Sending and Receiving E-Mail in Chinese With Eudora

Eudora as Sending E-mail Client:

Eudora 5.1.1 cannot send Chinese messages. You cannot even compose in Chinese in the message box with Microsoft’s Chinese Input Method Editors.
 
Eudora as Receiving E-mail Client:

For receiving Chinese messages, the incoming message appears correctly for 8 out of 13 sending formats, including Outlook Express’s HTML formats, all three formats of Outlook, OperaMail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail with English (but not Chinese) as the preferred language.

The Chinese message may also appear as unreadable code. In that case, it cannot be decoded at all (a method that works for Pegasus Mail sometimes — selecting Chinese or Japanese in the language bar/button and re-opening the message — does not work with Eudora).

Sending E-Mail Client
Eudora 5.1.1 as Receiving E-Mail Client
Hotmail  

    English as Preferred Language

can read

    Chinese as Preferred Language

cannot read

Netscape Mail 7.0

cannot read

OperaMail

can read

Outlook Express 6.0:  

    HTML/Unicode

can read

    HTML/As Is

can read

    Plain/Unicode

cannot read

    Plain/As Is

cannot read

Outlook 2002:  

    HTML

can read

    Rich Text

can read

    Plain Text

can read

Outlook Web Access

cannot read

Yahoo Mail

can read

Total no. of sending formats correctly decoded by Eudora 5.1.1
8

cannot read Message cannot be read or decoded.
can read Message appears correctly as is.
Recommendations:

Eudora 5.1.1 is not suitable for a user who must write and read Chinese e-mail on a regular basis, and who therefore will want to use such Chinese-compliant software as Outlook Express, Outlook, Hotmail, OperaMail, or Yahoo Mail.

If you like Eudora’s features, and rarely need to write and receive Chinese messages in your primary e-mail account, then you may not need to switch. There is a solution to composing Chinese messages and reading messages that cannot be decoded in Eudora. Set up another e-mail account with an e-mail client that is compatible with Chinese messages (such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Hotmail, OperaMail, or Yahoo Mail). If you cannot decode a Chinese message in Eudora, “redirect” that message to the other account (choose “Redirect” on the message menu). Forwarding the message will render it unreadable, but redirecting it will preserve its coding. You may then be able to read the message correctly in your other account and also respond to it in Chinese. You can, of course, also compose Chinese messages in your second account.


Please email me your comments, suggestions, and corrections.


All contents copyright © 2002 Robert Y. Eng. All rights reserved.
With author's permission, republished in CLIEJ.