Hi Evan,

When importing a PDF file into Laserfiche Client, you have the option to "Generate Laserfiche pages" as indicated in the first image below. If you uncheck this option, the PDF file will be saved in its native format and therefore, will always open as an electronic file instead of an image file. 

Otherwise, you can go to Tools > Option > View > Open With section and click "The associated application" button under "Open PDF files by default using:" section, as shown in the second image. This will force Client to open the pdf in its native format (while still preserving the image format so that when you switch back to using Laserfiche document viewer, it will open as an image file). 

Regards