How to open Email Attachments in Reading View in Word

At times, you might try to open various email attachments in Microsoft Word. If so, you can enable this setting to open email attachments in Reading View. It helps you block all the unnecessary attacks by various integrated or injected malware, virus, etc.

How to open Email Attachments in Reading View in Word

To open email attachments in Reading View in Word, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Word on your PC.
2. Click on the Options menu.
3. Head to the Start up options section.
4. Tick the Open e-mail attachments and other uneditable files in reading view checkbox.
5. Click the OK button.

To know more about these aforementioned steps, keep reading.

To get started, open Microsoft Word on your PC and click on the Options menu visible in the bottom-left corner.

Then, make sure that you are in the General tab. If so, head to the Startup options section and tick the Open e-mail attachments and other uneditable files in reading view checkbox.

Finally, click the OK button to save the change.

How to open email attachments in Reading View in Word using Group Policy

To open email attachments in Reading View in Word using Group Policy, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
2. Type gpedit.msc and press the Enter button.
3. Go to General in User Configuration.
4. Double-click on the Open e-mail attachments in Reading View setting.
5. Choose the Enabled option.
6. Tick the Check to allow starting in Reading Layout checkbox.
7. Click the OK button.

Let’s check out these steps in detail.

First, you need to press Win+R to open the Run prompt, type gpedit.msc, and press the Enter button to open the Local Group Policy Editor on your computer.

Next, navigate to this path:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Word 2016 > Word Options > General

Here you can find a setting named Open e-mail attachments in Reading View. You need to double-click on this setting and choose the Enabled option.

Then, tick the Check to allow starting in Reading Layout checkbox.

Click the OK button to save the change and restart the Microsoft Word app.

How to open email attachments in Reading View in Word using Registry

To open email attachments in Reading View in Word using Registry, follow these steps:

1. Search for regedit and click the search result.
2. Click the Yes button.
3. Navigate to Microsoft\office\16.0\word in HKCU.
4. Right-click on word > New > Key and set the name as options.
5. Right-click on options > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
6. Name it as allowautoreadingmode.
7. Double-click on it to set the Value data as 1.
8. Click the OK button.
9. Restart your PC.

Let’s find out more about these above-mentioned steps.

For getting started, search for regedit in the Taskbar search box, click the search result and select the Yes option in the UAC prompt.

Then, navigate to this path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\word

Right-click on word > New > Key and name it as options.

Following that, right-click on options > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as allowautoreadingmode.

Double-click on it to set the Value data as 1 and click the OK button.

Then, close all windows and restart your PC.

How do I open an email attachment in Word?

To open an attachment in Word, you can use the Insert option. For that, switch to the Insert tab and select what you want to attach to your document. After that, choose the corresponding option and select the attachment accordingly.

Why can’t I open an email attachment in Word?

If you are unable to open an email attachment in Word, you need to ensure the aforementioned setting first. If it is set to open in Reading View mode, you won’t be able to open the attachment. Therefore, follow these guides to disable this setting and open the email attachment without any issue in Word.

That’s all! Hope it worked.

Read: Microsoft Word opens files in Read-only mode in Windows 11/10.