# How to choose which program opens email attachments



## Marilyn27 (May 12, 2008)

I recently transferred to a different computer and am using Outlook Express 6 to get my email - the problem I'm having is that, when I receive an email attachment and try to open it, Adobe Photoshop opens and the photo or pdf file is opened there. Naturally this is not the program I want to use - I don't know why my pdf files aren't opening in Adobe Reader, and why the photo attachments aren't opening in Windows picture viewer - I've looked around in Options, Help, etc., and can't seem to find a way to change this or specify what I want to use to open these with.

I'm sure there's a way (hopefully a simple one!) - can someone help me?

Thanks,

Marilyn27


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

On a .pdf file that's in your My Documents or desktop or hard drive somewhere right click on it and hover the mouse pointer over 'Open With.' Select 'Choose Program.' Then select Adobe Reader and check the 'Always use this program' option.

Do the same with a photo file (.jpg?) except select the Windows fax and picture viewer.


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## Marilyn27 (May 12, 2008)

So this solution was partly successful - I was able to make Windows photo viewer the default for opening jpg attachments. But when I right-click on a pdf file and go to "open with" and select Adobe reader and check the "always use this program" box, it doesn't seem to stick. When I then go to a pdf file and just click "open", Adobe Photoshop 7 opens as before. Windows "suggests" 3 programs for opening pdf files, Photoshop 7 and CS2 and Adobe Reader - but for some reason, only the Photoshop 7 seems to be allowed. If I could remove Adobe Photoshop 7 from this list of suggested programs, maybe that would work? However, I don't know how to do this. There seems to be an option of right-clicking on an attachment and being able to save it to a file, but this would be an awkward and clumsy way of reading pdf files also (the Photoshop 7 option is NOT a way to read it, it comes up as a blurry image file).

So any other suggestions would be much appreciated. 

Thanks,

Marilyn 27


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Don't know why that doesn't "stick" but here's another way or two.

In My Computer or any other Windows Explorer window click on Tools - Folder Options... - File Types tab. Scroll way down and click on PDF. Assuming under "Details for 'PDF' extension" it does not say Adobe Reader then click on Change... and follow your instincts.

If that doesn't work maybe there is some option in Photoshop to tell it to NOT open .pdf files?


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## Marilyn27 (May 12, 2008)

Well, I did as you suggested - scrolled WAY down to the PDF files, which were already set, supposedly, to open with Adobe Reader - but, just in case, I hit "change" and selected it again... but when I tried just opening (not "opening with") a PDF file, Adobe 7 came up again. So I then looked around Adobe's help menu under PDF files, which only discussed how Adobe worked with that kind of file. Then I followed their instructions for opening a certain type of file (File - Open -) in a little box under file name it gives a choice of "all file formats" or choosing a certain file type, such as pdf - I thought for a minute I could simply remove that file type, but no such luck. 

Maybe I can learn to live with this quirk. Or maybe Adobe has some kind of support that could help. I'm starting to think that this must be somewhere deep down inside some program, so as a relative computer luddite, I don't want to go there...

Any other thoughts? I appreciate your taking the time to try to solve this...

Marilyn27


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

What version of Adobe Reader is installed?
Does it open if you just click the program shortcut?
Are you sure you're associating the files with Adobe Reader and not Adobe Photoshop?


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## Marilyn27 (May 12, 2008)

I have Adobe Reader 8 installed. Yes, it opens when I click on the shortcut. 

When I go into Windows Tools - Folder Options - File Types - as suggested in the previous post, Adobe Reader shows as the preferred program for opening pdf files... Yet when I try clicking on a pdf file to read it, with "Open", Adobe 7 opens and then opens the file... If I click "Open With..." I can choose Adobe Reader as my choice (it isn't the highlighted choice, though - Adobe 7 is). And when there's an email attachment, of course there is no option to choose a program to open it with - if it's a pdf file Adobe 7 opens...

So - if I have somehow associated pdf files with Adobe 7, I don't know how or why - nor how to reverse it. That's the whole problem here - how to change what's happening in my email... Any ideas?

Thanks,

Marilyn 27


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

I did a little searching and all I found were some other people having a similar problem and getting the same advice I gave. My last idea, short of looking for Adobe help, is to uninstall the Adobe reader and then install it again. I have "fixed" a couple problems I had using that method.


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