Secure Code

[Cris Sapher]

I'm implementing a project a part of its is a dot file. That's i want is
this template to run in any security mode of word. I don't want to send my
source code to be secured to a related company (verisign for example) and in
addition to pay for that. It's going to distribute my application throu a cd
(vi an installation project). Any ideas?

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Cris,

You have the following choices

1. Pay for a digital cert from Thawte or Verisign, and use that to sign your
template

2. Use the Selfcert utility to create your own digitalsignature. Be aware
however that the customer has to go through quite a few hoops in order to
persuade Word to trust a Self-cert-generated certificate

3. Persuade somebody who has a certificate to sign your template for you.

I have to say that, although I have a certificate, I would not be willing to
use it to sign code from somebody else without having a detailed knowledge
of what that code does. My reputation is too valuable to risk on such a
venture. The amount of time I would need to spend reviewing your code, and
what I would charge to do so would be such that it will be cheaper for you
to buy your own certificate.

Therefore you will probably be stuck with option #1 or #2. If you want to
look professional in the eyes of your customers, #1 is really the only way
to go