Sending and Receiving E-Mail in Chinese With Pegasus Mail

Pegasus Mail as Sending E-mail Client:

Pegasus Mail 4.02 cannot send Chinese messages. If you choose Chinese as the input language via the language button/bar, Chinese will appear correctly in the message box. However, the message cannot be read or decoded by the recipient regardless of what e-mail client he/she used.

Pegasus Mail as Receiving E-mail Client:

For receiving Chinese messages, the incoming message may appear correctly in Pegasus 4.02 (for example, if it has been sent by Outlook Express in HTML format as is).

The Chinese message may also appear as unreadable code. In that case, first close the message window. Then choose the appropriate Chinese format — Chinese (PRC) for simplified Chinese; Chinese (Taiwan) for traditional Chinese — by selecting it in the language bar/button. Open the message again by double clicking on it in the message list window, or by selecting and clicking the “open” button. The message may now be decoded correctly. If one Chinese format does not work, then close the message window, select another Chinese format, and re-open the message again. This method seems to work with messages sent from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or elsewhere with computers running Chinese Windows or using a Chinese e-mail client, and also with messages sent by Netscape Mail. If neither Chinese format works, try Japanese (as in the case of Hotmail with English as preferred language, OperaMail, and Yahoo Mail). Unfortunately, it is possible that none of these formats will decode the message.

Pegasus cannot read Chinese messages sent in 7 out of 13 sending formats, including, most importantly, all three formats of Outlook. Decoding of traditional Chinese messages sent by Yahoo Mail may only be partially decoded.

Sending E-Mail Client	Pegasus Mail 4.02 as Receiving E-Mail Client
Hotmail
English as Preferred Language
Chinese as Preferred Language
Netscape Mail 7.0
OperaMail
Outlook Express 6.0:
HTML/Unicode
HTML/As Is
Plain/Unicode
Plain/As Is
Outlook 2002:
HTML
Rich Text
Plain Text
Outlook Web Access
Yahoo Mail
Total no. of sending formats correctly decoded by Pegasus Mail 4.02	6

	Message cannot be read or decoded.
	Message appears correctly as is.
	Message appears as code initially after you opened it in its own window. But if you close the message window, select Japanese from the language bar/button, then re-open the message, it will display correctly.
	Message appears as code initially after you opened it in its own window. But if you close the message window, select traditional or simplified Chinese depending on its original coding, and then re-open the message, it will display correctly.

Recommendations:

Pegasus Mail 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 Pegasus Mail’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 Pegasus Mail. 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 Pegasus, forward that message to the other account without editing (i.e. the 2nd forwarding option in the “Forward message to” menu: redirect, or “bounce”). Forwarding the message after editing 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.