Protecting Against Macro Viruses

Scanning for Viruses Before You Open an Office Document

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint® now allow virus scanning programs to check documents before you open them. When you open a document in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, the document is checked by the virus scanning program before it is opened in the Office application.

Virus scanning programs that can check Office 2000 documents are registered on the computer when the programs are installed. This registration enables Word, Excel, or PowerPoint to determine how to pass the documents through the scanning program before the documents are opened.

When a virus scanning program is registered to scan Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, the Security dialog box indicates that scanning is registered. (To open the Security dialog box, point to Macro on the Tools menu, and then click Security.) If no virus scanning program is registered to scan Office documents, the Security dialog box indicates No virus scanners installed.

Documents that are password-protected cannot be checked by virus scanning programs because these documents are encrypted and cannot be read. Also, shared workbooks in Excel are encrypted and cannot be read. When you open a password-protected document or a shared workbook, the virus scanning program is bypassed.