We're getting quite a few complaints from Outlook users who used the context menu in older versions of Outlook to open attachments while viewing the message in the reading pane.
In previous versions of Outlook, users could select a message then use the Context menu key on the keyboard to simulate a right-click, then press H to select the View Attachment command and open the attachment. This is not possible in current versions of Outlook, as the View Attachment command was removed.
Although the context menu is gone, you can still use keyboard shortcuts to open message.
1. Press Tab (or F6) once to move into the Reading pane (the reading pane will be highlighted in a thin red line when selected).
2. If Message (in the attachment row) is not highlighted, press Ctrl+Tab to cycle through the header elements until Message is a (slightly) darker gray. If you overdo the tabbing, Shift+Ctrl+Tab will reverse direction.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the attachment and preview it. If preview is disabled, Press Enter or use the Content menu to work with the attachment.
If you want to open the attachment in its application, you can either add the Open Attachment command to the Quick Access Toolbar and use the Alt+[number] shortcut or use the keyboard shortcut of Alt+JOAP.
Saving attachments is even easier: add the Save attachment command to the QAT and use its Alt+[number] shortcut to open the dialog. You can also use Alt+FM to open the Save Attachment dialog.
