Stamp Out the Annoying Macro Warning

STAMP OUT THE ANNOYING MACRO WARNING

I often need to create macros in Excel files, and each time I open such a file Excel displays a security message asking me if I want to enable the macros (see screenshot below). Of course, I say yes. But later, when I remove the macros, Excel still interrupts with the security question. It’s bad enough that I have to repeatedly respond to the question when a file contains macros, but once they’re gone, the warning should stop. Can that problem be solved?

  That notice is part of Excel’s security system; it helps protect you from unknowingly admitting a virus attached to a macro. So while it’s a pain to respond to the question, it has a legitimate value—but only when the files contain macros.

The reason Excel keeps asking the question after you removed the macros, which are created in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), is that when you removed them, you failed to also remove the VBA module that stored them. I’ll show you how to eliminate the module so the notice will stop popping up.

Open the file and press Alt+F11 or click on Tools, Macros and then on Visual Basic Editor from the resulting submenu and the Visual Basic Editor will be displayed. Then click on Project Explorer (see screenshot below).

If Project Explorer isn’t visible, press Ctrl+R to open a folder called Modules. Double-click on it to display its contents and right-click on any module and select Remove. When asked if you want to export the module, click on No. Repeat the steps for each module and close the Visual Basic Editor and save the workbook.