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LOCATION: Basic Setup » E-Mail

Send Non-English E-Mail

Note: Before you can use any of these e-mail packages, all the proper keyboards and fonts must be installed and activated for each script.

Avoid HTML Formatted Mail: These options may add font specifications that may not be available on all computers.

Caution for Outside Penn State : These instructions work for Penn State to Penn State mail. Any e-mail message you send to or receive from elsewhere must go through host servers and be read on the other user's e-mail package. Therefore, there are no guarantees on how the messages will processed outside of Penn State.

This Page

  1. Mozilla Mail
  2. Thunderbird
  3. Eudora
  4. Microsoft Outlook
  5. Apple Mail for OS X
  6. Microsoft Entourage (Mac)

Mozilla Mail

Both Netscape and Mozilla come with a free e-mail component which allows you to type multi-lingual e-mails and select the proper encoding.

  1. Open Mozilla or Netscape 6/7, then go to Window then Mail & Newsgroups.
    Note: If you do not see a "Mail" option, then you may have a "light" version installed. You can install the full-version from Netscape or Mozilla.
  2. If you have never used this e-mail package before, then you need to set up a profile for your account. The information for a Penn State account would be:
    • Your name
    • E-mail address/Return address: xyz123@psu.edu
    • Mail host/incoming server: email.psu.edu
    • Server type/configuration: POP
    • Login name/username/POP account: xyz123
    • Outgoing mail/SMTP: smtp.psu.edu
    • Instructions for Configuring for SSL Secure Mail

    Note:     You can send e-mail just from Mozilla Mail, but use another package like Eudora to receive mail.
  3. Once you are in the Mail & Newsgroups window, click on Compose icon to open a blank message.
  4. Switch keyboards to the script or language you wish to type.
  5. Before sending the message, go to View then Character Encoding then select the encoding matching your script, and click the Send icon.
    Note: If you get an error message saying "The message you composed contains characters not found...", then click Cancel, then select the correct Character Encoding and send it again. If in doubt, use Unicode or UTF-8.
  6. If you receive a message in a non-English script, but cannot read it, then open the message and go to View » Character Coding and select the correct script or language.

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Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free e-mail client from Mozilla.org, the makers or Mozilla and Firefox. Once Thunderbird is installed, you can send non-English messages as follows.

  1. Open Thunderbird. If you have never used this e-mail package before, then you need to set up a profile for your account. The information for a Penn State account would be:
    • Your name
    • E-mail address/Return address: xyz123@psu.edu
    • Mail host/incoming server: email.psu.edu
    • Server type/configuration: POP
    • Login name/username/POP account: xyz123
    • Outgoing mail/SMTP: smtp.psu.edu
    • Instructions for Configuring for SSL Secure Mail

    Note:     You can send e-mail just from Netscape Mail, but use another package like Eudora to receive mail.
  2. Click on the Write icon to open a blank message.
  3. Switch keyboards to the script or language you wish to type.
  4. Before sending the message, go to Views then Character Encoding then select the encoding matching your script, and click the Send icon.
    Note: If you get an error message saying "The message you composed contains characters not found...", then click Cancel, then select the correct Character Encoding and send it again. If in doubt, select Unicode or UTF-8.
  5. If you receive a message in a non-English script, but cannot read it, then open the message and go to View » Character Encoding and select the correct script or language.

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Eudora

The standard version of Eudora can read most properly encoded messages, but cannot send them out. Two suggested workarounds are:

  1. If you mostly send out English language messages, then you can use another package like Netscape Mail to send out encoded non-English messages.
  2. Several independent developers have created Eudora plug-ins for the Macintosh to support major scripts. These have not been tested. Some links include.
  3. In some cases, you may able to combine switching keyboards and specifying an encoded font to manually generate an encoded message. See the following Russian Windows example.

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Microsoft Outlook for Windows

  1. Open a blank new message in Microsoft Windows.
  2. Switch your keyboards to the appropriate script.
  3. Type the message then send it. It will be properly encoded.

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Apple Mail Application for OS X

  1. Open a blank new message.
  2. Switch your keyboards to the appropriate script.
  3. Type the message then send it. It will be properly encoded.

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Microsoft Entourage for Macintosh

  1. Open a new message.
  2. Switch your keyboards to the appropriate script.
  3. If necessary, go to the Format menu then Character Set to select an appropriate encoding such as Unicode (UTF-8).
  4. Type the message then send it. It will be properly encoded.
    Note: Click OK for any messages saying that not clients will read the message.

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©Penn State University, 2000-2007.
This Web page maintained by Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of Information Technology Services. For questions or comments on this Web page, please contact Elizabeth J. Pyatt (ejp10@psu.edu).
Unicode character names and hexadecimal entity codes are taken from the public Unicode Character Charts.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 01-May-2007 14:16:47 EDT