Electronics

[aubnwa01]

I've noticed lately that when I receive an email from some folks, if they use an apostrophe, it's replaced with an odd string of characters instead of a plain old apostrophe.

For example:  That's looks like That’s  and I'm looks like I’m

Does anyone know what causes this?  My outgoing emails look normal to me, it's just the incoming ones that this happens on.

TIA

[Desertdi]

Maybe they're typing with their "alternate" key ON............

[ChynnaBlue]

It's an HTML code thing. The apostrophes are not being decoded correctly.

It could be something someone else needs to fix on the server side, a setting you need to change, a setting someone else needs to change, or an update you need to download. Without knowing more about your system, email, and browser, I can't guess at more.

Here's an explanation of why it happens in 2011 Windows Live Mail that might help you. The system is outdated, but the explanation is still valid:

WLMail 2011 automatically ‘smartens’ apostrophes and quotation marks, substituting typographers’ marks for the ones you may be used to.Check your International Settings at Options > Send (press Ctrl-Shift-O to open theOptions sheet). If the default is set to Unicode, WLMail will transmit Unicode characters for apostrophes and quotation marks (and a few other characters) which will display wrongly when read by the recipient using a non-Unicode encoding. If you normally write in English or another Western language, set the defaultSend encoding to, say, Western European (Windows).

If you use a serif font for composing that clearly shows the difference between the two types of character, you should be able to spot the substitution when it happens. When it does, Backspace, Ctrl-Z or a click on theUndobutton will reverse the change.

To read received messages showing weird characters, click theEncodingbutton on theHome tab and select, say, Unicode (UTF-8).

To stop WLMail substituting “curly” quotes for "straight" ones takes a registry change.

Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/strange-alphabet-characters-sh...

[dooBdoo]

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aubnwa01 wrote:

I've noticed lately that when I receive an email from some folks, if they use an apostrophe, it's replaced with an odd string of characters instead of a plain old apostrophe.

For example:  That's looks like That’s  and I'm looks like I’m

Does anyone know what causes this?  My outgoing emails look normal to me, it's just the incoming ones that this happens on.

TIA

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        @aubnwa01, It could be any number of things.  If the sender sees these alternate characters in their original message, it's likely they have a problem similar to the one mentioned in an earlier thread -- I'll find the info and copy it in another reply.   If these appear this way only in the message you receive (but the message looks normal to the sender of the message), it's probably the way your email is interpreting the text.   There are so many variables, such as which email provider is being used, do you both use the same one, what device is being used to read the message, etc., that it's very hard to know exactly with only limited info.

        I notice, for example, some characters in messages I read in my Gmail on my iPad are incorrectly translated...  but if I view the message on my Mac in my Gmail account the messages look normal.

[dooBdoo]

        Here's the "help" info in case the sender is seeing the alternate characters in their original message, from @lolakimono's posts on another thread:

"Sometimes modifier keys like Alt, Ctrl or the Windows key get "stuck". I didn't quite work out thewhy but sometimes it happens, as if the OS just doesn't see the key-up event.

Anyway, the usual way to get rid of that is simply by pressing all modifier keys once, so just hit Alt, Ctrl and AltGr and the issue should go away.

It's especially annoying with the Windows key, though, as this causes programs to start on every second keypress (E for Explorer for example). On a slow machine that can be frustrating."

"Or this:

I've just has this same issue on OpenSolaris. I was typing away when suddenly (after I must have hit some weird key combination) the keyboard mapping changed "e" to print "€". After bit of testing, it seems that Right Ctrl + Alt + e returns the mapping to normal - not sure if this will be the same on Windows on not."

[dooBdoo]

@ChynnaBlue, We were typing simultaneously!  Good info!  Thanks!

[aubnwa01]

I went thru all of the incoming emails in my email trash can & it seems to be only 2 friends that this is happening with when I get emails from them & everyone else's emails look normal & fine.  One has a Comcast email address & the other a Time Warner email address.  I use MSN for my email & no one has ever asked me about any weird characters in my outgoing emails, so I guess I'll just assume it's the 2 friends' email accounts & not worry about it

Would changing a setting in my email options to "Display Messages In Plain Text" make a difference?  I guess I could try & see if it helps & if not, change it back.