Lauch original application with file: protocol

We’re trying to make it easier for our users to reference a file on the network to avoid them sending large attachments in email. We customized the mail template and added an option under “Tools” to allow users to select files. The path to the files then goes in the body of the email. (done via Lotusscript) This works slick, but when the receiver clicks on the resulting File:\ url, it launches Internet Explorer and not the original application such as MS Word. Any way to get it to launch the application according to the file extension??