Introduction to Security [Office 2003 SDK Documentation]
All Microsoft® Office 2003 users are encouraged to select their security settings for the highest security that is appropriate for their situation. Therefore, the security settings on your users' computers may vary and may determine whether your solutions run as expected. In addition, there are built-in security checks for smart documents that you should be aware of when you develop and deploy your smart documents.
Smart documents generally include several different types of files, and each of these file types have security issues that you will need to address when planning and developing your functioning smart documents for deployment to your users.
Built-in security checks
Smart document security is based on two main built-in Office 2003 security measures. First, Office 2003 verifies that the smart document developer has digitally signed the XML expansion pack manifest file, and second, Office 2003 verifies that the developer has digitally signed the code components included with the smart document. The first of these security checks applies to XML expansion packs; the second applies to the dynamic-link library (DLL) files for smart document code modules as well as to all Office 2003 add-ins, documents, and templates that contain macros.
For detailed information on how these security checks affect the functionality of your smart documents, see the following sections: