Macros and Security for Trusted Documents

Note: Updated as of 6/1/22. For the change notes and full description on Microsoft.com follow this link. To skip to what you should do about it, click here.

This article contains the following topics:

• What's changing with macros
• What these changes mean
• Who it impacts
• Who it doesn't impact
• What you should do
• What if you are not an admin

What's happening

• You'll likely notice this issue because you'll now see a red bar at the top of Excel that says "Security Risk: Microsoft has blocked macros from running because the source of this file is untrusted."
• Microsoft will be pushing an update that may impact how your users use EBM Software applications.
• They have not declared a release date, which means some users may start to experience this issue sooner than others, depending on several variables related to your version of Office.
• The update will now mass enforce policies that block active content like macros from running by default in your Trusted Documents. Previously, active content was allowed to run in Trusted Documents even when an IT administrator had set a policy to block it. Now, with this change, the administrator's policy choice will override the end-user's choice.

What this means

It means you may not be able to run macros or enable active content in your Excel files connected to Diligent. Diligent requires these in order to function, so the result would be a static non-functional file that cannot be updated to reflect the most current source data from Diligent.

Who it impacts

Any organization that sets policies restricting access to Active Content to their end-users Microsoft Office Suite. If there’s a policy set by your IT administrator or a Trust Center setting blocking the active content, the content will remain blocked. When this happens, Microsoft will display a business bar:

If you see the above message, then you are being impacted by this update. The message may also be in Red.

Who it doesn't impact

If your organization hasn't historically managed these security policies and allows its end-users to manage them themselves, then this update should not affect you. 

What you should do

You may have administrative access and security permissions that allow you to manage your version of Office and the subsequent behaviors for any of its apps, such as Excel. If that is true, we'd recommend you do the following: 

1. Create trusted locations and assign them full Macro enabled rights. To do this in Excel, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations > Add new location. Add folders as Trusted Locations where you store your Diligent and EBM connected documents. If you store them on the cloud, be sure to select the option to allow trusted locations on my network after trusting a shared drive or cloud based folder. Additionally, you can choose to include all subfolders in your selected trusted file location. Once your changes are saved, you must restart Excel and your computer. 
   
   
2. Another, less used option is to manually trust single documents and files by right-clicking the file in File Explorer > General > Security > and ticking the box to Unblock the document. This option is nice if you only use a few files regularly. Once your changes are saved, you must restart Excel and your computer. 
3. You can also open up the permissions for VBA macros under Trust Center to ensure macros are allowed:
   
4. Again, be sure to quit Excel and restart your computer after making these changes.

If you are NOT an admin on your machine

Contact your IT administrator and notify them of this change (you can send them this article). Your IT Administrator will need to decide which option is best suited for their user base: 

1. Determine the appropriate trust behaviors for your end users, the following policies are available:
   • Turn off Trusted Locations: Exceptions for security groups are available. Create exceptions for your users that use our software.
   • Turn off Trusted Documents: Exceptions for security groups are available. Create exceptions for your users that use our software.
2. Some policies controlling active content have settings that allow for user override. If you trust your users to make security decisions on their own, you can select these options, learn more.