Macro Security in Excel 2007 and how to set the security

for the Safety Estimator

The Wizard in the Safety Estimator spreadsheet uses both Macros and what are called
Document-level extensions. When Excel 2007 has macro security turned on, neither of
these will run. The macro security is turned on by default when Excel 2007 is installed.

There are two ways to overcome this:

1. Turn off macro security entirely
2. Add the Safety Estimator certificate to the certificate store on your machine

Option 1 is the most expedient method but leaves you open to future macro viruses. The
better approach would be to put the Safety Estimator certificate into the certificate store
and then tell Excel to trust all content from that source.

Adding the Safety Estimator Certificate to your machine

Excel 2007 has a new macro security system from what was previously in place in earlier
versions of Excel. To run the Safety Estimator using the Safety Estimator certificate, you
should set the Macro Security in the Excel 2007 Trust Center as shown in the Figure 1
below “Disable all macros except digitally signed macros”.
Figure 1 - Recommended Macro Setting in Excel 2007

When you run the Safety Estimator spreadsheet for the first time in Excel 2007 with
macro security turned on the wizard will not be able to load. Figure 2 shows the error
you will see.
Figure 2 - Customization Appears to be Unavailable

The error makes it appear as though the wizard assembly couldn’t be found. Click OK
on this screen and the spreadsheet will load. You should now see a Security Warning bar
appear under the menus. Figure 3 shows what this should look like.
Figure 3 - Security Warning Bar

The following series of steps should be taken to eliminate this warning and allow the
wizard to run while leaving your macro security enabled.
1. Click the Options button on the Security Warning bar. The dialog that pops up
should look like that shown in Figure 4
Figure 4 - Security Alert

2. Click “Show Signature Details”. You should see the following dialog pop up.
Figure 5 - Digital Signature Details

3. Click View Certificate. You should see the following dialog pop up as a result.
Figure 6 - Certificate View

4. Click Install Certificate. This will run the Certificate Import Wizard as shown in
Figure 7.
Figure 7 - Certificate Import Wizard

5. Click “Next” and run through the installation steps. The screen shown in Figure 8
will appear and the default selection of “Automatically select the certificate store
based on the type of certificate” should be selected.
Figure 8 - Certificate Store Selection

6. Click “Next” to install the certificate. The final screen will appear as shown below
in Figure 9.
Figure 9 - Installation Complete

7. Click “Finish” to complete the operation. You’ll get one final warning about
doing this as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10 - Confirmation Screen

8. Click “Yes” to complete the installation.

Now that the certificate is installed, you should exit the Safety Estimator spreadsheet and
re-enter the spreadsheet again. You will still get one more security warning.
Figure 11- Security Warning AGAIN!

9. Select the Options button again to see an updated security screen as shown in
Figure 12.
Figure 12 - Updated Security Alert

10. Now you should have the additional option to either “Enable the content” or
“Trust all documents from the publisher”. Select “Trust all documents from the
publisher” and Click “OK”.

From this point forward you will be able to run the Safety Estimator Wizard on that
machine with your macro security still turned on.