FAQ - how to force documents to open in their own application and not IE

Now, here is a FAQ if I ever heard one! (this post is more for me - because every time I am questioned about this, I say that I remember there was a solution, but I have to research for it every time)

Almost every one I help implement sharepoint asks me how to make sure that when his users click a link to a document it will open in word and not in IE. Same for excel and powerpoint.

Well, The good news are that in MOSS 2007 its easy - just go to a document library's advanced settings and you will see that the default it to "open in the client application".

Now, this is great, but still we have two more problems:

1. What about links to documents that are not in a document library
2. What about sharepoint 2003?

The answer is easy. The settings on how to open a document can be changed on the client side. The article in the technet (http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;162059) shows how to change the client machine preferance on how to deal with each application.

Hope this saved you some research... if it did, please