PDF Preview Handler for Outlook 2007

I love the new "attachment preview" feature in Microsoft Outlook 2007. There is where you can click on certain attachment types (Word, Excel, etc.) and view the attachment right in Outlook 2007 without having to launch a seperate product.

I know we'd all like to be open those PDF attachments in the same manner. There is no official PDF support yet - either from Adobe or Microsoft but I've found there are a few people out there creating their own.

I'm using "PDF Preview Handler for Outlook/Vista" by Ryan Gregg. It works with Windows XP, even though its not listed on the page. It does require Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.x or later.

The other one that I found is "Foxit PDF Preview Handler". This one uses the light weight Foxit PDF reader, for those that don't want to use Adobe Acrobat. This one apparently only works with Windows Vista so I haven't been able to test it out yet.

Also, these previewers should allow you to preview PDF files in Explorer when browsing files in Windows Vista.

Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility pack for previous versions of Office

If you have an older version of Microsoft Office (Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003), you can download an Office Compatibility Pack which will give you the ability to work with the new XML-based file formats use in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007.

Details on the pack are available here.

Or you can jump directly to the download page.

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP Service Pack 1

• Recommended Microsoft Office programs:
  
• Microsoft Word 2000 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2000 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 with Service Pack 3


• Microsoft Word 2002 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2002 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 with Service Pack 3


• Microsoft Office Word 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 with at least Service Pack 1


• Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003


• Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003


• Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003

Save as PDF or XPS in Microsoft Office 2007

Because of some legal reasons, Microsoft wasn't able to include the "Save as PDF" feature in the new Office 2007 suite but you can download it for free from this link.

It also gives you the ability to save as an XPS document - which is Microsoft's version of a PDF-type document.

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows XP Service Pack 2

• This download works with the following Office programs:
  
  • Microsoft Office Access 2007
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007
  • Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
  • Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
  • Microsoft Office Visio 2007
  • Microsoft Office Word 2007