Conversion: Disable Visual Basic macro errors despite of disabled macros

Last update: 17 February 2021 (cf)

Information

For security reasons, on all conversion servers, the macro execution of Microsoft Office applications should be disabled. Fabasoft Conversion services also include a logic to automatically close opening dialogs that are shown by Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office applications, to skip and proceed the conversion.

From a customer, Fabasoft got knowledge of a special warning dialog shown by Microsoft Visual Basic (VBA), that is displayed even though macro notification is disabled in Microsoft Word. Furthermore, the Fabasoft Conversion service cannot access and close this dialog because of Windows security mechanisms.

Solution

Summary

The following steps show how to change the TEMP directory of the Fabasoft Conversion services, disable macros in Microsoft Word, and add the new location to the trusted locations of Microsoft Word.

For more information about trusted locations in Microsoft Word, see Microsoft Knowledgebase https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-remove-or-change-a-trusted-location-7ee1cdc2-483e-4cbb-bcb3-4e7c67147fb4

All steps need to be done on the conversion server (or all conversion servers) and with the conversion service user logged in to Windows .

Change temporary directory of Fabasoft Conversion service

By default, the TEMP directory of Fabasoft Folio Kernel is located in the %TEMP%\Fabasoft directory of the Conversion service Windows user.

For the change of the trusted locations of Microsoft Word, it is required to change the location of this directory, as Microsoft Word implicitly does not allow the %TEMP% directory as a trusted location.

Create a new folder for Fabasoft temporary files, e.g. C:\FOLIOTEMP, with permissions for the Folio Conversion service user.
Change Fabasofts *.upd files:
In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Fabasoft
Edit both files, coomk.udp and cooprep.upd:
Add a line (or change, if already exists):
HKEY_ENVIRONMENT\TEMPDIR=C:\FOLIOTEMP
or with the path of your new directory

Add a line (or change, if already exists):
HKEY_ENVIRONMENT\DOCDIR=C:\FOLIOTEMP
or with the path of your new directory

Save both files and restart the Conversion service.

For further information about Fabasoft Folio Environment Variables, check our documentation:
https://help.folio.fabasoft.com/index.php?topic=doc/Fabasoft-Folio-Envir...

Micrcsoft Word: Disable macro execution

For security reasons, you always should keep macro execution disabled on all Conversion servers.

Still with the Conversion service user logged in, start Microsoft Word
Navigate to File / Options
In the Options window, select Trust Center and Trust Center Settings...
In the Macro Settings, select Disable all macros without notification .

Microsoft Word: Add trusted location

The dialog from VBA does not appear, when the file is opened from a trusted location. Therefore, we add the new folder C:\FOLIOTEMP to Word's trusted locations:

In the already opened Trust Center , navigate to Trusted locations .
Press the button Add new location... and navigate to the new folder C:\FOLIOTEMP
Also activate the checkbox Subfolders of this location are also trusted
Save the settings

If you still have issues, please contact Fabasoft Support.