Re: Outlook 2003 does not accept French characters from online forms.

[Pat Willener]

When you receive these messages, what encoding are they sent with -
ISO-8859-1 ? That's what it should be for Western European languages.

Jack B Nimble wrote:
> I AM NEW OFFICE 2003 USER
>
> Here is the ERROR character recived by OUTLOOK 2003 when "ANDRÉ" is entered
> in the online form https://secure4.radiant.net/homelink/SubformFr.htm
>
> "I" in place of "É" in this name field:
> User_name = ANDRI SIMARD
>
> OUTLOOK EXPRESS has always accepted all characters like this one.
>
> I cannot find any assistance in the LANGUAGE SETTINGS section.
>
> CAN ANYONE HELP?

[Jack B Nimble]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the reply.
This online form is one of many on my own commercial website.
https://secure4.radiant.net/homelink/SubformFr.htm
If you view the form source code, you'll see this:
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1">
the same code I've used for years, and the same one that has been delivering
the correct OUTPUT for years via Outlook Express.

[Note : OUTLOOK has not only stripped out extended characters, it has also
de-activated all email (mailto:) links as you probably know.]

Note : OUTLOOK accepts/transmits extended characters that are embedded in
regular text messages .... but not as output from these forms. So my problem
is HOW DO I MODIFY OUTLOOK TO ACCEPT EXTENDED CHARACTERS from these forms?

SOS, MAYDAY, M'AIDEZ!
Merci à l'avance!
Jack B Nimble
===========================

[Pat Willener]

Actually I *did* look at the HTML source, but the web page's encoding
doesn't guarantee that the message is sent in the same encoding. That's
why we need to know in what encoding the message arrives.

If the encoding is correct, then we have a problem. If the encoding is
incorrect, then we may need to configure Outlook to receive the message
in the correct default encoding.

À bientôt,
Pat

[Jack B Nimble]

Hi Pat,
Thanks kilos for your interest.
OK, here is the header from one of my tests. I'm not sure if you can
decipher the code that you mentioned.
Note: my email is antispam filtered by POSTINI and my webhost is RADIANT.NET.
RADIANT secure server has been properly handling all my stuff for years,
transmitting accurately to my OUTLOOK EXPRESS.
RSVP, merci.
Jack B Nimble, "Jacques B Quicque"

SAMPLE HEADER FROM TEST IN ONLINE FORM

in the online form https://secure4.radiant.net/homelink/SubformFr.htm

Return-Path: <w...@web48.radiant.net>
Received: from [64.18.0.89] (HELO psmtp.com)
by mx.radiant.net (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.1.8)
with SMTP id 49835803 for ad...@homelink.ca; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:03:47 -0800
Received: from source ([66.163.197.88]) (using TLSv1) by
exprod5mx117.postini.com ([64.18.4.10]) with SMTP;
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 05:03:47 IST
Received: from web48.radiant.net (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by web48.radiant.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k2M33ktQ019256
for <ad...@homelink.ca>; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:03:47 -0800
Received: (from www@localhost)
by web48.radiant.net (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id k2M33kSW019254
for ad...@homelink.ca; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:03:46 -0800
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:03:46 -0800
Message-Id: <200603220303....@web48.radiant.net>
From: "andré TEST mar 21 " <new...@homelink.ca>
Reply-To: "andré TEST mar 21 " <ad...@homelink.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: ad...@homelink.ca
Subject: HomeLink CDN formulaire d'inscription en ligne
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------Multipart Boundary_19243"
X-pstn-2strike: clear
X-pstn-levels: (S: 1.62718/99.84552 R:95.9108 P:95.9108 M:97.0232
C:98.7678 )
X-pstn-settings: 3 (1.0000:1.0000) s gt3 gt2 gt1 r p m c
X-pstn-addresses: from <new...@homelink.ca> [75/3]

================================================

[Pat Willener]

Hi Jacques,

It seems that the website form does not send any encoding with the
message, and Outlook therefore does not know how to display the message
correctly. I assume that you use English version of Outlook? I think the
French version of Outlook would recognize the message correctly.

Unfortunately I cannot find a way to set default encoding for incoming
messages. The only thing I found is this article that explains how to
change encoding of each individual incoming message:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA012079571033.aspx

The best would be to enhance the website to send the messages ISO-8859-1
encoded, but that exceeds my knowledge if or how this can be done.

[Pat Willener]

...but there *may* be hope! I read somewhere that Outlook is using parts
of Internet Explorer (5.5 or later) to interpret international
languages. Can you open IE -> View -> Encoding, and see if Auto-Select
is checked? If not, check it and see if it makes a difference (you may
need to restart OL to get hold of the change).

[Pat Willener]

One more info: if Outlook is connected to an Exchange Server, it can be
configured to apply an encoding to incoming and outgoing messages. See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-me%3B836586

[Jack B Nimble]

Hello, Pat,

EUREKA!!! FAIT ACCOMPLI!!!
You said "...change encoding of each individual incoming message:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA012079571033.aspx"
THIS IS A FINE SOLUTION, as the French messages are not continuous, and can
easily be managed this way.
[Desolé, your subsequent suggestions are not viable, or not necessary.]

MERCI BEAUCOUP!
Jacques B. Grateful