Sending Chinese E-mails via E-mail Program

[doumeizhen]

I have a problem: My computer is just as, or heaven forbid: more temperamental than I am, and I have trouble getting consistent results when sending Chinese e-mails through Mozilla Thunderbird (on mac os x 10.4). Sometimes people are able to read them, sometimes they come up jumbled numbers on the other side.

Here are some questions.

I use both simplified and traditional. If I change my prefered language in Thunderbird to either of those, will I be able to send e-mails in both, or do I need to change each time?

Has anyone been able to leave the prefered input method as a non-Chinese language and still consistently send Chinese that is received on the other end?

Is this their problem and not mine, and if so, how can I fix that?

Or is this just a matter of my e-mail. It couldn't be, could it?! Should I switch over and use only g-mail, or should I just throw in the towl and write letters.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

P.S.: I'll check the forums, but while I am here: Does anyone know how to set up the Traditional Character input in OSX to deal with pinyin compound words: meaning: instead of having to type ma, get ma character, then fan, and look for that one, typing in mafan and getting a handy little list of compound words to chose from?

[chinesetools]

I would recommend setting the outgoing encoding to "Unicode UTF-8" for all of your messages. In the Thunderbird options window (from the main menu: Tools->Options"), select the "Display" tab and then "Fonts". In "Character Encodings" select "Unicode UTF-8" for Outgoing mail. Unicode can handle pretty much every language out there, especially Chinese and most mail programs recognize it now. That way you wouldn't need to switch for each message.

Your mileage may vary.

[Lugubert]

Don't forget that the recipient must have a capable system. My e-mail provider uses an anonymous setup that seems to die of fright if it encounters a Unicode message not limited to European letters.

[stephanhodges]

And some email programs will automatically mark as "spam" by language/encoding, unless configured otherwise. Just something to check for your recipients.

[doumeizhen]

Thank you for all of your advice.

You know, I always thought learning Chinese would be the hard part, but all these configurations... I'll try using them tonight!

On a mac, the settings for Thunderbird are located at: Mozilla Thunderbird -> Preferences -> Fonts.

[doumeizhen]

I changed my settings, I warned my friends, I sent my e-mails, and alas, they were still received as jibberish: both traditional and simplified, and sent from all different accounts to different accounts.

Someone suggested that fonts might be at fault here, and that I am using a font which the Chinese computers do not recognize. What do we think of this theory, and what font should I be using?

(Remember the days when it was all Times 12pt?)

Thanks for any (more) advice!

[gato]

Try sending an email to yourself. Can you read it?

[Jockster]

Just an idea...could it be that the information is received intact, but incorrectly displayed? Nowadays I use webmail, but last year I used Outlook Express, and sometimes I'd receive garbled messages in Chinese. After I changed the Character Encoding (under the View) menu, it looked fine.

Have your friends tried changing the encoding setting in their E-mail application (on an E-mail by E-mail basis obviously)?

[doumeizhen]

Gato~ I guess that would have been the obvious start, right? I just sent an e-mail to myself using jianti and fanti and I can read them without problem in both accounts. So perhaps it is a matter of font, but if it is, what is the standard font, and is there anything that will work with both jianti and fanti, or are those two different encodings (and is that even the right word)?

Jockster~ I had considered this, which is why I have been sending both jianti and fanti test e-mails to my friends, who are using things like hotmail, yahoo, etc. In my experience, I have no problems reading Chinese online when using those kinds of accounts, and they seem to be receiving it fine if I send it from there. So hmmm, I'd say its incorectly displayed, but they should be able to read it if its jianti going to a jianti account, I think.

Ultimately, I know the problem is mine, since they are receiving the scrambles. I don't want to live in fear that every Chinese e-mail I send will meet this fate! So, does anyone know what a standard font may be? Mine is currently using Serif/Song/Hei.

[atitarev]

I can't use stupid Novell GroupWise for any non-roman languages (Russian, Chinese, Japanese or Arabic). I am stuck with it at work. I can read foreign emails OK from any mail client, I can also send text in non-Roman letters to other recipients who also use GroupWise but if I send from GroupWise, people get jibberish in Outlook.

[gato]

Since you can read the emails you sent yourself, your friends are probably using the wrong encoding in their browsers.

Tell them to read this baidu page, which tells them how to fiddle with the encoding

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/6555378.html

[atitarev]

I thought so, too, Gato. No, the text is converted to either .... or ???????????, which you can't convert to anything. Lotus notes and Outlook have no problems with foreign languages but I didnt have luck when it is Novell GroupWise -> Microsoft Outlook or Novell GroupWise -> Lotus Notes