PC Win: Accented Characters Lost in Insert from File

• Microsoft Mail for Windows, version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

If you choose Insert From File from the Edit menu to insert a file that contains accented characters (such as an e or an a with an accent mark on top), Mail loses the accented characters.

This occurs when the file uses code page 850 (the multilingual code page)-- or some other non-ANSI character set--instead of the ANSI code page character set.

This problem occurs in the US, German, and French versions of Microsoft Mail. The same thing happens when you run Mail under the French version of Windows.

CAUSE

Microsoft Mail does not convert a code page to ANSI when inserting text. Mail assumes that the file uses the ANSI character set because Windows version 3.1 requires that all text use the ANSI code page character set.

RESOLUTION

Text handled by Microsoft Mail must use the ANSI character set. The active code page in Windows is always the ANSI code page regardless of the machine.