• May 25

How to Turn Off “Enable Editing” in Microsoft Office 2010

Are you working in Microsoft Word 2010?  If so, how many times have you tried to jump into a document and start making some changes and nothing happens?  Oh, that’s right….. You forgot to click on that annoying, little, yellow button on the top of the document.  You idiot!

Protected View in Microsoft Office 2010

As annoying as it may be, there are valid reasons for this new security feature in Office 2010, which is an improvement over security features in previous versions of Office.  As explained by the Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering Team…

“With any piece of complex software, over time new file parsing exploits against it may be found. The older Office binary file formats had been susceptible to these types of attacks. Over the past years hackers have discovered ways to manipulate Office binary files so that when they are opened and parsed, they cause their own code embedded within the file to run. To address these binary file parsing attacks in Office 2007, several new XML based file formats were introduced.”

If you are generally savvy enough to not open documents from suspicious sources and enjoy an occasional walk on the wild side, well then here is a quick “how-to” on just turning the darn thing off permanently:

1.    Open any Office 2010 application (Ex: Word or Excel).
2.    Click on Office or File button, and select Options.
Microsoft Office 2010 - Enable Editing - File Options
3.    Under Options select “Trust Center” in the left pane.
4.    Click on Trust Center Settings in the right pane.
Microsoft Office 2010 - Enable Editing - File Options
5.    Click on the Protected View in the left pane of “Trust Center” window.
6.    Check/Uncheck Protected Mode Options below to fit your needs

Microsoft Office 2010 - Enable Editing - File Options

If you want to take advantage of this security feature in a customized way, you can actually go back to step 6 and set specific Trusted Publishers, Locations and Documents right from this Window.
Unfortunately, you need to apply these setting to each Microsoft Office application individually.

Hope this tip is helpful and saves you some time!




Comments

  1. Hburger June 8th

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    Hello! After I open the attachment and click Enable Editing… where does the file actually go?


  2. MLN August 1st

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    Thank you! This is such an annoying feature and wastes so much of my time. Thanks for teaching me how to get rid of it!


  3. Joseph December 15th

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    Annoying as hell, and no, it does not have “many valid” reasons. It’s asinine.


  4. Eschm January 18th

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    This is great. Thank You. I wrote a Macro in Excel that opens a template Word document. It was causing the Macro to error out bcause I did not know how to disable this piece. Great Post!


  5. pharoahs January 30th

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    Thanks this was driving me crazy for sometime…..now I am relieved.


  6. SBK April 23rd

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    FAB! This helps tremendously! That function is ANNOYING.


  7. Zee May 23rd

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    The feature is so annoying. Didn’t know it had an actual important reason to be there. Thanks for the tip! Awesome post! :)


  8. Shalini May 30th

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    THANK you KEVIN!!!


  9. SL May 30th

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    Kevin that’s amazing!

    Thank you……………………………..


  10. Al May 30th

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    Thank you for sharing this. This has been annoying me for months. I’ve managed all these years without this function, I tink I can continue without it!!!


  11. Squiz June 25th

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    Yes – it is nice & easy to remove in Word, Excel, & PowerPoint….

    But how can I avoid the bloody thing in Access 2010????


  12. Low June 26th

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    Thanks. Got your tip from Google Search.


  13. FairSpeaker September 23rd

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    Yes. I found this padlock is truly annoying wasted lots of time. Cannot believe Microsoft let such a garbage present user with new features of 2010 Word. I want my money returned and reverse to previous version.


  14. FairSpeaker September 23rd

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    Word 2010 has lots of new features. But cannot force the user to learn if all they want is type a few words and save the document. Need to default to basic setting without annoying the user. I don’t want to spent time to make a tool first if I want to cut a tree.


  15. Alex September 24th

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    Which button to use to reverse the editing mistake in Microsoft word starter. It is very difficult to do certian simple things


  16. tweety bird October 4th

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    I don’t know why my screen is greyed-out, cannot check off the protected view. Is it because my company has put restriction there so employees cannot make changes? Does anyone know?


  17. Miami November 29th

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    Thank you for your great explanation as to why the new feature exists in the first place. And then for your step-by-step how to eliminate it.


  18. TK0503 January 2nd

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    Thank you!!!!!


  19. Chadz January 8th

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    Thank heavens….


  20. sandeep January 18th

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    thanx you solve my problem


  21. Craig January 24th

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    Whilst this feature is no doubt annoying (and the tip to disable it is most welcome) I think the statement ‘wastes so much of my time’ is a tad exaggerated.


  22. Michael January 26th

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    Finally got rid of this annoying thing. The office products are awesome but they would have been much better if Microsoft didn’t develop them.


  23. VD February 4th

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    Thanks a ton…… dear. Now i am got rid of this third class / use less feature from Microsoft


  24. Long February 8th

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    thank you, it’s really useful


  25. renitha February 14th

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    2010: I have complex macros in my documents. How do I enable them? The “Embedded Buttons” to open other data tabs are not operational.


  26. shabbar March 12th

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    Is there a way to do this on Excel 2007? It tried to look for it but couldn’t find it.
    I hope someone can help me with this.

    thanks


  27. Dheeraj March 14th

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    any shortcut key for that??


  28. Chris March 21st

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    Can someone please tell me why mine is greyed out for? I saw someone previously asked them same question, I don’t see a response to it. I tried to eidt the registry to turn this thing off, based on another article I found, that didn’t help either.


  29. Cinny March 26th

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    If the options are greyed out AND you are on a company network, it is evidence that your company has decided to limit your ability to change such settings for the programs you use.


  30. vishal kanodia April 3rd

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    thanks


  31. Rishi April 11th

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    Thanks :)


  32. Jay Hill April 24th

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    The solution is all well and good, but what if it doesn’t work? I’ve done this several times (as network administrator) and still can’t make it go away on some machines in the network. What next?


  33. armin April 27th

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    hi. thanks for your guideline but my word 2010 crash when I press enable editing. and after doing above and disabling protection, the file cannot be open and word crash and close. please advice. appreciate if you email me the solution. thanks a lot.


  34. mahesh May 12th

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    thanq……:)


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About Author

Kevin E

Vice-President of Sales, has been with Thrive since 2004 and has worked with hundreds of small and mid-sized businesses solving technology challenges. Kevin holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts (Boston). Kevin also has VSP 4 and ITIL Foundation V.3 certifications.