Enabling macros — What setting should I use?

[mhdraperme]

When opening third party spreadsheets, often times I get the following dialog box message: " This document contains macros. Macros may contain viruses. Execution of macros is disabled due to the current macro security settings in Tool-Options-OpenOffice-Security. Therefore, some functionality may not be available." Usually I ignore the message and proceed without enabling macros.

I have a habit of trying to check out the host site offering the spreadsheet and verify they can at least pass the straight face test.

Question: If I change the macro settings in Calc on any spreadsheet, will the the updated settings remain so I can open additional spreadsheets in the future without having to change the settings again?

In my experience, downloading spreadsheets written for Excel hasn't presented too many problems. Just trying to make this step as seamless as possible.

Any thoughts or advice would be welcome.

Thanks.

[FJCC]

The macro security setting is for the suite as a whole, so any change will affect all documents. You can set it to Medium so that you are asked about enabling the macros when the file is opened. You can then decline or accept depending on the file.

[mhdraperme]

Medium setting it is.

Thanks.

[MTP]

You can also set a "trusted location" so any documents saved to this location will run the macros without prompting. So if you have a sheet you trust and want to use with macros, save them in the "trusted" folder. This is set in the macro security window, "Trusted Sources" tab.

[mollask]

Hey guys, I get that same error, but cannot find in 4.1's calc where I can re-enable macros. On the mac version there is no Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice -> Security

[Hagar Delest]

The Tools menu is called "Preferences" on a Mac.

[robleyd]

If you are new to Mac and Apache OpenOffice you may find Tutorial: Mac FAQ a useful resource.