.dot) is an Adobe add-in and contains macros for displaying toolbars, special Adobe integration features, etc. This file is located in one of the Startup folders for Word and loads each time you open Word.

The next time you open Word and get prompted regarding the this file, choose to "Always Allow" macros from this source. Close Word and reopen. Did the error show up again?

If you don't use the Adobe stuff, you can move the file out of the Startup folder and you won't see the error again.

[piper]

Hi Athena28.

The template file you reference (PDFMaker.dot) is an Adobe add-in and contains macros for displaying toolbars, special Adobe integration features, etc. This file is located in one of the Startup folders for Word and loads each time you open Word.

The next time you open Word and get prompted regarding the this file, choose to "Always Allow" macros from this source. Close Word and reopen. Did the error show up again?

If you don't use the Adobe stuff, you can move the file out of the Startup folder and you won't see the error again.

[Athena28]

Hi LindaGail,

I've considered doing this but am afraid if I let all the macros in could some have viruses like the error message warns?

Also, someone suggested: "Find the PDFMaker.dot in the Word Startup folder and rename it PDFMaker.bad" Is this what you mean by "you can move the file out of the Startup folder and you won't see the error again." And, if so, how do I do this? I'm unsure where to find the Startup Folder.


Thanks so much.

[piper]

Yes, renaming the file does essentially the same thing as moving it out of the folder. Your error message actually gives you the location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP\PDFMaker.dot

Browse to that folder, hightlight the file (be sure Word is closed), right click and choose rename.

For what it's worth, the real threat of viruses arriving through macros is when you open files from other folks, especially files you weren't expecting or from folks you don't really know. The macros contained in third-party add-ins (like Adobe, Winfax, etc) usually arrive malware-free.

[Athena28]

Thanks again.

I enabled the macros and was receiving a diff. error message so I went right to the file and just changed it's name. So far new (blank) Word docs. and old word docs. seem to be opening without trouble (I don't use Adobe except for reading docs. anyway so I'm not that concerned about changing themn to .pdfs).

Thanks again.

[JohnnyGee]

I had the same problem but was not running Norton anti-virus and could not find any Word templates in the startup menu. I also encountered similar errors with Excel when trying to open by double-clicking the file. This only happened after a Windows re-install and Office reload (following malware/spyware infection). I turned off all spyware programs etc.. to no avail. The 'repair' mode for Office from add/delete program menu did not help.

I eventually un-installed Office and then reloaded it using a custom install (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint only..not all the other stuff it wants to load). This is the way that I first installed the software several years ago and it worked fine.

The program now seems to word perfectly, like before.

Good luck!

[dubloosh]

The same thing happens to be except there is no open document or file in Adobe, and my Word Startup folder is empty. How to resolve this? Thanks. I did a Print Screen however it would not attach here.

Edited by dubloosh, 09 February 2012 - 06:01 AM.