Welcome to MobileRead, fxars! I would suggest that you might want to investigate the B&N app store for better PDF viewers. ezPDF Reader is often recommended on the forum here as being worth the price for its extra set of features.
In response to Item #1, I don't know of any way to force it to open in the reader. It has been a frequent question that no one has been able to answer yet. Here is a lengthy thread all about PDF's on the Nook Color that you might find interesting.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=104764
In response to Item #2, it is not intuitive that you have to swipe up and down to change pages when you are in Quickoffice. Try up/down instead of left/right like the book reader.
Hope that helps!