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Upgrading Reference for Localized Versions of Office

Exchanging Outlook Messages Across Language Versions

You can configure Microsoft Outlook 2000 to send messages in a format that your previous e-mail client applications can display properly. To display some languages, however, users of previous localized versions of Outlook might need to install additional fonts and operating system files (such as code pages). If your organization uses Microsoft Exchange Server, the necessary code page extensions must be installed on the server as well as on users’ computers.

For users of non-Asian language versions of Outlook 97 to display Asian text properly, they must have Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 2 (SR-2) installed. In addition, only users of a right-to-left language version of Outlook 98 or earlier can open and read right-to-left text in Outlook 2000 messages.

Note   Outlook data that is not in the body of the message — such as Contacts, Tasks, and the To and Subject lines of messages — are limited to characters defined by the sender’s code page. Such characters might be unintelligible for a recipient whose operating system uses a different code page.

Previous localized versions of Outlook also save messages in RTF, so Outlook 2000 users can display multilingual text in e-mail messages sent from these previous versions, provided that the operating system supports the language of the text.

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Configuring message formats

Outlook 2000 sends messages in three formats: HTML, RTF, and plain text. You can limit e-mail messages to a format that can be read by most of the applications used in your organization.

For example, if all the users in your organization use Outlook 98 or later as their e-mail client application, and they exchange mail primarily within the organization, you can configure Outlook 2000 to send messages in HTML format. In this scenario, Outlook 2000 users get the benefits of the new HTML format, and other users can still read the RTF or plain text version. (Outlook 2000 provides RTF or plain text versions of messages for client applications that do not support HTML format.)

Note   If you use Microsoft Exchange Server and have Outlook 2000 configured to send messages in HTML format, the HTML is converted to RTF on the server. These RTF conversions are larger-than-normal RTF messages and might cause network bandwidth and storage problems.

Alternatively, if the fidelity of text formatting is important in your organization, you can configure Outlook 2000 to send messages in RTF. All versions of the Outlook and Exchange client applications support RTF. In this scenario, however, Outlook 2000 users lose the features that HTML format provides.

Finally, if users in your organization frequently exchange e-mail messages outside your organization, or if your organization includes e-mail client applications that do not support messages formatted in HTML or RTF, you can configure Outlook 2000 to send messages in plain text. All e-mail client applications support plain text.

To configure the message format in Outlook 2000

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
  2. In the Send in this message format box, select the format you want to use.

System Policy Tip   You can use a system policy to set the format of outgoing Outlook 2000 messages. In the System Policy Editor, set the Microsoft Outlook 2000\Tools | Options\Mail Format\Message format/editor - Corporate or Workgroup configuration policy. For more information about the System Policy Editor, see Using the System Policy Editor.

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Specifying character encoding

In addition to configuring the format that Outlook 2000 uses to send messages, you need to specify the character encoding (also known as the code page) of the message being sent. Use an encoding that supports the characters being sent and that the recipient’s e-mail application can interpret. For example, if all users’ e-mail applications support Unicode, UTF-8 encoding is a good choice. Otherwise, use an encoding based on the sender’s code page, such as Western European (ISO).

Note   An Outlook 2000 user’s default character encoding for outgoing messages is the Internet encoding that corresponds to the user’s code page. For example, JIS encoding for a Japanese code page, ISO-8859-1 encoding for a Western European code page, or KOI8-R encoding for a Cyrillic code page.

To specify character encoding in Outlook 2000

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
  2. Click International Options, and select a character encoding in the Use this encoding for outgoing messages box.
  3. If you want message flags and Forward and Reply headers to be in English, select the Use English for message flags and Use English for message headers on replies and forwards check boxes.

    If you clear these check boxes, message flags and headers match the language of the Outlook user interface, and e-mail applications that run in another language might not display the text properly.

System Policy Tip   You can use a system policy to set character encoding for Outlook 2000 messages. In the System Policy Editor, set the Microsoft Outlook 2000\Tools | Options\Mail Format\International Options policies. For more information about the System Policy Editor, see Using the System Policy Editor.

When users click Send To on the File menu in Office applications to create e-mail messages, the content of the message is saved in HTML format. The character encoding setting for outgoing messages in Outlook determines the character encoding for the message.

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Configuring fonts for incoming international messages

For Outlook 2000 users who expect to receive e-mail messages that include text in other languages, you can specify fonts that properly display the text in incoming messages.

To specify fonts for incoming messages

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
  2. Under Stationery and Fonts, click Fonts, and then click International Fonts.
  3. For every language that you want to configure, select the language’s script in the Font settings box, and then select a setting in the Fixed-width font box.

    The scripts that appear in the list correspond to languages that the user has enabled for editing.

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See also

You can use the Microsoft Office Language Settings tool to enable languages for editing. For more information, see Customizing Language Features.

You can install a Global Input Method Editor (IME) that allows users to input Asian text in Outlook messages, even if they are running a non-Asian version of their operating system. For more information, see MultiLanguage Pack Extras.

If Outlook 2000 users exchange secure e-mail messages internationally, you need to consider the differences in encryption strength within and outside the United States. For more information, see Encryption Strengths for Secure E-mail Messaging.

If your organization is upgrading from a previous version of Outlook, there are several strategies for making a smooth transition, beyond considerations for multilingual support. For more information, see Upgrading to Outlook 2000.

For some languages, you need to have an operating system and fonts that allow you to display and edit the text. For more information, see Configuring Users' Computers in an International Environment.


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Friday, March 5, 1999
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