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For added security, you can digitally sign your macros by attaching digital certificates to them. But before you can use this security measure, you must have a digital certificate installed on your computer. For more information about obtaining and using digital certificates, see Chapter 34, "Addressing Security Issues."
After you've installed a digital certificate, you can digitally sign a macro as follows:
Note
Figure 40-12. To help provide security, the Digital Signature dialog box enables you to sign your macros with a digital certificate.
Figure 40-13. The Select Certificate dialog box displays a list of certificates that you can use to sign your macros.
As a rule, you should digitally sign a macro only after you've completed the creation process, including testing the macro. Whenever signed code is modified, the digital signature is removed. If you have the proper digital certificate on your computer, the macro will then be automatically resigned when it is saved. As you can see, editing a signed macro causes your computer to perform extra processing. In addition, if you're working on a computer that doesn't contain your digital certificate information, modifying your macro will remove the digital certificate, and the certificate won't be reattached when you save your changes.
Another security-related macro issue involves setting the security level in Word. You can specify whether you want Word to treat documents that contain macros with a high, medium, or low security level. To configure your security level, follow these steps:
For more information about Word's security levels and how Word handles each security level, see Chapter 34, "Addressing Security Issues."