Sending and Receiving E-Mail in Chinese With Outlook Express

Outlook Express as Sending E-mail Client:

Outlook Express 6.0 can write and send e-mail messages in Chinese using Microsoft’s Chinese Input Method Editors for simplified and traditional Chinese. In the body of the e-mail message, simply click on the language bar or language button on the task bar (this will be present after installing Microsoft’s Chinese language support and Input Method Editors (IME), and by default is indicated by the button EN for English). Then select the appropriate language: CN (PRC) for simplified or CN (Taiwan) for traditional.

Outlook Express has two options for E-mail format: HTML or plain text. Once your message has been composed in Chinese and you click the send button, you are presented with two choices: “As is” or “Unicode.” The 4 different combinations of format and sending option can lead to different results on the receiving end.

 
 
Outlook Express as Sending E-Mail Client
Receiving E-Mail Client
HTML/Unicode
HTML/As Is
Plain/Unicode
Plain/As Is
Eudora 5.1.1 can read can read

cannot read

cannot read

Hotmail (English)

cannot read

can read

cannot read

cannot read

MyRealBox: Web can read can read can read

cannot read

Netscape Mail 7.0 can read can read can read

cannot read

OperaMail can read can read can read

cannot read

Outlook Express 6.0 can read can read can read

cannot read

Outlook 2002 can read can read can read

cannot read

Outlook Web Access

cannot read

can read

cannot read

cannot read

Pegasus Mail 4.02

cannot read

can read

cannot read

cannot read

Yahoo Mail can read can read can read

cannot read

Total no. of receiving e-mail clients correctly decoding messages sent by Outlook Express
7
10
6
0
 
cannot read Message cannot be read or decoded.
can read Message appears correctly as is.
can read Message appears as code initially, but if you select Unicode from the View/Encoding submenu, it will display properly.

More than any other e-mail client, Outlook Express is most compatible with other e-mail programs when Chinese messages are sent in its HTML Format/As Is out of the four possible choices. All ten e-mail programs (including itself) can read such messages. Moreover, these messages appear correctly in the message window/pane without further manual decoding necessary. At the other extreme, if you send Chinese messages in Plain Text Format/As Is from Outlook Express, none of the e-mail programs (including Outlook Express itself) can read them. HTML/As Is therefore is the preferred format to use with Outlook Express.

Outlook Express as Receiving E-mail Client:

Outlook Express 6.0 is one of the best receiving e-mail client for Chinese messages, reading correctly 11 out of 13 sending formats tested. Only Outlook 2002 does better. Messages sent by Hotmail with English as preferred language, Yahoo Mail and OperaMail itself do require manual selection of Japanese as encoding format by the Outlook Express reader.
Sending E-Mail Client
Outlook Express 6.0 as Receiving E-Mail Client
Hotmail  

    English as Preferred Language

can read

    Chinese as Preferred Language

can read

Netscape Mail 7.0

can read

OperaMail

can read

Outlook Express 6.0:  

    HTML/Unicode

can read

    HTML/As Is

can read

    Plain/Unicode

can 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 Outlook Express 6.0
11

can read Message appears as code initially, but if you select Japanese (Auto-Select) from the View/Encoding submenu, it will display properly.

Recommendations
:

Outlook Express 6.0 is a top choice for both writing and reading Chinese messages.

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.