OLEXP: Blank Reply Message Sent if "Include Message in Reply" Not Selected in Outlook Express (230224)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 for Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 for Windows 98
Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 for Windows 95

This article was previously published under Q230224

For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

257824 OL2000: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express

SYMPTOMS

When you reply to an HTML message, Outlook Express may send a blank message instead of what you typed in the Reply field, or the recipient may only see "garbage" ASCII or UNICODE characters. For example, you may see the following character:

þ

CAUSE

When you reply to messages, Outlook Express (by means of Mshtml.dll) uses the original message to choose the character set to use to compose the reply. When the original message is not included in the reply, Outlook Express uses as a default, the UNICODE character set, which may not be readable by the recipient.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, you must explicitly select a character set with which to compose the reply. To select a character set when composing a message, do the following from the Re:[subject] window after clicking the Reply or Reply All button:

On the Format menu, click Encoding.
Select the encoding you wish to use, for example: Western European (Windows).

WORKAROUND

Restore Outlook Express's default setting to include the original message with the reply by doing the following from the Outlook Express window:

On the Tools menu, click Options.
Click the Send tab.
Click to select the Include Message in Reply check box.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	7/14/2004
Keywords:	kbbug kbpending KB230224