pdf and editable word documents

1. Save the attachment to your hard drive.
2. In Windows Explorer, click on the saved attachment (or any other PDF you may have on the HD) and right-click.
3. You'll find Open With on the menu; click it.
4. You may see Adobe Reader in the submenu, but don't click that; instead, click "Choose default program..."
5. Select Adobe Reader in the dialog that opens.
6. Make sure that the box for "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is checked.
7. Click OK.

The next time you get a PDF attachment, you should be able to open it with a double-click.

Microsoft assumes, probably correctly, that anything that arrives as an email attachment or as a download from the Internet is a possible security risk. Therefore, the default action for such items is to open them in Protected Mode until you can verify that they're clean. At that point, you can click the Enable Editing button in the yellow banner. (But if you intend to make changes and save them, always do a Save As to save the document as a separate file on the hard drive, because otherwise the changes go into a temporary file and then vanish -- see http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm.)

A preferable alternative is to always save attachments from Outlook to regular files (right-click the attachment and choose Save As, or choose Save All if there are two or more attachments in the same message) stored in a trusted location such as My Documents. Then they'll open normally in Word.

If you want to throw away Protected View's protection, you can turn it off.

• Click File > Options. On the left side of the Options dialog, click Trust Center, and then click the Trust Center Settings button.
• On the left side of the Trust Center Options, click Protected View.
• Uncheck the third item, which refers to Outlook attachments. Then be careful about what attachments you open.