How to stop Outlook from converting attachments into WordPerfect documents??

Hi @Laci R. Stovall, 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Thank you for reaching out to us. I understand how confusing it can be when attachments don’t open as expected. 

One helpful step is to make sure your preferred PDF viewer (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader) is set as the default app for opening PDF files in Windows. Here’s how you can do that: 

For Windows 10/11: 

1. Open Settings: Press Windows + I or go to Start → Settings. 
2. Navigate to Apps → Default apps. 
3. Scroll down and click Choose default apps by file type. 
4. Scroll to .pdf, click its current default (often Edge), and select Adobe Acrobat Reader (or your PDF viewer) from the list. 
5. In Windows 11, type .pdf in the search bar under Set a default for file type or link type, click the result, and choose your PDF app.   

Outlook considerations: 

Even with the default set in Windows, Outlook may use internal preview handlers first. To ensure it uses your PDF viewer: 

1. In Outlook, go to File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings  
2. Choose Attachment Handling → Click Attachment and Document Previewers... 
3. Make sure your PDF handler (e.g., Adobe PDF Preview Handler) is checked, and others like FineReader are unchecked. 
4. Click OK and restart Outlook. 

Alternate: Using File Explorer “Open with”: 

1. Right-click any PDF file in File Explorer 
2. Select Open with > Choose another app, pick your viewer 
3. Check Always use this app to open .pdf files. 

1. After making this change, restart Outlook and try opening a PDF attachment again, it should now open with your chosen viewer. 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.    

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you. 

I look forward to your thoughts on this. 

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".      

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.