Does pages in MacBook Air uses unicode characters In English and in Greek?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Does pages in MacBook Air uses unicode characters In English and in Greek?

I recently bought a MacBook Air with OS X version 10.9.1. It includes Pages as the word processor. I'm trying to configure it to also type Greek as a second language. When I'm sending an email in Greek the receiving MS Office Outlook does not recognize the Greek characters in both the subject and the body of the message. Is my computer using Unicode (8 or 16) characters? Which is it the default as it comes from the box?

MacBook Air

Posted on Jan 18, 2014 5:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jan 18, 2014 6:45 AM in response to Xalkis

Xalkis wrote:

When I'm sending an email in Greek the receiving MS Office Outlook does not recognize the Greek characters in both the subject and the body of the message. Is my computer using Unicode (8 or 16) characters? Which is it the default as it comes from the box?

I think the default for Greek in Mail should be Unicode utf-8 (utf-16 is not used on the internet). But you should check this for yourself by going to the Sent folder in Mail and select a message and then do View > Message > Raw Source and look at what it says for "Charset = ".

Unfortunately Outlook is stupid and sometimes the sender has to adjust the encoding to make it work. Even more unfortunately Apple omitted the encoding adjustment menu from Mail in 10.9, so you can't do that.

Is your OS running in Greek or English?

Are you having some other kind of problem with Pages?

Reply

Answer 2

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 7:19 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Unforunately I do not have access to the computer right now, but when I do I will make sure it is utf-8. Thanks for the advise.

The OS is running in English.The computer was bought in USA and is the default language. Greek is what I consider to be a secondary language,selecting it from the flag up above right Menu item.

We're new with pages (two weeks) so far we do not know of any problems.

Reply

Answer 3

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Xalkis

Got the MacBook Air back. Checked a "sent" message and the "Charset= Ascii"

Any ideas?

Reply

Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jan 18, 2014 1:50 PM in response to Xalkis

Xalkis wrote:

Got the MacBook Air back. Checked a "sent" message and the "Charset= Ascii"

Did you type that message using the Greek keyboard provided by Apple? ascii is only possible for English, using the US layout, or perhaps for Greek if you use the US layout with an old non-standard Bible study font.

Could you use the camera icon to post a screenshot of that raw source page?

Reply

Answer 5

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 2:38 PM in response to Xalkis

You're right! By the way thanks very much for your prompt reply. I was not expecting it this soon! I was not thinking I picked an old reply message by my wife all of which was in english. My fault, I'll go back sent a message in Greek (from my wife's MacBook Air) to my email address, check that message in my outlook verifying if it is readable, and then do the same check on my wife's computer. I'll get back to you shortly. Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 6

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 3:12 PM in response to Xalkis

The Greek email message sent from the MacBook Air was sent via "Charset=utf-8". This message received by MS Outlook 2007 was mostly ???? question marks and afew Latin characters (e,t, a) here and there! I have to agree that The MacBook Air sents emails in Unicode-8, which Oulook cannot recognize. The question I now have is: can the MacBook Air's email characters be changed to utf-16? This is something worth knowing, although I still do not know if Outlook can read that.

Thanks again

Reply

Answer 7

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 3:58 PM in response to Xalkis

If you say utf-16 is not used on the internet then there is not need for you to answer my last question. I believe that you're right. What is the recommended way to communicate through the email with those that use outlook?

I appreciate all your help.Thanks so much.

Reply

Answer 8

etresoft

Level 8

46,312 points

Jan 18, 2014 4:05 PM in response to Xalkis

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about Outlook. Send messages only in English. Don't include any images, fonts, or styles. Don't include any attachments unless you absolutely have to. Then, include only a single attachment and make sure Mail > Attachments > Always insert attachments at end of message is turned on.

Reply

Answer 9

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jan 18, 2014 4:09 PM in response to Xalkis

Xalkis wrote:

What is the recommended way to communicate through the email with those that use outlook?

Utf-8 is the way Greek email is normally sent these days and Outlook as well as all other email apps should read it just fine.

An exception might be some ancient windows system where everything is still being done in non-unicode CP 1253 and can't be changed.

Another exception might be if you are receiving email via an MS exchange server, which can destroy email for unpredictable reasons.

Can you find a place in Outlook where you can choose UTF-8? Here are some examples from google:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/setting-outlook-use-utf8-32242.html

http://help.ntt.co.th/faq/oe/setDefaultEncoding_oe/SetupDefaultEncodingForIncomi ngMail_OE.html

Reply

Answer 10

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 4:15 PM in response to Xalkis

Will do that. Thank, you have been very helpful

Reply

Answer 11

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jan 18, 2014 4:32 PM in response to Xalkis

I forgot that I have Outlook for Mac myself. Here is where you change the encoding in that app -- may not the same for Windows:

Reply

Answer 12

Xalkis Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2014 4:42 PM in response to Xalkis

Tom thanks to you I found the place in my 2007 Outlook to make appropriate changes. The main thing is that I'm satisfied the MacBook Air does it the right way. It's my outlook that needs to be changed.

Reply