Opening a Presentation with Macros

When you open a presentation with a macro, VBA, or other software code, PowerPoint displays a security warning (New!) to let you know the presentation might contain potentially harmful code that may harm your computer. If you know and trust the author of the presentation, you can change security options to enable the macro content and use the presentation normally. If you don't trust the content, you can continue to block and disable the content and use the presentation with limited functionality. If you don't want a security alert to appear, you can change security settings in the Trust Center in PowerPoint Options.

Open a Presentation with Macros

Click the Office button, and then click Open.

Click the File as type list arrow, and then click one of the following presentation types with macros:

• PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation. A presentation (.pptm) that contains VBA code.

• PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Show. A presentation slide show (.ppsm) that includes preapproved macros.

• PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Design Template. A template (.potm) that includes preapproved macros.

If the file is located in another folder, click the Look in list arrow, and then navigate to the file.

Click the presentation with macros you want to open, and then click Open.

Click Options in the Security Warning.

If you trust the presentation content, click the Enable external content option to open it. If you don't trust it, click the Help protect me from unknown content option to block and disable the macros.

Click OK.