If you’re going to be using macros, you will want to make sure your security level in Word doesn’t prohibit this. As macros can contain malicious code (such as a virus) Word lets you choose how to deal with them.

To access macro security options, click the Tools menu, choose Macros, and click Macro Security.

Once you click that option, you’ll see the dialog pictured below:

You can see that you have four security levels to choose from:

The recommended setting is medium, as it gives you complete control over what macros are enabled or disabled. Just be sure that you know what macro is being enabled when you open the document; if you are surprised to see a macro prompt it’s best to choose to disable the macro so you can see what it contains before you run it.

The other tab in this dialog is Trusted Publishers; this tab lets you mark certain add-ins or macros as trusted.

Note that by default, the Trust all installed add-ins and templates box is checked, so be wary when installing templates or add-ins that contain macros; depending on your security setting macros from these sources may run automatically.