XCON: Japanese Characters in the Subject Line of E-Mail Message Appear As Question Marks (324603)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Outlook 2002
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000, when used with:
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows XP
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000
This article was previously published under Q324603

SUMMARY

Japanese characters in the Subject line of a Microsoft Outlook e-mail message may appear as question marks when the e-mail message is received. This problem may occur with any characters from a double-byte character set (DBCS).

CAUSE

The Subject line in Outlook relies on the character set defined by the operating system on the client computer. To display Japanese characters in the Subject line of an e-mail message, your operating system must support Japanese.

NOTE: Windows 2000 and Windows XP are currently the only English-language Microsoft operating systems that support double-byte character sets. Outlook cannot display Japanese in the Subject line of an Outlook e-mail message on the English-language versions of Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98 operating system.

To display Japanese in the Subject line of Outlook e-mail messages, install the Japanese language support files on Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and then set Japanese as the default language for the operating system of the client computer. To install the Japanese language support files and set Japanese as the default language, use one of the following methods.

How to Enable Japanese Support In Windows 2000

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Regional Options icon.
  3. In the Regional Options dialog box, click to select the Japanese check box.
  4. Click the Set default button.
  5. In the Select System Local dialog box, click Japanese, and then click OK.
  6. In the Regional Options dialog box, click Apply.
  7. When you receive the following message, click Yes: Required files are already installed on your hard disk. Setup can use these existing files, or Setup can recopy them from your original Windows CD-ROM or from a network share.

    Would you like to skip the file copying and use the existing files? (If you click No, you will be prompted to insert your Windows CD-ROM or to supply a different location where the files can be found.)
  8. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

How to Enable Japanese Support In Windows XP

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Regional and Language Options icon.
  3. On the Languages tab, click to select the Install files for East Asian languages check box.
  4. When you receive the following message, click OK: You chose to install the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language files. This will require 230 MB or more of available disk space. The files will be installed after you click OK or Apply on the Regional and Language Options dialog box.
  5. On the Advanced tab, click Japanese under the Language for non-Unicode programs section.
  6. Click to select the Apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile check box.
  7. When you receive the following message, click OK: You chose to apply these settings to the default user profile. These changes will affect the logon screen and all new user accounts. Some system services may require you to restart your computer before the changes will take effect.
  8. In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, click Apply.
  9. When you receive the following message, click Yes: The required files are already installed on your hard disk. Setup can use these files, or Setup can recopy them from your original Windows CD-ROM or from a network share.

    Would you like to skip the file copying and use the existing files? (If you click No, you will be prompted to insert your Windows CD-ROM or to supply a different location where the files can be found.)
  10. Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.

Relevant RFCs: RFC 1554, 2237, 1468, 1815, 1922, 1556, 1557, 1522, 2821, 2822
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:4/25/2005
Keywords:kbinfo KB324603
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