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HTML messages with windows-1252 encoding are displayer incorrectly

louis.abraham
louis.abraham
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I receive messages sent from outlook on windows. These messages are in French and contain special characters like "é" that are not displayed correctly (�). They contain both a text/plain and a text/html part.

Here is what they look like:

``` x-ms-exchange-generated-message-source: Mailbox Rules Agent Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_" MIME-Version: 1.0

--_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1256" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

CONFIDENTIAL with =E9

--_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1256" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<meta http-equiv='3D"Content-Type"' content='3D"text/html;' charset="3Dwindows-1="> <meta name='3D"Generator"' content='3D"Microsoft' word="" 15="" (filtered=""> <style><!-- REMOVED FOR CONCISENESS --></style> CONFIDENTIAL with =E9

--_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_-- ```

If I select View > Text Encoding > Western, it works in both HTML and plain text. However, there is no way to make this setting persist. I set the default encoding of incoming emails to Windows-1252 but View > Text Encoding still shows Unicode when I re-open the message.

I receive messages sent from outlook on windows. These messages are in French and contain special characters like "é" that are not displayed correctly (�). They contain both a text/plain and a text/html part. Here is what they look like: ``` x-ms-exchange-generated-message-source: Mailbox Rules Agent Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_" MIME-Version: 1.0 --_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1256" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable CONFIDENTIAL with =E9 --_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1256" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <html xmlns:v=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o=3D"urn:schemas-micr= osoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" = xmlns:m=3D"http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns=3D"http:= //www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3Dwindows-1= 256"> <meta name=3D"Generator" content=3D"Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"> <style><!-- REMOVED FOR CONCISENESS --></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext=3D"edit" spidmax=3D"1026" /> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext=3D"edit"> <o:idmap v:ext=3D"edit" data=3D"1" /> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> </head> <body lang=3D"FR" link=3D"#0563C1" vlink=3D"#954F72" style=3D"word-wrap:bre= ak-word"> CONFIDENTIAL with =E9 </body> </html> --_000_57bba51dacf74c928778457599539435CSIHMS05hdscetsi_-- ``` If I select View > Text Encoding > Western, it works in both HTML and plain text. However, there is no way to make this setting persist. I set the default encoding of incoming emails to Windows-1252 but View > Text Encoding still shows Unicode when I re-open the message.

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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the issue is windows-1252 is not a registered charset in Thunderbird.

See https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_html_ansi.asp for some background. Thunderbird uses the ISO standard not the Microsoft modified version.

louis.abraham
louis.abraham Question owner
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Hi Matt, Thank you a lot for your answer, I really appreciate it! I am not sure about windows-1252, but Thunderbird can definitely read this encoding. Furthermore, I have reasons to think that "Western" is the other name of windows-1252: when I reply to an email that I'm reading with windows-1252, here is what I see bottom right of the screen https://i.imgur.com/KX9tClF.png